Martin Compston's tour of Scotland is a labour of love

The result is a six-part travelogue documentary series, Martin Compston’s Scottish Fling, which begins on BBC Scotland and BBC Two this week. Viewers will see them play crazy golf with a drag queen, jump off cliffs, meet the world’s strongest man, and try their hand at everything from land-yachting, curling and shinty to cosplay, stargazing and hip-hop.

All set against a backdrop of spectacular scenery and landscapes, stretching from Compston’s hometown of Greenock to MacHugh’s roots in the Western Isles, before traversing the Highlands, swathes of the east coast, across the central belt and through the lowlands.

On paper, they are a chalk-and-cheese combination. “In terms of dynamics, we have massively different personalities,” attests Compston. “But we are both positive and energetic people. Usually there is one person who is a bit more downbeat and being dragged along by the other one. Whereas both of us are at a 10 all the time.”

Beside him, MacHugh takes up the thread. “We both love people and stories,” he says. “It is almost like you forget the cameras are there half the time because we were meeting new people, chatting away and learning about their lives. That was the exciting part for us.”

What is it like spending time with Compston and MacHugh? Comical and ever-so-slightly chaotic is an apt description. The duo banter back and forth, unleashing rapid-fire one-liners and segueing from one subject matter to another at break-neck pace.

They talk over each other as their stories tumble out, yet also have a canny knack for finishing one another’s sentences – the easy shorthand of a long friendship. There is clearly a lot of warmth, camaraderie and shared history between them.

As we settle down to speak, their enthusiasm is palpable, and the pair are keen to strike the right chord when it comes to defining what they hoped to achieve with the TV series. “I am trying not to be cheesy, but I definitely fell in love with Scotland all over again,” says Compston.

The genesis for the project stretches back several years. MacHugh, 37, was presenting at an awards ceremony celebrating Gaelic film and had invited Compston, 38, along as his guest.

Compston, whose starring role in the 2002 Ken Loach movie Sweet Sixteen launched his acting career, recalls how he felt increasingly uncomfortable as the evening wore on.

“I have been very lucky to travel the world to different film festivals and I always think it is a courtesy when you go to France, Germany or Italy, to learn a little bit of the lingo,” he says. “I felt quite ashamed when we were at the Gaelic awards that I didn’t know anything at all.

“That always stuck with me. I said to Phil: ‘I would like to learn Gaelic.’ Then during the lockdowns, when I had time on my hands, I decided to try it.

“I thought because I speak little bits of other languages that I’d pick it up. I was thinking, ‘This is going to be deep down in my blood, this is going to be easy …’ But, oh my God, no. It is a difficult language. I would be phoning Phil asking: ‘How do I pronounce this? How do I say that?’”

As Compston persevered with his Gaelic lessons, MacHugh had a notion that charting his friend’s progress could make a fun TV documentary. “I have always wanted to make Gaelic cool – that has been my lifelong ambition,” says MacHugh.

“I wanted to make sure it wasn’t stuck in the past or something that people looked down on. When Martin was learning, I started thinking: ‘I wonder if that could work as an idea?’ He was passionate about learning and trying so hard.”

They pitched to the production company Tern TV who loved the premise but suggested widening it out into a broader travel series and Martin Compston’s Scottish Fling was born.

Here, we chart the highs and lows of life on the road, what the duo learned about each other, surprising moments along the way and how it felt to conquer some of their biggest fears.

The story of their friendship

“We go back a few years,” says Compston, when asked about how they first met. “It was after I did Sweet Sixteen that we started kicking about together. We were both new to it all [the film and TV industry] and didn’t have that cynicism drilled into us yet.

“We were running around the same parties and events. We realised we had a lot of similar beliefs and interests. Based on that we gravitated to each other. We both liked a laugh.

“If I was heading through to the east, because at that age I didn’t know tons of people in Edinburgh, I’d say: ‘Phil, I’m here.’ Or he’d call me and say: ‘I’m out in Glasgow tonight.’ So, quite quickly, we …” MacHugh jumps in and finishes the sentence “… became good mates.”

