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We'’re going for a wild track, room tone.
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165. Take 1. Plate.
When you have an adversary,
the thing you have to do if you really want to prevail,
is do the unimaginable.
Do something that is just so out there,
that no-one'’s even going to dream
that you would think of doing that.
So, many of us would think,
if we had our time over again, what would we do?
In fact, he tried to do exactly the same thing
he had done the first time.
To rewind your life and be someone different.
What would possess someone to do that?
He did have a strange facial appearance in some ways.
Did he have some kind of cosmetic surgery?
Because it was a rather mask-like face that he had.
It was an unusual face.
Anything is possible here.
I'’m telling you, this guy is a charmer.
He'’s not what you think he is.
He never was.
Can we just begin with you telling me your name?
Uh, you would have known me as Brandon Lee.
Tell us what you know of Brandon Lee.
Brandon Lee said he staged the hoax
because he was frustrated and angry.
Brandon Lee has published his story on the internet
and describes how his secret double life was discovered.
Brandon Lee has broken off ties
with the production company filming his life story.
Shooting is scheduled to begin next summer
with Alan Cumming in the lead role.
Okay.
Where is the best place to start do you think?
I guess that would be
when I came to your school in 1993.
I remember my first day at Bearsden Academy.
The prospect of it was just so daunting.
It was just awful,
just like hell.
I don'’t believe in hell in my philosophy,
other than self-made hell.
That was self-made hell.
Bearsden Academy was an ancient school.
It was scary going up there.
This huge grey monolith.
It looked like a factory,
eh, churning out the students.
I remember it as being very old-fashioned.
Probably on its last legs when we were at school.
Aye, it was a terrible, it was a terrible building.
With leaky roofs and no heating and mold on the walls.
Bearsden Academy was a bit of a time-warp.
Welcome to 5th Year, boys and girls.
This is an important year for you.
You'’re sixteen years old, the age of majority.
But the majority of you are a bunch of wasters.
Eh, what?
So, this is the year I want to start
seeing some maturity
in this classroom.
Have no fear.
Fear doesn'’t do you any good.
Hmm...
I was almost in tears when I walked into the school.
Then of course, I quickly quelled that
because I was going into a situation
where you didn'’t want to be crying, you know?
It was Junior year, day one.
The classroom door opened
and there he was.
There was a guy who looked about forty,
standing in the corner.
He had a briefcase.
And he was wearing a school tie.
He definitely wore a blazer.
- Yeah. - He was in full regalia.
And it was the blazer
and the satchel kind of suitcase
that stuck out
because we were all rucksacks and just ordinary jackets
parka jackets, whatever. And that kind of...
it made you double take.
I remember looking at him and thinking "“Oh."
- He looked
like a man.
Funny hair, glasses.
More stubble for some reason than your average pupil.
He was quite gaunt looking though and he was really pale.
His skin looked older.
And he had these tight curls in an almost kind of...
I remember it kind of coming down the back of his head,
his curly hair.
Who'’s he?
First impression was
what'’s a teacher doing in uniform?
He looked significantly older.
I do remember clearly turning to one of my friends at the time
saying "“Oh, we'’ve got a new student teacher."”
You know? And that was it.
I remember him having quite a deep voice.
He had a weird accent.
- Hello. Is this class 5 - C?
The accent... Couldn'’t really place it.
I remember sitting at the front and thinking,
"Well, everyone can see me and I can'’t see anyone."
I remember thinking, "“What'’s he doing sitting here?"”
Cause if he'’s a student teacher,
shouldn'’t he be sitting with the teacher?
I remember the name call.
- Donald Lindsay - Here, miss.
- Brian Mackinnon. - Here, miss.
And then it got to the end
and my name was tagged on at the end
because I was a late arrival.
And our new comrade,
Brandon Lee.
And I suddenly shot up in my seat and said...
Brandon Lee?
Here, Miss.
The same name as Bruce Lee'’s son
who died maybe not even two months ago
on the filming of The Crow?
It was all over the news.
Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed
in the set of his movie, The Crow.
Being inquisitive and curious, I had to go up to him and say
"“Listen, do you know you'’ve got the same name
as Bruce Lee'’s son who'’s just died?"”
And he said to me, straight as a die,
"Hey man, I didn'’t know Bruce Lee had a son."
"Did he die?"
People talked about it.
"“Oh, he'’s got the same name as Bruce Lee'’s son!"”
You know what...
My name is Brian Mackinnon
and there are other Brian Mackinnons out there, so...
We do not know when we will die.
We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well.
How many more times will you remember
a certain afternoon of your childhood
and yet it all seems limitless?
My first impression of Brandon
was that he seemed a little bit older
than the majority of the pupils.
He wasn'’t quite the fresh-faced youth
that you expect from fifth year pupils.
But when I enquired about his background,
I realized that there were reasons for that.
He had been...
with his mother in Canada
who was an opera singer, moved around a lot.
I was quite close to my Mum
when I was young.
She was the coolest character you could imagine, my mother.
He travelled the world and his mother toured.
He basically just travelled with her.
It was unlike anything any of us had ever experienced.
None of us knew the kids of travelling musicians.
Yeah.
He had not gone to a normal school in Canada,
but he had been privately tutored.
His mother had been separated from his father
who was a Professor in London.
Dad was kind of,
you know a... I suppose a kind of typical Dad.
I wasn'’t maybe so close to him in some ways.
So, you never really knew what he was thinking.
I never did anyway.
But my Mum,
she was the one human being I ever felt close to.
You know, in that way
you know, you can tell what they are thinking,
sensing and feeling.
My Mum probably knew almost as soon as I did.
Medicine. That was what I wanted to do.
She could pretty much read my mind.
Does that sound weird?
That'’s how it was.
Yeah.
They'’d been in a car accident.
And his face had been slightly burned
and this scarring was a result of that.
Unfortunately, his mother hadn'’t survived...
And so,
having been brought up in Canada,
when she died,
he went to live with his grandmother
in Bearsden.
Bearsden is the nicest part of Glasgow.
It'’s a little slice of heaven tucked away
- in the west end of the city.
Bearsden is the posh place.
Whether it is or not, that'’s what people think.
People live in a bubble in Bearsden
and it'’s a lovely bubble.
If you mention it to other people in Glasgow,
they go "“woo!"” You get the handbag arms. Woo!
Woo, you'’re from Bearsden.
The sort of people that live in Bearsden
are probably...
rich people.
Doctors and lawyers and solicitors and dentists and...
Surgeons.
Really, really crooked accountants.
It changes very quickly
from a fairly large and posh-ish type area,
to... not.
Where we were was more towards
- Spam Valley perhaps.
I have no idea what Spam Valley is.
I hate to tell you, you lived in Spam Valley.
Spam Valley refers to people who...
according to the legend
ate Spam all week
in order to be able to afford a house in Bearsden.
But Brandon'’s Gran,
she was like the next level down.
She was renting a flat from the council.
So, while it wasn'’t like
he was living in the projects, or anything.
Compared to the rest of the kids in Bearsden,
he kind of was.
The principal of Bearsden Academy
was a man called Norman Mcleod.
For me, Norman Mcleod
was... a great man.
Mr. Mcleod was very... traditional.
You never saw him without his black cape.
His black graduation gown.
He wore that all the time.
Which led to his nickname of Batman.
Mr. Mcleod-- Batman!
So, if you heard "“Batman'’s coming,"”
you felt like a criminal and you had to scarper.
- Stop right there!
Officially the school was run by Mr. Mcleod.
But his second, Mrs. Holmes...
I think she probably ran it.
I remember Mrs. Holmes being a very efficient lady.
And made sure people knew who was the boss.
Well, the second boss, in her case.
I guess you'’ve always got to have
a kind of good cop, bad cop.
And Mrs. Holmes was always very strict.
She was Mr. McLeod'’s sort of...
- ...field marshal.
She did all the dirty stuff.
Get to detention!
Oh, she was a poisoned wee bastard, wasn'’t she?
I still remember having to get up
and salute at the start of Classical Studies Class
and give it the...
