Alistair's Beck to his roots; Comic hopes to make Big Impression at festival.

Byline: STEVE HENDRY

Alistair McGowan may have just missed the gathering of the clans but the impressionist is staging his very own Homecoming when he steps on stage in Edinburgh this week.

It's 10 years since he last performed at the festival fringe, 24 since he first came up as a student chasing a career and dreaming of fame and fortune.

Things have gone to plan spectacularly since then. Now, 44, he's instantly recognisable as the country's finest impressionist, a veteran of his own TV shows, respected stage actor, author and narrator. To say he's looking forward to returning, is an understatement.

He said: "There's nothing to beat it.

It's such an amazing event.

"My first trip was while I was a student at Leeds University in 1985 and I came back in 1988 for a show called News Revue. That was the first time I did impressions in front of an audience. The show was a success already so it was an eye opener. That was what made me fall in love with doing impersonations.

"The fringe always has that feeling for me, all the striving during the 1990s, hoping something would come of it and of memories of the great times I had there and the people I met."

But Edinburgh also feels like home to him - that's a fact he's delighted to state after he investigated his roots in BBC1's Who Do You Think You Are in 2007.

Brought up in Worcestshire, he traced his ancestors to India through a previously-unknown Anglo-Indian link, but always expected a Scottish bloodline.

Instead, the trail stopped at Ireland and he was gob-smacked, having always "felt" Scottish. Further investigation when the cameras stopped running, however, provided a happier ending for Alistair.

He said: "The geniality afficionados in my family have helped prove Ireland was just a setting off point of the last man they had records for. They proved it does go back to Scotland - to Edinburgh and a surgeon called John McGowan.

"Scotland really does feel like somewhere which made me in many ways and I always look forward to being there."

It remains to be seen how the locals will take to his new shows - Cocktails With Coward, appearing alongside Charlotte Page, showcasing Noel Coward's songs and poems, and Alistair McGowan: The One and Many.

Featuring more than 60 voices, this one-hour show blends some old, some new and, almost definitely, some Scots.

Having worked on Only An Excuse for four years, he's aware of the different footballing personalities of north and south and is looking at co-opting the likes of Andy Murray, Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes to keep him on side.

He said: "In the past the Scots who came to see my show would laugh less at some impressions, especially football people. I used to do Trevor Brooking, down south in the mid-90s - he was the voice of football and my most successful bit. When I did him up here people stared at me. They wanted Dougie Donnelly.

"I'm wondering, with the explosion of multi-channel television, whether people are now more attuned to the likes of Mick McCarthy, the manager of Wolves, and Fabio Capello, the England manager. But there's a few Scots I'm trying to get into the act before Edinburgh, including Moyes and Ferguson."

Alistair is already spoofing Andy Murray successfully in warm-up gigs.

He said: "I'm still working on him but I've decided he's so dedicated to his sport that he doesn't know much outside tennis. Gary Barlow from Take That is also going well. Bear Grylls, weirdly, Boris Johnston, Alan Carr, Alan Davies are new ones but it's amazing that so many people still want Michael Parkinson and David Beckham."

A dumbed-down version of footballer Beckham was his signature act in The Big Impression, alongside Scots star Ronni Ancona as a pouting Posh.

The show has been off air for four years after he went off to act in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and on stage in the West End in musicals such as Little Shop of Horrors and Cabaret.

He's reluctant to talk up a return of The Big Impression, but is forthcoming about working again with Ronni. He used to be in a relationship with the Ayrshire-born actress, most recently seen in BBC Scotland drama Hope Springs but they have always managed to keep that out of their work life.

Now, they are bringing it up - for a new book about football which is coming out in October.

He said: "It's partly autobiographical, about us as performers and as a couple, but it's really about football. Her hatred of football and my love of football. She tries to make me give it up for a year to see if I can. It made sense to bring it up because that's what we used to argue about!" Fighting about football? There's no doubting the comic's heritage. Alistair McGowan is coming home.

Alistair McGowan: The One and Many (Assembly Hall) August 6 - 31. Alistair McGowan and Charlotte Page: Cocktails With Coward, Assembly, August 6 - 31. Tel [phone] assemblyfestival.com

CAPTION(S):

Alistair and Ronni's comedic take on Posh and Becks, left, and above helping to raise money for Sport Relief, in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and a picture of his ancestors