They smile fondly. “He is a good man to have in the phone book – Phil is the most connected guy in Scotland,” says Compston.

MacHugh adds: “We have always kept in touch, even after Martin moved over to Las Vegas. Anytime he is back here filming, we hang out. I’ve got to know his wife and family too.”

Shock revelations

When the pair were driving to Balmaha on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond to explore the great outdoors, MacHugh casually revealed to Compston: “I’ve never actually climbed a hill.”

Both howl with laughter when I mention it. The programme follows them as they tackle Conic Hill with Scottish-Pakistani rambler Zahrah Mahmood, who has amassed a huge social media following under her Instagram handle @the_hillwalking_hijabi.

Is MacHugh a convert to hillwalking now? “No,” he exclaims. “He’s walked up and down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh a few times,” teases Compston.

MacHugh has no quibbles with this summary. “Up and down the Mound too,” he says. “Is there a pub at the top? Fantastic. But, for me, going up a hill, it’s like, why would you do it?”

Compston is struggling to marry this stance with his knowledge of MacHugh’s childhood summers spent among rural landscapes. “But you grew up in the Western Isles,” he muses, as MacHugh cheerily interjects: “There aren’t many hills in that part.”

Their final verdict on hillwalking? “Yeah, I’m not convinced,” says MacHugh. He turns to Compston. “What about you? Have you taken up hillwalking recently?”

Compston shakes his head incredulously. “I’ve not taken it up recently. But I’ve done a bit. I love the outdoors. When I get trapped inside, I get a bit stir crazy.”

A break from the norm

Mid-conversation Compston holds up his mobile phone. “That has been going non-stop,” he says. “His phone has been going non-stop too. When we were making the show, we tried not to go on our phones to check millions of emails and texts if we could help it.

“We wanted to stay in that bubble during filming. It helped that we were in some places where we didn’t have the choice because there was no mobile phone signal – that was great.

“One of the standout moments for me was when we were staying at the little hobbit houses on South Uist. There are only two beds and once we stopped filming, the crew had to leave us alone for the night. We had a fire pit and a carry out. We sat outside and enjoyed it.

“It is a weird thing because you don’t want to say to people, ‘By the way, my favourite bit is the part you don’t see …’ But, for us on a personal level, it was like: ‘This is really happening, we are in the middle of nowhere and we are making this show.’”

MacHugh chimes in. “That was the first time we had taken a breather and been able to go, ‘we are doing this project together and it is amazing’. How often do you get six weeks to travel around the country with a good mate? We thought: ‘Let’s embrace it.’”

Facing their demons

Compston and MacHugh confront their fears in various guises throughout the series, not least the knee-knocking prospect of ascending a gargantuan wind turbine in the Borders.

“That was a particularly hilarious episode,” says Compston. “Let’s just say Phil is not great with heights.” MacHugh shudders. “Not great with heights at all,” he confirms. “That pushed my boundaries.”

Compston laughs before looking sheepish. “I feel terrible about it,” he insists. “Phil said he wasn’t great with heights, but I was winding him up the whole way. When we came out to do the challenge, he was white and I realised: ‘Oh my God, he’s terrified.’

“It took four minutes in this wee elevator to get to the top of the turbine. In the safety briefing beforehand, we were told, ‘If the elevator shuts down, you need to climb outside and abseil …’ I was looking over at Phil saying, ‘It’s going to be alright – they need to tell us that just in case.’

“It was scary,” continues Compston. “There is a sheer drop below you. I was fine on the way up. But after we had stopped filming and had to climb back down, I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, this is high …’”

A wide-eyed MacHugh relives the memory. “I was shaking,” he recalls. “It wasn’t just the height. Being inside the turbine itself was scary. The noise. The rattling cables. The condensed space. That challenge was beyond anything I could ever have imagined doing.”

Football crazy

Before becoming an actor, Compston was a promising footballer who played at youth level for Aberdeen and after leaving school signed for professional side Greenock Morton. In more recent times, he has been a regular in the celebrity line-up for charity fundraiser Soccer Aid.