Um, what was it? Chaíre Didáskale.
Chaíre Didáskale, or something.
It was a sort of a, you know,
kind of an Adolf sort of a salute, wasn'’t it?
- Left arm. - Left arm.
Straight salute. Forty-five degrees.
- Forty-five degrees. - Open hand.
Like a little, kind of, Nuremburg rally.
Chaíre Didáskale
Chaíre Didáskale, like that.
Enunciate, pronounciate.
Chaíre Didáskale
Let'’s not beat about the bush.
- It was weird. - Yeah.
I think I probably fancied her a bit as well.
Really?
Yeah, there was a kind of
that sort of strict no-nonsense thing.
You can use that.
Can we put our hands down, Miss?
Brandon spent a lot of his time on his own.
He'’d have lunch on his own
you wouldn'’t see him around during break time,
he'’d disappear.
Break times at Bearsden Academy could be
like a prison exercise area.
It felt like that sometimes.
Oi, come here a minute, you prick!
What age are you?
The yard, at break,
it was almost like being behind enemy lines without an enemy.
Can you understand that?
A stranger in a strange land.
He was getting picked on by first years
and we were in fifth year, you know.
They were calling him names.
You'’re a pure old man. Are you my Dad?
Some of the kids used to call Brandon Lee "Thirty-something."
- Here, Thirty-something. - Thirty- something.
He'’s ancient.
Can you get drink for me, mate?
I... I just didn'’t notice
the kids I went to school with.
It wasn'’t a thing for me.
I just wanted to get to where I needed to be.
There was a good few of the lads, you know going,
giving him a bit of... giving him a wee bit of stick.
- So, I thought, I'’ll go up
and speak to him about Canada.
Because the poor guy
doesn'’t look like he'’s fitting in too well.
And I went up to him and said
"“Oh, so I hear you'’re from Canada."
Ehm. "I used to live in Canada as well."”
To which he went "“ba-ba-de-bap."”
And kind of legged it
and I thought that'’s very rude.
I remember in Biology class,
I sat across from a chap called Stefen Addo.
Stefen was a nice guy.
You want to borrow mine?
I have a bunch of them.
Thank you, that'’s very kind.
Brandon'’s friendship with me developed
in Biology probably,
because we sat next to each other.
He was polite, he was friendly.
He took an interest in you.
What'’s your plans for college?
Where you gonna go?
- I don't know. - Everything he said
used to be immensely interesting.
Did you know that if you cut the arm off a star fish,
the limb will regenerate
and become an entirely new starfish?
Wow, really?
He could also do a very funny Clint Eastwood impression.
So, do you feel lucky, punk?
Here, do another one.
I saw the Clint Eastwood movies
when I was little.
I could put on accents and things just to amuse people.
You know, whatever it takes.
He was just an all-round nice guy.
What are you doing after class today?
Bearsden Academy wasn'’t like, you know,
being in a London school or something.
There'’s only a few people who weren'’t like Anglo-Saxons.
It'’s a little station where the rich people live, you know.
Well-to-do people.
And there'’s the attitude that accompanies it.
There was quite a lot of racism going on.
I had a few...
hate mail letters delivered to my home by pupils.
Just the usual abuse really.
I remember there was a guy at the school.
He was the big bully guy that you didn'’t mess with.
And one day,
Stefen told me this guy just came out of nowhere
and punched him in the nose.
- And bled his nose.
A guy got me in a headlock
and was just punching me in the head.
Everyone was around,
no one said a thing.
Stefen was a gentle fellow, you know,
he wouldn'’t fight back.
What would you have done
if you had been there for that?
For what?
For Stefen getting punched in the nose.
I'’d have probably stopped the guy.
It's okay. It will all work out.
Our friendship meant a lot to me
because I didn'’t have that kind of
social interaction with a lot of people at school.
Except Brandon.
How did I feel when Brandon arrived?
I was delighted.
Eh, so there was someone else to take the heat.
There was someone who was
a little bit goofier looking than I was.
There was someone who was...
definitely more socially awkward than I was.
And there was someone else who I thought,
"“This is great."
"All of these tribes that don'’t want me,
they can deal with him now."”
I was a... I wouldn'’t say a techno-nerd,
but I listened to a lot of techno music
And...
something happened at some point in fourth year.
It was one of these horrible moments of when...
somebody puts their foot in it.
And can I remember asking Brian, "“What music do you like?"”
And he was like "“I like techno."”
And everyone was like "“Oh, right,
what band do you like?"” And he went "“2 Unlimited."”
And it was like his credibility
went from there to through the floor.
2 Unlimited, they'’re crap, mate.
2 Unlimited?
That'’s so embarrassing.
I knew him, Brian Mackinnon,
he was cool.
He hung out with Donald Lindsay.
Donald sat beside me in Physics.
He would pick his nose
and put it underneath the bench.
I shouldn'’t say that because I like Donald.
Most of what I can remember
talking to Brandon about
was... music.
Brandon had a way of introducing you
to bands you might not have discovered otherwise.
I always liked music with that guitar twang.
I remember Brandon essentially
giving me a history lesson
in like 80s punk bands.
Television, a band I like,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Television.
They weren'’t like 90s bands.
it was all 80s bands that fed into it.
Brandon had a knowledge of bands before our time
because...
Just because he had an interest in music.
Otherwise, perhaps he spent a lot of time
in second hand record shops
where you could find records by all those bands.
Becoming sixteen, seventeen,
music you know it shapes you a wee bit.
He fundamentally informed my music taste.
Having been this socially awkward,
uncomfortable techno kid,
like everything ch...
like it felt as if my whole identity changed.
Brandon'’s life plan was...
to go to medical school and become a doctor.
I remember Biology.
I had a great teacher.
A Miss Makitchen.
She was rather nice.
Now, Gary, can you tell me the medical term
for what I'’m pointing at here?
Eh, it'’s a willy, Miss.
Urgh.
It became a bit of a running joke.
Because as soon as there was a question nobody could answer,
everybody'’s attention just turned to Brandon,
said "“Brandon, do you know?"”
Of course, ten out of ten times he always knew.
He always knew the answer.
Well, Miss, your finger is on the bulbourethral gland.
It'’s otherwise known as Cowper'’s gland,
after the anatomist, William Cowper
Oh, for fuck sake.
Because I remember she said
"Sometimes Brandon teaches me Biology."
You know Brandon, sometimes you teach me Biology.
I thought oh, I'’m getting somewhere.
This is good. This is a good report.
- I still remember
one of the teachers
"Look at Brandon."
"He is ten times better than any of you wasters."
He was one of the better pupils and was a potential A candidate.
Uh, Sir, I have a question.
He asked Mr. Gunn to define time.
Of course, I mean within the Copenhagen
interpretation of quantum time.
Huh?
We all just kind of looked around and went "“What?"”
I don'’t think I would have given him
much of a response in a class.
Because...
we have no idea how time works, really...
or what the concept is.
But surely, the paradoxes that relativity introduced...
- ...mean that travel can exist
within space time or the multiverse.
Well, Brandon,
the idea of going back in time is something
that has appealed to people through the generations.
But the evidence that it'’s not possible is...
that we haven'’t seen anyone from the future.
I'’d normally find myself at Brandon'’s house
to watch a video,
to have something to eat,
to maybe do some study together.
I did go to Brandon'’s house
to work on some assignments,
or some homework, or some school projects.
And I met his grandmother as well.
Brandon'’s grandmother was a fairly quiet person.
Sorry to interrupt
but would youse like a wee biscuit and a cup of tea?
She was just a nice, kind of quiet Glaswegian lady.
OK. I'’ll get out the way
and let you brainboxes get on with it.
He used to help me with my homework
and help me in my exam studies.
The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum...
I don'’t know who else he helped,
but... it certainly benefited me,
not just from a friendship point of view,
but academically as well.
I have a genius level IQ.
My IQ was recorded at 158 when I was eight.
and 162 at nine.
And that'’s as high as it goes.
Now class, in this scene, Willy Lomon tells his son Biff
that the key to success in life,
is simply to be well liked,
to be popular.
