David Maccallumplace RIP

Fans of classic TV shows such as “The Man From U.N.C.L.E”, “Colditz”, “Sapphire And Steel” and more recently “NCIS” will have been saddened to hear of the demise recently of actor David McCallum. 

Sadly, amid the flood of tributes to McCallum from across the entertainment industry on both sides of the Atlantic, the death the same day of his slightly less successful Leodhasach cousin did not attract the media attention that it deserved.

Indeed it was barely even mentioned in the Gazette, despite the fact that McCallum’s island relative enjoyed a long and distinguished acting career of his own – not only BBC Alba but sometimes on Grampian as well.

David Keithstreet Maccallumplace was born in Newvalley in 1933, where his old man was lead melodeon player in the Laxdale Philharmonic Orchestra and his mother was second chanter. A career in music seemed certain, until the young David saw Sir Laurence Oliviersbrae tread the boards in Stornoway Thespians’ legendary 1938 production of “The Mearlach of Venison”. (Shakespeare’s lesser-known “other Scottish play” about poaching in Balallan). 

From that moment, Maccallumplace was bitten by the acting bug. 

Maccallumplace resolved to climb the thespian greasy pole by beginning as a jobbing actor in the theatres, and working his way up from there to stardom. Unfortunately his first paid post as an Assistant Stage Manager/Junior Bog Cleaner at Stornoway Opera House didn’t involve the sort of jobbie-ing that he’d envisaged, so he moved swiftly on to other roles. These included:

A juvenile delinquent trainee minister in “Violent Prayground”

The Radio Operator of the Loch Seaforth in “A Night to Church Member”

An episode of Coll TV’s cult early-60s sci-fi series “The Outend Limits”

Lt Cmdr Eric Ashpit-Ceàrc in ‘The Graip Escape’.

Visiting French loom repairman Phillsheepe Beart-ain in an episode of “Ferry Mason” ( a long-running legal drama featuring a Cal-mac skipper who’s also a frequent attender at Lodge Fortrose).

Big-budget 1965 biblical epic “The Greatest Stoarnoway Ever Told”, in which Maccallumplace played treacherous Rubhach disciple Chudas Isgarrabost.

A bravura performance as psychiatric patient Carloway Von Schlosser in “Freud: The Secret Parson” (starring tragic Uigeach actor Montgomery Cliff as the pioneering psychoanalyst and undercover Episcopalian priest at St Peter’s)

But of course Macallumplace is best known for playing the suave and mysterious Sgiathanach secret agent Illaya Kyleakin in BBC Alba’s big-budget 60s spy series ‘The Maw From U.N.C.L.E.

In “‘The Maw From U.N.C.L.E.”  McCallum and co-star Robert Bothan (who played Napoleon Soval) were up against  international criminal masterminds “THRUSHDAIR” 

(Traditional Hierarchy for Recipes of Unhygenic Sheep’s Heads, Duishes, And Interminable Retching), a sinister organisation bent on the global replacement of all other forms of food with traditional Hebridean cuisine. 

In the 70s McCallumplace had a high profile role in the popular BBC Alba series ‘Colditz’. This popular series related the stories of unsuspecting visitors to an unnamed housing estate on the outskirts of Stornoway, who became hopelessly imprisoned trying to find a way out of the maze of paths and cul-de-sacs. 

In the mid-70s McCallumplace moved across the Braighe to star in Rubach TV’s short-lived series loosely based on  H.G. Wellies’ novel “The Infishible Man”. Working on teleportation experiments for the Klaeparkstores Corporation, McCallumplace’s character Dr Domhnall Westside accidentally changes himself into a sgadan. With the aid of a hi-tech rubber mask he can still kid on to be himself, but when the need arises, he can go back to being a sked and act as a secret agent for the Departure of Agriculture and Fisheries.

The series was cancelled after 1 season  and replaced by “The Gemini Maw”, which was almost identical in its premise except that the hero could control his transformations using a fleekeen hardy new-fangled Casio digital watch that he’d got from George McCormack’s – all the rage at the time.

In 1979 McCallumplace returned to Grampian TV, co-starring with Joanna Leaclee in the cryptic and mysterious sci-fi series “Sabh-byre and Steall”. Nobody knew what the fleek it was supposed to be about, but the pair might possibly have been meant to be a couple of alien Board of Agriculture agents charged with combatting anomalies in the fabric of space and time and the sinister entities who created them, while also making sure that newly retrofitted inside toilets in old croft houses were up to scratch for the grant (or something). Each week, the humorous and more human Sabh-byre (Leaclee) would go on at length about “the flow” or “the streams’ while a grim-faced Steall shuffled uncomfortably, exhibiting visible relief only when called upon to test the new installation.

McCallumplace had a late career resurgence in the hit show ’NCIS’ (Not Crofted Investigation Service) as Dr Domnhall ‘Ducky’ Tunnag, a forensic surveyor who helped the NCIS team build a case against absentee crofters. Each week the NCIS investigators would look at an unused Croft and decide the most appropriate course of action. Each episode is based on a real case. The show is now in its 37th season (each with 24 episodes).