Brian Mackinnon: Last News

A lot of people, when asked what they would do differently if they could go back in time, insist “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

AN awkward smirk spread across Brandon Lee’s face when his headmaster praised him for being an exemplary pupil who “acts like he’s been here from the very beginning”. What Norman MacLeod, head teacher of Bearsden Academy, didn’t realise was that his words weren’t far off the mark — as the supposed 16-year-old had been a pupil at his school nearly two decades earlier. Brandon was the fake name adopted by Brian MacKinnon, who — at the age of 30 — covertly returned to take his exams again in a bid to go back to medical school after apparently being booted out.

Back in 1995, one of Scotland's most notorious imposters hit the headlines as a 30-year-old man managed to enrol as a 16-year-old pupil at his old high school in Bearsden.

It is BBC anchorwoman Jackie Bird’s most famous interview and, even today, she finds the story of the man who almost got away with living his life over again utterly compelling.

Alan Cumming said the story of a schoolboy imposter “pushes all our buttons” for Scots as a film about the fake pupil received its European premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival. My Old School tells the story of Brian MacKinnon who, aged 32, posed as a 17-year-old called Brandon Lee in 1993 to re-enrol as a pupil and re-sit his Highers at his old school Bearsden Academy.

student at his old school is the subject of an upcoming film.Brian MacKinnon, who attended Bearsden Academy, twice, is profiled in the upcoming feature, 'My Old School'.The 58-year-old will be portrayed by Alan Cumming for his second stint at the Academy, where the then-30-year-old posed as a kid named Brandon Lee.Lee's made-up backstory says his mum died in a car crash, prompting him to be sent to live with his grandma in Scotland.MacKinnon had already studied at the school in the 1970s, achieving grades that let him study medicine at Glasgow University.He failed the exams twice and dropped out of the course but had a change of heart a decade later. It was at this point that he had the idea of starting fresh at Bearsden Academy.Surprisingly, he succeeded, and kept the ruse going for two years when he obtained five grade-A highers, a glowing reference and a place on the medicine studies course at Dundee University.But his true identity was outed in 1995, with his story splashed across national newspapers across the country.Jono McLeod, who went to school with MacKinnon, is set to direct the film.For all the latest Daily Star news, sign up for one of our free newsletters here.Featuring an interview with MacKinnon, who did not want to appear on camera, the film relies on Cumming lip-syncing the tale of Lee's days at Bearsden Academy.In a promotional video for the film, McLeod said: "My Old School is all about my old school - that's Bearsden Academy - the high school in a fairly well-to-do suburb of Glasgow, Scotland."The film combines live action interviews with my former classmates and two teachers alongside animated re-enactments."In 1993 when we were 16 years old, my classmates and I welcomed a new kid.

A hoaxer who posed as a 17-year-old schoolboy while in his 30s has had his bizarre story turned into a film featuring Aberfeldy -born actor Alan Cumming.