But what is Arthur Miller suggesting
about Willy'’s state of mind?
We were doing Death of a Salesman,
and I just remember the first time
he answered a question.
Well, Miss, in Willy Loman'’s head,
he doesn'’t see his son as a thirty-four-year-old man.
To him, Biff is a high school sophomore again.
So, Miller is implying a psychotic delusion.
Perhaps, as an allegorical or metaphorical
hallucination of chronology.
And I just remember just closing my jotter.
Every kid was just looking at each other thinking
"What was that about?"”
You know? It was so off-the-wall.
And I think looking back,
Mrs. Ogg had seen the potential in him.
This kid is maybe quite special.
She obviously thought,
"Well, he'’d be a really good lead role in the school show."
Mrs. Ogg one day in English class said
"“We'’re looking for boys for the school play"”
and heads down, nobody was interested-- me especially.
And she said...
Brandon, it'’s South Pacific.
You could do that.
Uh, maybe I could help out backstage?
Brandon, come on.
With that accent,
I think we could think of something better for you.
Well before I knew it, I was in the audition room.
I remember the terror of it.
It tended to be very popular people
who were taking part in the school show.
I wasn'’t that sort of person.
Brandon Lee simply didn'’t have
- the personality or the talent.
But I thought, you know, he has an American accent,
and this is about Americans on a South pacific island.
And I thought they'’re going to say, "“Thank you, next."”
But no.
They loved me.
And I got the part.
I just walked out thinking...
"Oh dear."
Brandon was playing the part
of Lieutenant Cable
and I was playing the role of Liat.
- Say cheese! - Cheese.
I played Bloody Mary
and part of the story
is me trying to set my daughter Liat
up with this Lieutenant Cable
from the American army.
The awkward bit about rehearsals
was Liat and Lieutenant Cable were meant to be in love.
I was supposed to kiss this girl, Liat,
who was another girl from my year.
- I didn'’t want to kiss her
And I was getting into trouble with Mrs. Thomson for that.
Every rehearsal,
Mrs. Thomson would say
"“Right Brandon, I want you to do the kiss now."”
And he would be like, "“No, no, we'’ll do it on the night."”
And he refused, refused, to kiss this girl.
And she said, "“Look, you just do it."
"You just go, you just do it, you just kiss."”
- Come on you two,
it'’s just a kiss.
Valerie is looking as if to say
"“Why won'’t you kiss me? What'’s wrong with me?"”
Maybe she thought I was gay or something, I don'’t know.
He was a really good singer.
He sung like an angel.
I suppose I did feel self-conscious
about doing the... the kissy bit.
It wasn't even remotely romantic.
When we actually did have to kiss in the play,
it was probably a more avuncular kiss
than she'’d gotten from any of her uncles.
It was more a...peck.
It was...
and that'’s what we managed.
Which was enough for fifth year at school.
He didn'’t properly kiss her. Nae tongues.
South Pacific was... it was a hit.
It was a really successful school show,
as a result of him being in it.
He was noticeably better
than most of the other people,
or all the other people actually in the... in the production.
Yeah, uh huh.
I remember the then rector,
the headteacher, of the school saying,
"“You know Paul, nobody'’s going to
remember maths lessons in Bearsden Academy."
"But everybody is going to remember the school musical."
- Bravo! - Woohoo!
Go on yourself, Brandon!
Take a bow, Brandon!
The rector, Mr. Mcleod, stood up to say thank you
to everybody for taking part.
But I remember he specifically picked out Brandon and said...
Brandon only arrived last year
but he acts like he has been with us from the very beginning.
And we thought, yeah he'’s right,
it does feel like he has been here forever.
- Bravo! - Woohoo!
- Go on yourself, Brandon! - Well done, Brandon!
I saw a change in Brandon around that time.
Because he'’s suddenly in a different place.
He'’s not that lonely boy anymore.
He was good company.
But he was very valuable because he had a car.
He had been spotted driving.
But we were all too young to even have passed our test.
A bunch of us were at traffic lights
and pressed the button to cross the road, you know.
And then his... him in a car.
He'’s driving a car, stops...
...at the traffic lights, you know?
Fuck, there'’s that guy, that new kid from Canada.
Huh?
He just sort of like waved over, you know.
Like that is unusual, that is a bit strange.
He had obviously learned before he left Canada.
You get your driving license a year younger in Canada.
And it was just fun to go driving listening to music
with the windows down, at full volume.
He would take us to the cinema, sometimes we would go bowling.
Lasertag...
Suddenly we access to the city, we had access to record shops.
We used to go out for dinner together, or...
we would go round to each other'’s houses.
I ended up at his house at a house party.
- In his house? - Yeah.
There was like some kids from the year below us,
some kids from our year.
But the mix of kids was quite strange.
I'’d initially said
that I didn'’t want to go, but then just thought,
"“Right, I'’m just going to go and see what happens."”
And I went,
and one of my bullies was there.
And it was all fine.
Hey!
Brandon improved that situation,
where I wasn'’t going to be at the receiving end
of any bullying as such.
My credibility increased,
being known as being one of Brandon'’s friends.
He may have been quite knowledgeable about cocktails.
I just remember him going into the kitchen
and all I heard was,
"“Who'’s touched my Chardonnay?"”
- Eh, what? - What did he say?
I thought that'’s the first time I'’ve heard that at a party.
What the fuck'’s Chardonnay?
- What a dafty.
Ah, forget it.
Who wants to go to a discotheque?
Everybody was in a good mood, quite merry.
And we'’re driving out of Bearsden,
towards Glasgow,
fairly fast.
And the next thing we hear,
a police siren coming up the road,
but quite far behind us, though.
And Brandon, his face turned white.
And he sort of said "Guys, guys,
eh there'’s the police coming up."
"I think I might have been speeding."
"They'’re going to pull me over."
'When I show them my driver'’s license,
it'’s going to be under a slightly different name."”
And we were like "“What? What are you talking about?"”
And he said "“I'’ve got this driver's license, you see,
and my dad gave it to me."”
And we'’re like "“Okay."”
He said, "But the way he had to do it is,
is somebody else'’s name and date of birth on it."
And he said his Dad was some
kind of attaché to the Canadian embassy.
You know, people thought he might be a spy.
He said, "Don'’t worry, the police will look at it
and it will all be fine. Just let me do the talking."
"Please don'’t say anything."
"Don'’t get my Dad into trouble."
"This could be really bad for him."
He's kind of now going at
thirty miles an hour with white knuckles
panicking that this police car is going to pull him over.
But in the end, the police car just went racing past us.
And uh, we just kind of forgot about it.
We went out into town and had a good night.
Good afternoon,
Bearsden Academy, Janice speaking.
One lunch time there was a phone call
saying that his father had died.
This is the father who lived in London.
And the office had asked me to go
and try and find him and tell him.
I said "“Has your father been ill recently?"”
And he said that he had been ill.
And I said "“Well, I'’m sorry to tell you, he'’s died."”
And his immediate reaction was,
"“Oh, I thought I was maybe in trouble for something."”
Which seemed rather strange,
after I just told him his father had died.
I know all about death,
sudden death, and...
you know, that it can come at any moment
so I just... I just live in the moment
Brandon and his Gran seemed really close.
But obviously his Mum had died, his Dad had died.
Then so she was all he had.
She was now a mother figure to him.
They weren'’t taking students
directly from fifth year to medical school anymore.
They hadn'’t for a few years.
But after he died...
I just decided really quickly
that was what I was going to do.
I was going to turn that around
and that was my plan.
It got to our Higher exams. And...
as expected by everyone,
he got all As.
And I knew he was going on to do medicine at Dundee.
The staff were certainly concerned
that he was going to do medicine straight from fifth year.
Come on, boy.
Medicine is too difficult to do that.
And some of the teachers had spoken to him about it,
saying that really you'’re a bit young to be going.
You really should wait the extra year.
And he wouldn'’t do it,
he wouldn'’t take the advice.
When I went up to Dundee,
everything was right and it was in place
and I was happy.
Medicine was... It was like the tide, you know?
