Sean Scanlan returns to the Scottish stage in Democracy

Brandt’s right hand man was Gunter Guillaume (Neil Caple), a one-time lowly East German party member, who is the story's Peter Mandelson. As he and Brandt grew ever closer, his power and status rose.

In fact Guillame was an East German spy, working for the Stasi, but he comes to love the man he is betraying. Although he’s Stasi-backed, we learn the scheming inside the Social Democrats makes his boys seem like Boy Scouts. All of this spying and intrigue spins around Herbert Wehner (Sean Scanlan), the party man who steered Brandt’s career from Mayor of Berlin to becoming Chancellor.

“He’s the wheeler dealer,” says Scanlan. “Brandt was brought to power because he had huge charisma, energy, sex appeal and the character voters could trust. He was a leader. But when he really began to lead, doing his own thing and forming alliances, all hell broke loose.”

All this, and Nazi connections too. Yet, the writer’s clever historical piece can only be as powerful as the actors who sell it to an audience. Sean Scanlan’s character is the pivot in the play, which means his performance is key.

Thankfully, Scanlan has the weight, gravitas and technique to bring to the role. In his career he has played the great Shakespeare roles at the Bristol Old Vic, won over the Royal Court and his performance in Dennis Potter’s Brimstone and Treacle at the Sheffield Crucible was described as "a tour de force".

The actor has appeared in countless TV and film productions such as The Tales of Para Handy, River City and the recently remade Whisky Galore. Yet, the actor admits he never courted dreams of the stage.

“Not at all,” he says, grinning. “My brother was a lawyer, and I was expected to study law.” He thinks for a moment and laughs. “Bill Nighy, whom I would often meet for a coffee before he really made it, was quoted when asked why he became an actor. ‘I was always looking for something to do that didn’t involve work,’ he said. And that’s how I felt.”

Having been asked to leave Glasgow private school St Aloysius’ College (his Beatles-influenced long hair and gold coloured corduroys were too much for the teacher priests) a pub conversation led to the teenager trying out for the New Victory Players Dramatic Club, based, rather appropriately, in Glasgow’s Hope Street.

“I went down for a laugh and ended up appearing in this play called Dodd’s Dilemma, as The Father,” he recalls. “I had never even seen a play at this time, let along been in one. But it turns out I got standing ovations every time I went on stage. And when my mother and granny saw me up there both declared ‘Born to it!’ And that was me. I was in.”

He adds; “My mother had said she wanted me to become a lawyer, but secretly she loved the idea of me becoming an actor. I learned later she and my father had been amateur actors at Glasgow’s Athenaeum. There’s something in the DNA I guess.”

Scanlan’s father Bill was a journalist who left the family when young Sean was just three. “We never found out why. He went off to work in Oxford and that was that. I met him later but most of the time he was drinking, and I daren’t ask why he’d left us.

“He’d come up and visit sometimes, and take me, my brother and sister to the Botanic Gardens for ice cream. Michael was six, I would be four and my sister one. Then he’d leave the three of us in the park and head to Tennent’s Bar. Bill Scanlan was an irresponsible man.” He cites an example. “My mother was a secretary and I heard my father once came up to her office one day, demanding the use of a typewriter, claiming he had a deadline to meet. She gave him the typewriter – and he pawned it. Yet, he was apparently very popular, and charismatic.”

Sean Scanlan took off to London in 1971 to seek his fortune. He joined the Drama Centre, studying at nights. “I had fun along the way,” he says, smiling in recoil of party nights and drinking sessions with the likes of rock star Frankie Miller and writer Peter McDougall. His career moved steadily upwards, but spirit-crushing disappointments also arrived, such as almost landing the lead role of Jimmy Boyle in 1979 film A Sense of Freedom (which would go to David Hayman).

“I was too well-fed looking,” he says, with a wry smile. “Too much of a beer belly for the part.”

Scanlan landed a key role in early 1980s ITV drama Airline, which was scheduled for a five year run, but shot down after just one series, thanks to Thatcher-TV franchise politics. “I thought at that age I was going to be a star. But you learn.”

Regardless, the actor continued to enjoy great runs in theatre and in television, including a stint in Coronation Street. When he returned to Scotland after 35 years, television doors opened for him, in the form of Rab C. Nesbitt (playing Rab’s posh cousin, Shug), River City and Katie Morag.

Yet, Scottish theatre has been less inviting. “I’d been away too long it seems,” he says, with a smile of resignation. “Directors already had their favourites. The cliques were established. It was hard for me to get in.”

Scanlan worked hard to convince. He also realised he was becoming a little too much like his errant father. The actor quit drinking before it wrecked his career, and his life, and subsequently found love with ubiquitous actress Barbara Rafferty. Now, the couple live in Glasgow’s West End, with a lovely holiday home in the south of France. “She is special,” he says softly of his hugely talented wife.

However, Sean Scanlan is also a success story. “My definition of success is staying in the game,” says the 68 year-old, his eyes twinkling. “I’m still making a living at acting. Surviving is all.”

And in spite of initially being a convenience actor, he loves the acting world. “And here I am in a political play which is so clever and so relevant to today. How could I not be having a great time?”

Democracy also features Colin McCredie, Michael Moreland, Jack Lord, Alan Steele, Jim Kitson, Steven Scott Fitzgerald and Stewart Porter. It previews at the Macrobert in Stirling tonight, opens there tomorrow and tours across Scotland until October 12. www.rapturetheatre.co.uk