News / television
Record shop owner to have cameo appearance in ‘The Offenders’
Iain Aitchison has had a varied career. Growing up in Southmead, for many years he worked with people with substance misuse before opening the first Longwell Records in Keynsham.
He now has two shops, with the other within a converted shipping container in Wapping Wharf where he has recently collaborated with Inkie to sell a t-shirt raising money for Help Bristol’s Homeless.
But Iain could soon be having to perfect his autograph because he will be seen on the small screen in The Offenders, where he filmed a scene with Oscar-winning Christopher Walken at a pub in Shirehampton.
The Offenders from the BBC and Amazon Studios follows seven strangers from different walks of life forced together to complete a community payback sentence.
Iain is good friends with Stephen Merchant, the writer and director of the show, which has been filming its first and second series back-to-back in Bristol.
Iain Atchison opened Longwell Records in Wapping Wharf earlier this year – photo: Martin Booth
“I could be building up something that could be absolutely awful,” Iain laughs, after texting Stephen, his friend and regular customer, to double check whether he could exclusively reveal the news of his cameo appearance to Bristol24/7.
Iain said that after Stephen asked him to audition for a part in the show, his “heart was racing. I thought, at last, I’ve been discovered!
“Anyway, I went for the part and I got it. I play a landlord in one scene with none other than Christopher Walken. It’s probably going to be a blink-and-you-miss-it job!”
Iain has acted before and went to drama school for six months, and with typical understatement, said that filming for The Offenders at the George Inn in Shirehampton “was easy, almost too easy!”
“You’d think I would be nervous… he introduces himself: ‘Hi, I’m Chris.’ And I go: ‘Oh, alright mate, I’m Iain.’ It was brilliant!”
Listen to more from Iain in a future episode of the Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast.
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Main photo: Iain Aitchison
Read more: Interview: Iain Aitchison, Longwell Records
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