I was always going to do that. There was nothing else.
That'’s the direction. There'’s never been another one.
And then...
the tide somehow got stopped.
Sometimes we would see
his car parked at Bearsden Station.
And that'’s how we knew he was back in Glasgow.
I knew that things
hadn'’t worked out for him in Dundee
because of the grapevine.
I didn'’t know
why it had gone wrong.
But obviously, a lot of people were saying,
"“Well, I told you so, he was too young."
So, a few of us went round to his house.
Almost as soon as I got back from Dundee,
five of them came to the door.
They hammered, and hammered, and hammered
I had to go to the door.
That'’s when he told us the news.
I'’ve had to quit university.
It'’s okay, they'’ve said I can
start again next year when you guys do.
But why, Brandon?
It'’s my Grandmother, she...
she died.
Obviously, we knew
he had lost his mother and his father already.
And his Gran was all he had.
And that'’s why he was living in Scotland with her.
So, now to lose her as well he was totally alone in life.
And it was heart-breaking.
My Grandma had died
and they just wanted to be nice friends, you know.
- Come out and we'’ll help you.
Or we'’ll take you for a drink.
Or will take you for something to eat.
You know, sympathy, just people being nice.
And that'’s when... the holiday came about.
Uh, hello?
Hi Brandon, it'’s Jemma.
- Yeah, from school. - Oh.
Jemma attracted people
that maybe needed friendship.
Jemma was a collector of people.
I think that'’s the best way to describe her.
How are you doing Brandon?
I'’ve not seen you in ages.
I don'’t think she became as friendly with Brandon
until he actually left school.
Which seems bizarre thinking back.
I don'’t really know how that became the case.
Listen Brandon, do you remember my friend Cheryl?
Her and I were just talking about you.
Cheryl was a girl from Bearsden
who... was quite upper-class.
- Can you believe... - She...
wanted to go to Uni and become a doctor.
Same as Brandon.
Cheryl wasn'’t one of my favorite persons in those days.
She could be quite a nasty person.
She was...
A good kid.
Very nice girl.
That Cheryl was a nasty piece of work.
Cheryl, I...
I wouldn'’t say she was a nice person,
uh, from experience.
Ugh, for god's sake.
Get out my way, boy.
Cheryl was definitely one of those kids
that felt she was a bit elevated
over most other people in the class.
I'’m sure she'’s lovely now, but...
She was sometimes just mean to people for the sake of
it I think.
It was just in her nature.
- Cheryl'’s had this great idea.
We should all go on holiday together.
I didn'’t even know this girl.
She wants to go on holiday.
They wouldn'’t take no for an answer.
Look, it'’s not just us.
I'’ve asked Nicola to come too.
And you know her from the school musical, don'’t you?
Jemma was really keen for me to go on holiday,
so, I ended up going away with Jemma, Cheryl,
and at the time... Brandon Lee.
This is going to be the best holiday ever.
England. England.
I don'’t really understand
the relationship between, you know,
Cheryl and Jemma
and Nicola and Brandon.
I didn'’t even know they were friends.
I was like oh, are they all friends?
Yeah.
Cheers guys-- here'’s to us.
- Chin-chin! - Cheers!
- Cheers. - Happy Holidays
Would you have gone on holiday on your own
- with three girls? - No, definitely not.
They would never have asked me.
No.
You'd have been happy to go down the shops
with three girls at that age.
The holiday was your average 17-year-olds holiday.
Eh, until everything went a bit mad.
Look out, Brandon! Brandon!
You spilt my drink.
There was some... trouble in a pub.
He got into some bother, a fight, in a pub.
- What'’s your problem, dude? - Brandon, no!
You feel lucky, punk?
Police were called, and he ended up in jail.
- Brandon!
This has ruined my holiday!
They went back to the apartment to get his passport.
And there was two passports.
One had one identity, one had another identity.
Because that'’s how he got caught, didn'’t he?
With having two passports.
Jemma, look at this.
Which one is he?
Well, that was Brandon, banged up abroad, shocking!
I think that'’s the official story.
Is it... Is it?
Sunburn and a criminal record.
That'’s the official rumored story.
Is that so-- Have you heard that story?
What Cheryl did the minute she came home,
she told her parents.
And her mother went to Bearsden Academy
to see Mr. Mcleod.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I will investigate further.
I should think so.
Mr. Mcleod asked me to come into his room
to look at a photograph from some years before.
And said "Does that remind you of anyone?"
And we looked at the photograph
and we said, "“Not really, no."”
He said "“Brandon Lee?"”
Sir, do you think time travel is feasible?
Well, Brandon,
we'’ve yet to meet anyone who'’s travelled from another time.
So, I'’d say that proves that it'’s not possible.
Huh.
Impossible imshmossible, you can get around impossible.
I watched Mission Impossible when I was little.
And that was very influential for me,
especially the first season.
I didn'’t recognize his photograph
to the Brandon Lee I knew in my Physics class.
It looked like a...
fifteen-year-old boy.
I got a letter from Mcleod.
"Something has come to my attention
that may affect your future and education."
"Could you make an appointment to see me?"
Hello, Bran...
Come in.
Mcleod had this folder.
This document
your report card from one year ago.
He said,
"I compiled it from the reports from various teachers."
"I'’ve never written a better report.
Now, this document is a report card for a pupil
who first attended this school
twenty years ago.
He showed me the report for him.
He said I shouldn'’t be showing you this but, you know,
it is ten out of ten.
You can see it is very similar.
You do realize, as far as I'’m concerned,
it would appear that you'’re not who you say you are.
Yeah, I knew something bad was going to happen then.
So, I decided that I was going
to get on the first plane in the morning.
One of the office staff came to me
and asked me...
Hi Ronna,
do you by any chance have a copy of that videotape
that was done of South Pacific?
I'’m trying to get a hold of one really urgently.
I managed to get a hold of one for her
and I gave her it.
And she said to me,
as she was leaving my classroom,
Watch the six o'’clock news tonight, Ronna.
You'’ll find it interesting.
So, I went home and remembered
to watch the news.
Tonight, we can reveal that a thirty-two-year-old man
has spent the last year posing as a...
Sixteen-year-old schoolboy.
And I'’m thinking
what fucking idiot has fell for that?
Bearsden Academy...
What?
Brandon!
This is the bizarre case of the schoolboy
who is thirty-two years old.
I was...
absolutely astonished.
I couldn'’t...
I couldn'’t comprehend what I was feeling.
Brandon Lee was rather older than his classmates.
About fifteen years older.
I knew there was something about that guy.
Brandon Lee was not Brandon Lee.
He was no teenager either, he was thirty-two!
I remember just being utterly shocked.
And I remember finding it quite hilarious at the time.
Sean, how old are you, mate?
- Uh, fifty-six.
But Brandon being twice our age
wasn'’t even the most shocking part of the story.
Brandon Lee studied for a year at his old academy.
He went back to school he originally went to.
Brandon Lee was
originally enrolled here in 1975.
He was at Bearsden Academy before this?
- Yes! - Huh?
From that moment on,
it was just a media circus.
To that end, the authorities...
At the front gate,
it was packed with reporters, TV cameras.
People were running after you with microphones.
The streets were buzzing.
We didn'’t really suspect anything at all.
We were outside the school, Billy Big Balls,
waiting for our fifteen minutes.
Everybody was a bit shocked when he first turned up,
because he looked like a teacher sort of thing.
Did he have some kind of cosmetic surgery?
Because it was a rather mask-like face that he had.
It was an unusual face.
The headmaster, Norman Macleod,
says Brandon Lee certainly made an impact on him.
He really was an ideal pupil.
A polite, well-spoken, gentlemanly young man.
Y'’know he managed to keep his story
constant all the time,
and never let it slip at all.
His mother was an opera singer.
He had toured the world with his mother.
He told us that both his parents had died
and he was living with his grandma.
A string of lies
that spans a whole year.
And he was being taught
by the same teachers that taught him back then!
Around forty teachers, half the staff,
had worked there at the time,
but none recognized him.
