Bill Forsyth interview: ‘If we hadn’t made a go of it, my plan was just to disappear.’

I watched the new DVD of Gregory’s Girl on the train from London up to Edinburgh. I hadn’t seen Bill Forsyth’s school-yard comedy in more than 30 years. Incredibly, it hasn’t dated in the slightest. When I saw it in the cinema, in 1981, as an acne-ridden adolescent, this tender romance was a revelation — for me, and millions like me. Funny yet heartfelt, it was that rare and precious thing — a rite of passage movie that was neither patronising nor pretentious. Half a lifetime later, Gregory’s Girl still rings true.

A reticent, retiring man, Forsyth doesn’t do many interviews, but to promote this new DVD he’s agreed to meet amid the serene splendour of Edinburgh’s Museum of Modern Art. ‘The kids in the film are over 50 years old now,’ he says, over coffee in a quiet corner of the museum’s cosy café. ‘Why am I still being asked to stand up and yak about it?’ Because it’s brilliant, that’s why.