Alex Norton
Alex Norton is a lot cheerier than the character he is famous for playing in Taggart, the dour faced detective DCI Matt Burke. Like most Glaswegians, he has a great sense of humour, influenced largely by the quick-witted patter of the great Music Hall and Variety performers such as Lex Mclean. His first job was working as a lighting designer in the Pavilion theatre and it was here that Alex learned important lessons about playing to a crowd.
Alex’s other great love is music and as a young man he had to make a serious decision about whether he should pursue a career as a folk musician or as an actor. He played regularly in Glasgow’s folk clubs and for a while he performed as a double act with the big sister of his school friend Brian Pettifer, Linda Thompson, who went on to find fame with her husband as Richard and Linda Thompson. In the end he chose acting but smog choked Glasgow didn’t provide much opportunities for stage and screen so, like so many of his compatriots, he decided to head south, attracted by the bright foot lights of London. Although he has never lived full time in Glasgow since then, it’s this city that has defined him rather than his adopted one. Through out his career Alex has frequently returned for work and these visits have given him a time-lapse view of a city that has changed dramatically since he was a wee boy.
Dreeping aff a washouse roof was a game in which you hung by your fingers off a backcourt washouse until you could hold on no longer. Frankly, I’m surprised it wasn’t included in the Commonwealth Games.
His grandparent’s house where he spent the first few years of his life is now a car park in the Silverburn shopping centre. His home in the Gorbals has gone through three waves of regeneration since he was last there dreepin’ aff wash house walls. Despite the absence of the familiar sights of his childhood, Alex is enthusiastic about 21st century Glasgow, describing the view of the skyline as being ‘like something out a Dan Dare comic’.