Many of the teachers
who had taught him said
"“I wondered who it was he put me in mind of."”
A lot of our viewers might be thinking,
how on Earth could the. teachers have been taken in
After all, some of them taught him the first time round.
If you were teaching there
in the 1970s,
how did you not recognize him again in the 90s?
Oh, because he had changed physically quite a bit.
He did look much older.
What?
Tell us what you know of Brandon Lee.
At this stage and time, we don'’t know a great deal.
We have not yet definitively identified
his previous name.
But that is the subject of discussion later today.
Opened the front door and...
it'’s mid-morning.
And there were journalists at the front door,
immediately asking, "Am I Brian Mackinnon?"
Are you Brian Mackinnon?
I had no idea. I was Brian Mackinnon.
It'’s Brian. It'’s Brian Mackinnon.
Brian Mackinnon, why did you do it?
How old am I? Am I thirty-two?
How have you made yourself look so young Brian?
Am I seventeen?
Have you had the plastic surgery?
At the time, I just thought,
why do they want to know who Brian Mackinnon is
and what Brian Mackinnon'’s done?
Well, most people these days can'’t wait to leave school.
But not thirty-two-year-old, Brian Mackinnon.
Oh shit.
He managed to fool
the education authorities into believing
that he was actually seventeen-year-old, Brandon Lee.
Seventeen-year-old Brian Mackinnon watching this.
My mind was blown!
I mean -
It was his pal.
His pal who is a thirty-two-year-old man
and it'’s his pal that'’s got the same fucking name as him.
It was-- why?
Was the first question.
Why did he do it?
He had a burning ambition to study medicine.
Yes.
At thirty students are deemed too old actually...
At thirty you are deemed too old
to study in the medical field.
I think that'’s probably the reason for all of this.
He then went to university in Dundee
as a medical student.
But dropped out after one term,
claiming there was a death in the family.
It'’s my grandmother.
She died.
He was totally alone in life, it was heart-breaking.
The press finally found
the right Brian Mackinnon'’s house.
And his car was outside,
but no one was coming or going.
And then a florist van arrived
and a bunch of flowers got delivered.
And the door opened.
And there was...
Brandon'’s dead gran.
I think by the time we saw Brandon'’s gran on the news,
we were past the point of being surprised.
So, her rising from the dead,
it was just a case of "Well, oh right then."
Brandon'’s grandmother
was besieged at her home by reporters
and she didn'’t want to leave the house.
We'’ll all go away, if you come out and speak.
So, at that point the police showed up
and the reporters asked them
the identity of the woman
who just answered the door and taken the flowers.
She is Brandon'’s mother though,
the so-called "Brandon'’s mother"?
Well, I don'’t know the full story,
so I wouldn'’t like to comment.
But it'’s her son that the news has been about?
It'’s her son that you'’re all apparently here
to photograph and talk to.
It'’s her son?
Her son isn'’t there, she doesn'’t know where he is.
So, not only is she not dead,
but she'’s not his gran either.
That'’s one of those realizations that came on slow, I suppose.
I didn'’t...
I think we were still referring to her as his gran.
Even though, we now logically knew
that she couldn'’t be.
The story was that he was...
He lost his parents,
and his mum was his gran.
But his gran was his mum.
You know?
No, the story was that Brandon'’s mum was dead
and then Brandon'’s gran was dead.
But actually, Brian'’s mum was alive
and she was Brandon'’s gran.
Who had been dead but now was alive again.
The Peter Pan of Bearsden Academy,
thirty-two-year-old, Brian Mackinnon,
flew home on Saturday amid rumors
that he had spent the last week at a German clinic,
avoiding the furor
that he'’s been unmasked as a fraud.
The press seemed to be outside my door,
spinning nonsense before I got back from Europe.
But I didn'’t see it as being quite that big, you know.
To me It seemed like a little thing
It was just a means to an end.
It should have occurred to me.
It was something I was oblivious to maybe.
And I shouldn'’t have been that...
that was sort of something new in human history.
When Brian Mackinnon returned home last night
by taxi at eight o'’clock,
he refused to talk to waiting press.
But until he does so,
the intense media interest in his story will continue.
They misrepresented,
big time.
You know you get things in the pr...
It has been suggested.
A source close to so and so says that...
And finally, the strange story of false identity,
dogged perseverance, and momentary indiscretion.
Lee'’s secret was discovered
when he went on holiday with former classmates
to Tenerife this summer.
There was a disturbance at a bar and Lee was arrested.
Police found that Lee had two passports
One showing him at seventeen,
the other as thirty-two.
There was no two passports.
There was no fight in a Spanish bar.
There was no police
and he was never put in a Spanish prison.
None of that was true. It was all lies
The minute I arrived in Tenerife,
Jemma said to me...
Brandon'’s got something to tell you.
He then showed me his passport
And that was when he said.
My name isn'’t Brandon Lee
and I'’m not a teenager.
So suddenly, as he got to the end of the sentence,
the Canadian accent stopped
and he had a Scottish accent.
My name is Brian Mackinnon
and I'’m thirty-two years old.
I can'’t imagine what it would have been like for them
to then be on holiday with this old man.
Jemma and Cheryl knew prior to going on holiday.
I don'’t know why I wasn'’t told prior to going on holiday.
But they did know prior to going on holiday.
I know that to be a fact.
Nicola, can you promise me something?
And he said like,
please don'’t tell anyone.
Blah, blah, blah, can you keep this a secret?
And I was like, "Not a problem."
Did not bother me at all.
And then we carried on. We went out that night.
And carried on like everything was normal.
It just, it didn't... It didn'’t faze me.
I don'’t understand why he would go away on holiday with them.
I didn'’t even know they were friends.
It'’s just a little bit odd.
A little bit strange.
The only explanation I have is the fact
that he had people that were his friends
and he wasn'’t used to having that.
And he was caught up.
He was caught up in the friendship.
And it was something he wasn'’t used to
and he had never had before.
It is just the most bizarre...
bizarre thing.
- We totally nailed that. - I know!
It was only one or two nights in
that the big fight happened.
We came home after a few drinks.
And the guys from the apartment next door,
they basically trashed the outside of our room.
And Cheryl went wild.
Like mental, she was furious.
I'’m going round...
She'’d had a few and she was uptight
and decided she was going to sort them all out
And I thought, these guys looked a wee bit iffy.
I'’m going round. Don'’t try and stop me.
I tried to stop her and stood in her way.
Whoa, whoa. Cheryl, stop.
Brian was trying to calm her down at this point.
And... she just wouldn'’t calm down.
I will not clam down.
I understand a bit about the core
and the inception of hysteria
and how powerful it is in adolescence.
The forces that can give rise to it
and the damage that can ensue, if it gets out of control.
- Those bastards!
Eventually, I kind of went icy and said,
"If you want to go and commit suicide,
don'’t drag us all into it."
And then she turned on him.
She was saying
like, "How dare you tell me what to do?"
"You'’re not my Dad."
"You'’re not even who you said you were" and all this.
"You'’re a liar."
Bringing all that kind of stuff up.
This is the worst holiday ever.
She didn'’t take that well.
She went crying into her room.
And the door would get slammed.
And the door would get slammed again.
- And I figured, hmm,
female hysteria...
How is that going to pan out?
The atmosphere the next morning was awful.
I thought things would have calmed down,
but no one was talking.
Hey, do you want to walk down to the beach?
I was really intrigued to learn this story
because it is such an interesting story.
So, I would like sit down and ask him about his life
and where it got to the point he was.
So, you'’re not Canadian, are you?
Where did you grow up?
I moved to Bearsden when I was twelve.
Before that we lived in a place called Milton.
It was just a housing scheme...
Post-war, I think.
And I don'’t have fond memories of it.
But it was concrete and it was rough.
You know with gangs and things like that.
And drugs were coming in.
And my mum decided she was going to try
and get me right out of there.
This baby boy is two weeks old.
He'’s more than twice as likely to die
before the age of sixty-five,
as a baby born less than a mile away in Bearsden.
So, then my Mum got this job in Bearsden.
