Gerard Butler

Andy Roach says 'no exceptions' as Gerard Butler turned away from show

A comedian has explained why Hollywood star Gerard Butler was refused entry to one of his shows.

Is it just our imagination or does Tom Cruise make more films than anyone in modern Hollywood? Oblivion is the latest Cruise blockbuster to hit the multiplexes and he's talking it up here alongside co-star Olga Kurylenko as Graham Norton checks in for a new series, mere moments after the last one finished. There's more movie talk from Gerard Butler, plugging Olympus Has Fallen, with music from pop-goths Paramore.

I can't believe I'm the last person to be turned on to Burnistoun's pawky, plooky wit, to move around the workplace shouting "For real!", to instruct the kids that when you find ­yourself dissatisfied with your surroundings, the only reasonable response is "Up the road!" It didn't grab me at the start and I gave up - too soon, because new sketch shows often seem more miss than hit until they get under your skin, and in its third season Burnistoun has got under mine like scabies. Third and last, alas. The "Save Burnistoun" campaign - which I'm prepared to downgrade to the "Gie's a Christmas special at least" initiative in exchange for a month's supply of macaroon bars because, yes, I can be bought - starts here.

My criteria for a winning comedy are: a) Does it make me laugh? b) Are there good-looking burds in it? c) Does it allow me to come over all pretentious about sub-text, deeper meaning and Scottish identity? The answers are yes, yes and yes. Burnistoun seems to be saying that Scotland, formerly a land of inventors, may be stuck in the hoose these days but it continues to embrace the new. Who is Jolly Boy John, home-broadcasting on his laptop in Speedos to techno, if not the son of Jolly Boy John Logie Baird? As Scott, shell-suited mate of the equally sports-casual Peter, puts it: "Even yer maw's life-streamin' noo."

Not all change is good. The "Up the road!" boys loathe trendy ambience when they're out for a drink or a meal. Hairy McClowdry, host of Kiltie Time, incorporates Kanye West and Ryan Gosling into his heedrum-hodrum rhymes but that's deemed acceptable, whereas it's not okay for history presenters to stride around moors, all lustrous of barnet (Neil Oliver, I think they mean you). If there's schizophrenia at work on Burnistoun, well, isn't that the national condition? One thing we can all agree on, I'm sure, is that it's plain wrong for local talent to swan off to Hollywood and come back talking about how great it is to be "Skaddish" (Lulu, Sheena Easton and Gerard Butler, stop it now). If the show's creators, Iain Connell and Robert Florence, ever get to Hollywood - and I'd love to see Burnistoun: The Movie - it's a pretty safe bet they won't make the same ­mistake.

Gerard Butler has made some stinkers in his time (The Bounty Hunter, Phantom of the Opera and The Ugly Truth to name a few), but one role he did do rather well in was the muscle-bound comic adaptation 300. This makes his casting as Coriolanus's fearsome nemesis, Aufidius, in Ralph Fiennes's upcoming brutal film version of Shakespeare's play seem rather apt. Butler joins Graham Norton along with Doctor Who star Karen Gillan and Noel Gallagher - who also performs his new single.