Let’s begin at the end of the conversation with Alan Cumming. Looking back on his career, what’s the work he’s most proud of? Is it his Macbeth? Is it playing Burns, (featuring interpretative dance) God, the Devil, Hitler, the Pope, Hamlet, all the parts in Macbeth, and the Emcee in Cabaret in the West End and on Broadway?

Or is it the seminal photo series’ he created for Jackie magazine as a teenager, which saw him pull lots of pained – and sometimes painfully happy – faces? “Yes! It’s the Jackie magazine stuff,” he says, acting out the role of excited teenager once again. “And it’s been suggested I look up all my old Jackie photo stories in the archives.”

Yes, and he could display them in the foyer of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, for patrons to view on entry. “Yes! The Evolution of Alan. That’s what we’ll call it.”

The reason for flashing forward to our finale is that it suggests much about Alan Cumming. For one, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. For another, he may just think that the photo gallery isn’t a bad idea at all. It's art. It’s history. And doesn’t it reveal to young people that the journey to success can begin in many ways; it’s where you end up that’s important?

Right now, Alan Cumming is speaking from his home in New York in the run up to returning to Scotland to become Artistic Director at Pitlochry. Was this decision part of a pull of home? Does he agree that as we grow older, more reflective, our homeland yanks us back like a magnet?

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“Absolutely,” he says. “It’s part of going through a life-long ritualistic circle and people do go home as they get older. There is this thing about getting older that you realise your body tells you things and your mind tells you things. “

His 60-year-old body is in excellent shape. But his mind is telling him he needs to be in Scotland more often these days. “I was back for the American election and the inauguration – and it really does you so good to be in a country where everyone was as shocked and horrified as I was.”

He adds, smiling. “Even the most right-wingy Scottish politician will........

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