And we moved there in October 1975.
Bearsden is the posh place
She wanted what was best.
Woo, you'’re from Bearsden!
Bad things don'’t really happen in Bearsden.
My Mum had the notion that Bearsden Academy
was as close to a private school,
as she could get.
I remember my first day at Bearsden Academy.
I noticed that the boys,
because they were middle-class lads,
they were stronger, more robust looking fellas,
and...
had quite serious fist fights to show who was eh, dominant.
Most of the children going to the school
were from professional families.
Doctors, dentists, lawyers.
Brian'’s Dad was the local lollipop man.
And his Mum was the warden in the old folks'’ home
Her job came with accommodation.
That was how they managed to move to Bearsden
Bandon Lee definitely had
a more sociable time in school in the mid-90s,
as Brian Mackinnon did in the 1970s.
I wasn'’t like one of the pretty kids.
that anyone would want to go out with
So, I didn'’t even bother asking.
I was brought up to be impersonal,
to hold back from people.
I just had a sense that it wasn'’t my time
for that sort of thing yet.
When you'’re sixteen years old,
there'’s a point where you come of age,
and you start defining yourself,
and you really have a sense of your own,
you know, your own identity for the first time.
Medicine.
That was what I wanted to do.
My Mum probably knew
almost as soon as I did.
We could usually tell what one another were thinking
- Almost a...
...a telepathic connection.
Well, I say almost, truly!
Then my Mum was, you know, she wasn'’t a medic
but she had pretty close knowledge of a doctor.
She came from a poor background.
Had she had the education opportunities,
she probably would have ended up being
a Professor or something.
She was an immensely smart individual.
She wanted him to become a doctor.
And I think it was his Mum'’s belief in that
that maybe had him believe in that.
"Your dreams are separate from your waking life."
"But for some people you can go further than that."
"You can be aware of the fact
that you'’re dreaming
when you'’re dreaming."
"When you'’re inside a lucid dream,
you can begin to use that
to get what you want."
I think he was fulfilling his dreams, as it were.
His dream was to become a doctor.
I went to study medicine at Glasgow University in 1980.
The doctors of 1980
studying at Glasgow University'’s world famous Medical School,
gain practical experience.
It started off great.
I was getting A's in my class tests.
But then everything just changed on a dime.
It started off like the flu.
The weight-loss.
I was feeling constantly thirsty.
My heart was racing.
I had headaches, night sweats.
I couldn'’t dream properly.
I couldn'’t do that anymore, that was terrifying.
I failed my exams in the first year.
And then when I was eventually called up
to see the dean
and the advisor of studies one day,
they were just like bad cop, bad cop
You are failing, you are failing.
You're failure.
Medicine isn'’t for you.
They were desperate
to get to the point where they could exclude me.
It was just brutal and nasty and bad.
Get out, you'’re a failure!
It felt like the end of the world.
Brian tried
applying to various medical schools after that.
But nothing worked out for him.
And he eventually started working
in the local health club.
But then you know, a little bit of time passes
and you begin to plan and scheme again,
on maybe a long game...
but you know,
you'’re thirty years old.
It'’s just that decade long...
Well, decade and a half long gap.
By that time, he was too old
to study medicine.
Because I think over the age of thirty,
they wouldn'’t let you back in.
My life had been held back for no good reason.
And all the other lives of the kids I went to school with,
their lives had maybe not gone to plan,
but they had at least moved forward, you know?
The defining factor of when he decided
to go back to Bearsden Academy,
was I think the death of his father.
My father who had been diagnosed with cancer,
was close to death.
And I'’m sitting with him
and he said to me...
You know Brian, I never lost confidence in you.
Thanks, Dad.
But do you think I will ever be able to do
something meaningful with my life?
Everybody has their day, son.
It was my Mum that was with him when he died.
She said he sat up, as if he was seeing something,
sucking in his last breath
and then he died.
And that just...
That put me into something I had never experienced before.
I was angry, not in a kind of, you know,
raging blood-boiling way.
It was cold.
And I thought, "Well, if this is going to have any meaning,
his death, his suffering,
let it be this."
- You're failure. - Failure.
To hell with those guys,
you know, that have stopped you.
You're just not good enough.
Get this done.
When you have an adversary, you...
The thing you have to do, if you really want to prevail,
is do the unimaginable.
Do something that is just so out there,
that no one is even going to dream
that you would think of doing that.
Whose responsibility was it
for admitting Brandon Lee to the school?
I think it was Mrs. Holmes who interviewed him originally.
Seriously? I did not know that.
Mrs. Holmes.
Chaíre Didáskale.
You would definitely put her bottom of the list
in terms of people who would get it...
- Wrong. - ... wrong.
Holmes, yes, that was her name.
Holmes.
Of course, I'’m not talking as myself.
I'’m talking as this fictive father.
So, I had to put on a bit of pomp.
So, I told her my name was...
William Lee, I'’m a Professor of Zoology,
and I wish to send my son Brandon
to enroll at your school.
Why, yes, Professor.
Just send him straight to me.
And it was towards the end of May,
I think I showed up.
So, it was not long before my thirtieth birthday.
You must be Brandon.
Your father has told me great things about you.
Take a seat.
I'’ll be with you in a minute.
McLaverty, get in here!
Some boy came in, a first year who had misbehaved.
McLaverty, look at the state of you.
Detention!
- Go. - She suddenly
turned from being very sweet with me
to being very nasty And then right back, you know.
And I thought...
I'’ll be real careful of any human being
that wields any kind of authority.
Anyway, Brandon,
where were we?
All I really showed
was a letter from a fictive tutor.
She had the letter
from my would-be Dad, again fictitious.
I just need to see your birth certificate.
And she had a tick list.
You'’ve no birth certificate?
I'’ve... I call it... I call it mesmerism.
I have skills where I can hypnotize people.
And get into their psyche, that sort of thing.
I can do that. I had to learn to do that.
That'’s okay, Brandon.
I'’ll believe you.
Mind-control.
Right...
He used his powers of mind-control
to make her sa...
Oh, like in Star Wars.
He looked into her eyes "Don'’t."
"These are not the droids you'’re looking for."
These aren'’t the drones you'’re looking for, no?
Droids.
Yeah, droids, I beg your... I'’m not a fan of that Star Wars.
I was more an Alien kind of guy.
Did Mrs. Holmes not want to be interviewed?
No.
Did she say why?
Oh.
She does not remember ever meeting Brandon Lee?
I mean...
She doesn'’t remember anything at all?
Do we think she is just saying that?
Why would she?
- Mind-control.
I'’m going with... I'’m going with mind-control.
Okay we'’ll go with the mind-control, yeah.
Yeah.
Making one little difference
can make all the difference.
So, the hair change was the main thing.
Brandon Lee had a mop of reddish-brown...
I wouldn'’t say it was permed but it was curly-ish hair.
At first,
I was actually using curlers on my hair in the morning.
So, he actually put curlers in every night
to curl his hair?
Shit.
Eventually, I figured out if I get a perm,
I won'’t have to go through that every morning
and get up an hour early.
- I wouldn'’t have thought that.
I would go out the house.
I would go down the road a little in the morning
before I put the tie on.
That took huge balls on his part.
He'’s got big balls to.... One, to do it.
But to go back to the same school?
That'’s phenomenal.
That whole chaos
almost seemed like remote from me.
Because my life had already been destroyed.
So, chaos was my element.
- Donald Lindsay. - Here miss.
Brian Mackinnon.
My name is Brian Mackinnon.
And there are other Brian Mackinnon'’s out there, so...
They called out Brian Mackinnon at one point
And, you know, a kind if wave of adrenaline went through me.
Then natural impulse was to put your hand up.
And I really had to, you know,
really stop myself to keep my hand down.
I can only imagine the blood must have left his system
at that point.
But what do you do?
I think he must have shat his pants.
Immediately, when the story broke,
I just thought that was just the strangest thing.
The person he had befriended...
Befriended
...had the same name as him.
For Brandon, it would have been much easier
to just ignore me all together.
But I think that is why
he shared some of the music with me that he shared.
