the country, doing at least 60 meetings, and countless media interviews and photo calls.

“I was very depressed,” she recalls. “At the big Yes rally in Perth I couldn’t stop crying. It took quite a time before I could pick myself up, go for a walk in the hills and regain perspective.”

Now, with the passage of time, the pain of that defeat has eased. She reflects: “Unless we win the women’s vote, it won’t happen.” It’s a mater of being practical, she believes. That, and the crucial issue of the correct currency policy, will be key.

There are other reasons, too, why Elaine C. is eschewing a political career. Not least, a solemn-eyed litle cutie called Stella, her first grand-daughter, aged one. Like any new granny, she’s greedy for her company.

Asked what she wants for Stella’s future, she is surprisingly brief: “I want her to know that all is possible.”

Meanwhile, Elaine C. is enjoying the experience of touring Scotland with her own show, Burdz Eye View, and rediscovering for herself all the variety and richness of Scotish life, away from the big cities. “You forget how great Scotland really is,” she says. “OK, there are bits that aren’t so good, but I love visiting all these places.”

In a way, she is recapturing a litle bit of that “Doon the Water” nostalgia of Scotland at play in its own back yard. Only this time she is doing the shows in tandem with an STV film crew and production team preparing a Burdz Eye View series that will again delight viewers. Elaine C. – actress, comedienne and all-round entertainer – is in her element.

Long may that continue. If her busy theatrical schedule taking her up to and beyond the New Year is anything to go by, it will. Scotland may have lost a politician. But it sure as heck has gained a genuinely talented entertainer. There’s a lot of us on the other side of the footlights who are heartily glad about that.

Troughout the interview, she is punctilious in giving credit to those who have helped her in aspects of her stage and film career, either creatively or in other ways. It is a natural extension of her personal political viewpoint. “I am not really interested in ideology,” she says. “What I am interested in is fairness.”

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