When Irvine Welsh speaks, the world listens – at least that part of it circumscribed by the north sea and the border with England. Which is to say Scotland.

And our collective ear is cocked so attentively because Mr Welsh normally has something to say about Trainspotting, which everybody loves and quite rightly. Sequels, prequels, musicals – it’s all there to be discussed. I dare say there’s a computer game and an opera in the offing too. Look out Glyndebourne.

The author was in full voice at the recent Paisley Book Festival where he opened up about everything from social media and artificial intelligence (AI) to his mooted disco album and the BBC’s disastrous decision to can River City. On Trainspotting, he was particularly interesting: it’s not like an author to do down a potential film adaptation of a novel which hasn’t even been published yet, but he has cast doubt in the viability of a third Trainspotting film featuring the same cast as the first two, the 1996 original and T2, which caught up with the characters in the late 2010s.

(Image: Iona Shepherd) That’s because Men In Love, the latest in what’s increasingly looking like a twisted sort of Marvel Universe franchise, is set in the late 1980s and follows on closely from the original novel. So you can see the problem. Or, if you can’t, Mr Welsh can see it for you: the original actors, among them Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner and Jonny Lee Miller, will be too old for this gig.

It’s a common problem in movie-land........

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