In becoming friends
with sixteen-year-old Brian Mackinnon,
thirty-two-year-old Brandon Lee
became friends with...
Yeah, a shadow of his old self.
Brandon Lee
Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed
on the set of his movie, The Crow.
You know after I found out about the Brandon Lee thing,
I thought I should have been hip to...
to that, but I wasn'’t.
Honest.
Brandon is a popular name.
Is it not? Brandon.
There was Brandon from 90210.
- What was that? Ehm... - Urgh.
I came across Brandon on the television.
There was a show on called
Beverley Hills 2-0-1-0, or something.
My name is uh, Brandon Walsh.
Brandon Walsh.
That is where he said he got the name.
Oh, did he? High-five.
- Seriously? - I like this guy.
I actually like Brandon Lee.
Well if you think about it 90210 Brandon
was the perfect teenager.
He was handsome, popular,
could drive a car.
Nah, I call bullshit on that.
He arrived in our class a month
after Brandon Lee died on the set of The Crow.
The Crow is a story about a man who comes back from dead
to seek revenge on his assassins.
Was he coming back to avenge wrongs,
just like The Crow in the film.
Well, he was definitely coming back to right a wrong,
there'’s no question about that.
It really is a role
that you have to take risks with.
You tell me how somebody who comes back from the dead
is going to behave.
Oh, right.
- You get it? - Yeah, I get it.
- I'’m glad the penny'’s dropped.
So, his mother was an opera singer...
- Who... - Okay.
...died in a car crash
That was a back story.
I didn'’t have it written for me.
I was making it up as I go along.
Here, Thirty-something!
He'’s ancient.
It is a wee bit like an acting role.
You just had to say get in character.
Yeah, that'’s about as close as it comes.
He sounded like he came from Canada,
because that'’s where he said he came from.
I can just do these things.
I can put on accents just to amuse people.
Switch between Russian and American.
And, you know, whatever it takes.
You feel lucky, punk?
My favorite thing in all of this
is Miss Makitchen in Biology
teaching sex education
to a child who was older than she was.
Sometimes Brandon teaches me Biology.
As soon as there was a question
nobody could answer,
everybody'’s attention just turn to Brandon.
Well Miss, in Willy Lomon'’s deluded head,
his thirty four year old son is a high school sophomore again
with all his life ahead of him.
Did you like being a teenager again?
No, it was just awful. Just like, hell.
It'’ll be okay.
Our friendship meant a lot to me.
And I should hope it meant a lot to him as well.
I know the kids at the school,
they'’re human beings.
But to me they were just ciphers.
You know, that wasn'’t what I was focusing on.
That'’s awful to say but that is what it was like.
Although he said he never wanted to make friends,
he never wanted to be involved in anything, he did.
He was able to do all of the things
he wasn'’t able to do in the 1970s.
To make the friendships that he had,
to go on holiday with friends,
to taking the part in the school show.
You would want to keep under the radar
Not attract unwanted attention to yourself.
So...
taking the lead role in the school show
is bizarre.
Hiding in plain sight.
That'’s about the best place you can hide.
Brandon sang "“Younger than Springtime."”
He was almost taunting people to find out what the truth is.
I always looked youthful.
And I was an active dreamer of things
you can do to keep yourself young.
Taking a role in a school play
is a perfect fit for him,
because he was acting every day of his life.
It'’s as if you'’re living in a film.
He thinks he is the lead part in his own film.
So, this is the only footage that exists of Brandon Lee.
This is the video
of the school production of South Pacific.
I'’m glad somebody recorded it. This is cool.
Have you ever seen this before?
No.
Look, he'’s got two silhouettes. Talk about foreshadowing.
And here'’s Brandon
being called by Bali Ha'’i.
It'’s interesting
because when I see this... video.
I haven'’t seen it for a very long time,
I think he does look older.
I think he looks older.
Oh, the singing is rotten. It'’s just awful.
He'’s horribly off-key but it'’s so charming.
Oh, here we go.
"Younger Than Springtime." Oh, my goodness.
Oh, is this the kiss scene.
Oh, he was quite happy to kiss my hand.
From what I'’ve heard,
it was just a cheeky kind of peck.
My memory was,
it was...
It'’s quite a passionate kiss.
Oh, there'’s two!
He went back. He went back for another one.
How many nights did we do this for?
How many times did it happen?
I don'’t know.
An uncomfortable number because it'’s more than none.
E... That'’s just so weird.
I haven'’t looked at this film since, and it'’s...
It's what?
I haven'’t got words at the moment.
She was sixteen, right?
Over sixteen.
Nothing wrong with that.
- It's legal, eh?
Was it morally acceptable
for a thirty-two year old man to kiss a sixteen-year-old girl?
No.
But you'’re just a kid.
Well, part of you feels a bit...
Eh...
Icky.
That was a semi-uncomfortable
walk down memory lane, that was.
He must have really
wanted to be a doctor but...
That'’s not how... That'’s not becoming a doctor.
- No. - You don'’t stand on a stage
and kiss a sixteen-year-old girl to become a doctor.
He was playing Brandon Lee,
playing Lieutenant Cable,
playing a mediocre high school actor.
Whilst at the same time,
fooling absolutely everybody around him
uh, that he was a sixteen-year-old teenager.
One of the pleasures of teaching
lies in watching young people grow up.
and what did we see tonight?
Confidence, maturity.
Part of me thinks it genuinely is mind-control.
Because what is mind-control,
if it'’s not standing in front of hundreds of people
and convincing them that a thirty-year-old man
is a sixteen-year-old school boy?
Now, Brandon Lee,
I'’m delighted to say
he behaves and acts
as if he has been a pupil at Bearsden Academy
from the very beginning.
And we are delighted to have him.
That'’s the line.
I always thought that was a mythical line.
- What does he do? - Wow. Fabulous.
Look at Brandon'’s face.
He behaves and acts
as if he has been a pupil at Bearsden Academy
from the very beginning.
And we'’re delighted to have him.
I mean hindsights, we are all good with hindsights.
But, eh, it'’s one of those remarks which, eh...
have probably become quite famous.
The Brandon Lee saga has caused
considerable embarrassment for a number of individuals
and puts the system of recruiting secondary pupils
under the microscope.
By the time Brandon'’s story broke,
Mrs. Holmes had left Bearsden,
moved onto another school
and got a promotion to becoming a headmistress.
Meanwhile, Mr. Macleod went on TV
and said that it was him that interviewed Brandon
and let him into the school.
In front of me stood a very composed
articulate young man.
He arrived in this school with credentials,
impeccable credentials.
Birth certificate?
No,
but I'’ll believe you.
Mr. Macleod always accepted it
as his responsibility
as the headmaster.
So, that'’s not what happened?
No, Mrs. Holmes was saved by Batman.
And I thought, well,
if he'’s spent his life touring the world
with an opera singing mother,
uh, private tutoring,
then this kind of cosmopolitan manner
eh, was all part of the... part of the course.
The police coming in to my Mum'’s house.
There was no crime committed.
Technically.
Whatever your moral stance.
And certainly, my mother did nothing wrong.
She'’s already fainted once or twice in the house.
So, she'’s pretty upset.
Did she know he was at the school?
I have no idea.
Has this come as a surprise to her?
Apparently so.
I would appeal to you all, give her a break please.
She doesn'’t know anything.
There is no point in hanging about.
According to May Mackinnon,
Brian has said that the time he spent at Bearsden Academy,
was the happiest year of his life.
She went on to add
that thirty-two-year-old Brian was a fine son.
I can'’t put my finger on whether...
Brian'’s mum was involved in this or not.
I suspect that she wasn'’t.
I like to think that she wasn'’t
I also like to see the best in people.
If she knew that he was going back to school
to assume the identity of a sixteen-year-old child,
I don'’t think that would have happened.
I don'’t think she knew about it.
Did your mother know
what you were doing?
No, my mother was not made aware
of what was going on.
If he acted alone,
then it'’s one person who is
delusional, narcissistic and has...
maybe some issues around reality
and some issues around ethics.