It perhaps won’t come as a surprise, then, that the beautiful game features in the TV series. “One of our first days of filming was with the Scotland football team – I was in heaven,” says Compston.

MacHugh: “You were in heaven, while I had no idea who anyone was. But it was amazing. I loved that day.”

Compston: “We were about to train with the Scotland team, and I said to Phil, ‘Have you ever worn a pair of football boots?’ And he said, ‘No, just Highland dancing shoes.’”

How did the two types of footwear compare? MacHugh scoffs. “Listen, I did myself proud,” he says. “I am sure those Scotland football boys will remember me forever.”

Compston: “Craig Gordon is probably still having nightmares.”

The show will also see Compston make his debut for Eriskay Football Club, whose beautiful and bumpy home ground is unlike anything he has ever played on before.

“The pitch is incredible,” he says. “There is nowhere else like that in the world. As for playing on it? Well, you are shovelling cow s*** off it beforehand. There is a metre height difference from the corner flag to goal.

“The team were all lovely lads. We went to the pub, The Politician – you know, the one from Whisky Galore? The place was packed. There was that sense of community that you get where everything revolves around the football team.

“Everyone came out to watch us. It was amazing. I would go back there in a heartbeat and play with that team again.”

A hometown cameo

Visits to Greenock – where Compston was born and raised – bookend the series. “I am incredibly proud of Greenock and Inverclyde,” he says. “It is a massive part of my identity and who I am.

“There is a spot called the Bird’s Eye where me and my pals used to sit on a summer’s day, with this incredible view over the Clyde opening up. We maybe had a few drinks that, err, we shouldn’t have been having. The place means a lot to me.”

MacHugh nods in agreement. “We started our journey across the country there,” he says. “To then go back to a place that Martin knows well and holds so many memories for him – it felt right.”

Compston: “I just about never cried. Because I don’t like crying on telly.”

MacHugh: “Whereas I will cry at anything.”

Compston: “He cries all the time.”

New discoveries

Spending the best part of six weeks touring Scotland together saw Compston and MacHugh learn a raft of new things about each other. Was that good fun? “Definitely!” they chorus.

“For me, it was learning more about Martin’s family life,” says MacHugh. “He and his son have such a close connection. Seeing him on the road for that length of time and missing his son. Every spare moment, Martin would be on Zoom speaking to the wee man and that was lovely to see.”

Family ties were a common theme. Compston has a visible lump in his throat as he talks about their trip to Garrynamonie in South Uist where Glasgow-born MacHugh spent large chunks of his formative years staying with his late grandmother.

“It was quite emotional,” says Compston. “You see this man sitting here with white trousers and dyed blond hair and the thought of him running about Uist in his summer holidays seems so out of place. There was a moment where Phil talked about how his world there was connected to his gran.

“But, after his gran left, he felt he had lost that connection and that’s why he hadn’t been back. As we went down the road, he said, ‘that’s my auntie’s house’ and unbeknown to him everybody, all these family members, were in there.”

"The pair stopped off to say hello and instantly, says Compston, the urbanite, guy-about-town – as he has come to know MacHugh – was transformed.

“Phil was in his element,” he grins. “Suddenly, he was on a quad bike and away up to see the cows and horses.”

A killer soundtrack

Every road trip needs a playlist and Martin Compston’s Scottish Fling is no exception. Brace yourself: it is an eclectic mix – Deacon Blue, Sigur Ros, Swedish House Mafia, Runrig, Artemesia and Vengaboys among others. They roar with laughter. “We were in the car for a long time …” says Compston.

There was a joy-filled moment in Glen Coe as the pair enjoyed a singalong to Caledonia by Frankie Miller in their rain-soaked campervan. “Celine!” they say in unison, referring to their affectionate nickname for the vehicle.

“We kept each other entertained,” says MacHugh. “We got off the ferry in Skye and had to drive to Invergordon. We also drove from Dumfries to Edinburgh and up the east coast. What else do you do on a road trip? Pump up the tunes and singalong.”

Martin Compston’s Scottish Fling begins on BBC Scotland, Thursday, 10pm. The series will also be shown on BBC Two from Friday at 9.30pm