If two people come up with something
then it becomes much more insidious
And it becomes a...
It just takes a slightly more sinister turn.
- Brandon/ - She came from a poor background.
The sort of people that live in Bearsden
are rich people.
Doctors, dentists, lawyers.
She wanted him to become a doctor.
She didn't see why he couldn'’t become a doctor.
It was his father'’s dying wish
that Brian should become a doctor.
And Mrs. Mackinnon said she'’d promised
that she would do all she could to help him.
If she didn'’t know,
who did she think you were
coming to the house to study for school?
Good question.
Good point. Good point.
Ehm, I suppose, yeah...
Now I think about it,
she must have been in on it and treated me like, you know,
one of Brandon'’s, Bri-- Yeah, Brandon'’s school friends.
I'’ve heard that...
that Brian told her that Brandon was a nickname
Okay, so if his nickname is Brandon, what'’s her nickname?
- - You met his Mum/ - Gran? - Yeah.
And he called her?
He called her Gran when I was there.
- He called her Gran? - Uh-huh.
And what did she say?
She went along with it.
So, hang on, the bit I don'’t get is,
if it was a death bed promise to his Dad
that made him come back to school,
how come his Dad died months after
he was back at school with us?
Good afternoon, Bearsden Academy.
How did you find out
that Brandon'’s father had died?
What came in was a call to the school office
from his grandmother, apparently.
Saying that his father had died
and she was sending a car to collect him.
Oh.
- So... oh. - Yeah.
So, his father was alive and well
at the time when he started school.
No.
- No, his real father. No? - No.
This is the made up one?
That wasn'’t his Granny calling.
That was his Mum calling the school
that she knew he was in.
Uh-huh, to say... So, she'’s... Oh, so she'’s... Oh!
So, she'’s complicit.
- Because she knew about it. - Fuck sake.
- Oh my God. - Eek!
Oh!
Hello, I'’m Brandon Lee'’s grandmother.
I'’m afraid I'’ve had some awful news.
Brian'’s mother would have done anything for him.
Brandon, I'’m sorry to tell you,
you'’re father has died.
Have you ever had to do that before or since?
No.
No, fortunately.
So, that'’s the only time you'’ve told a child...
- Yes. - ...that their parent has died?
How do you feel about it now?
I feel I don'’t know if it is true or not.
I don'’t know whether it was his father who had died.
Or whether it was some reason
to get out of school for something special.
I don'’t know.
I still don'’t know.
I fell behind in the study for...
a Physics class test.
So, I realized I'’m going to have to be sick that day.
It'’s just a class test, they'’ll let me off with that.
How do I get round it?
I see.
Right
That does seem
rather an extreme way of dodging a Physics test,
I have to say.
I think Brian and his Mum believed
they could do anything to get what they wanted in life.
They have common personalities in that respect
That they both think...
I don'’t know how to put it without going,
"They'’re both fucking mental."
Do you know what I mean? Like, how can I...
How can we say like, that they'’re both nuts?
His Mum was mental.
She was... That'’s where he gets it from.
Today, Brian Mackinnon'’s mother
told me that he was not at home.
It was unlikely he would give interviews,
given the lies that journalists have told about him.
When you get that attack in the press back in '95,
someone saying he has to sort out
his relationship with his mother.
So, effectively it'’s calling you,
forgive my language...
A motherfucker.
It was an obsession
with getting to be a doctor.
A thirty-two-year-old man who posed as a school boy
to get the qualifications needed to study for a medical degree,
has lost his place at Dundee University.
Universities are now insisting on all students
starting or re-sitting a first year,
presenting a birth certificate or passport.
So, Brian Mackinnon will not return to Dundee.
So that was him thrown out of Dundee.
And then the press had a field day, digging up
the first time he had been kicked out of medical school.
The doctors of 1980
studying at Glasgow University'’s world famous medical school,
gain practical experience.
Brian Mackinnon felt cheated
by Glasgow University'’s medical faculty
and he said they had robbed him of a chance
to become a doctor.
You have an institution
that is supposed to be an educational institution.
A university who will hold a press conference
to correct the public record
and tell nothing but lies.
This afternoon
the dean of Glasgow University'’s medical faculty said,
Mackinnon just wasn'’t good enough.
He was asked to leave after he had been given
every possible chance of succeeding,
even with a second year re-sit.
Eh, which he then failed to complete successfully.
Brian thinks
that the whole world is against him.
And that people don'’t want him to get a medical degree.
And that there are people
deliberately standing in his way.
What they did was presented
as bona fidè papers that were falsified.
Guys that are willing to do that, probably are...
you know, not big on conscience.
If there is no trust between a patient and a doctor,
then there is nothing left.
The fact that he has falsified papers
and has admitted to it,
rather calls his honesty into question.
What happened to Cheryl?
Sorry?
The girl he argued with on holiday.
She went to Dundee
after she left school
and did her degree there.
Competition for places on medical courses is fierce
and the question mark
hanging over Brandon Lee'’s future at the university
has resulted in a flood of queries
from people whose applications had been turned down.
It is a very popular course
We have twelve applications
for every place that is available.
And we should make it clear that eh...
all places are now taken.
What does Cheryl do now?
She'’s a doctor.
Cheryl is a doctor.
I always thought, well,
that he actually could have got away with this,
if he hadn'’t gone on this damn holiday with these lassies.
Ladies and Gentlemen, to whom it concerns.
It'’s the Late Late Show
and here is your host, Gay Byrne.
Would you welcome please, Brian Mackinnon.
He made the world headlines and I'’m not surprised.
Sit down, Brian.
- Brandon/ - I really think subconsciously
I wanted to be caught, you know,
because it was... it'’s so... it'’s such a disgusting
self-degrading feeling
to have to... to do something like that
to go under a false persona, a false, you know, identity.
I used to see him walking down the street.
He would turn around
and walk back up the road if he saw me.
I don'’t know whether he is ashamed or embarrassed,
or...
Maybe, I don'’t know,
maybe he just doesn'’t want to know me.
I'’d see him in the street.
But he looked quite disheveled and just a different person.
A completely different person from who he was.
Well, he was.
True, he was a different person, yes.
Good point.
Did you like being seventeen again?
No, I had no like for it at all.
My main feeling throughout the year was, you know,
God can'’t this be over.
I lost touch with Brian over the years.
I did hear that his Mum had passed away.
For real this time.
Ehm, and obviously I know he was very close to her
and that would have hit him really hard.
But you didn'’t feel that you were
almost flaunting the danger?
No.
Wasn'’t there an element of that in it?
No, absolutely not.
Look at me,
- I'’m thirty-two years old. - I was terrified. No way.
Yes, he was a liar.
Ehm, that'’s a very harsh thing to say but...
he was.
- Brandon/ There was a kiss required.
But I managed to get off with, with not performing the kiss.
If it was my children who were at school
with somebody who had pretended to be sixteen,
you would expect that he would have to account for it
in some way.
So... But then he didn'’t, there was no charges pursued.
Were there any ramifications? I would have put him in prison.
Although he hasn'’t done anything wrong, but he'’s lied.
He lied about his life.
You can follow your dreams
without deceiving people.
It'’s a story which is seemingly never-ending.
And he'’s still trying to gain entry into a medical faculty
at a Scottish University.
I want my career back.
I'’m still strong, fit, bright, sharp
and I'’ve got a lot to offer.
Maybe I can make a difference.
So, if I was lying in a hospital bed
and he walks in as the doctor...
If Brian needed to treat me...
I would probably allow that to happen
because I believe...
someone'’s personal life
shouldn'’t interfere with their professional life.
If professionally, he is a capable doctor,
uhm...
Depends what'’s wrong with me.
Nah, of course not.
No.
He fraudulently went to school...
And lied.
Do you know what?
I'd... I'’d give it a go.
- Would you? - Aye.
Aye, if he came in the room, whacked on the rubber glove,
I'’d be like that, do you know what?
This is where we'’re at
and I'’m just going to roll with it.
You'’re on your own then.
What does Brian do now?
I don'’t think he does anything very much now.
I mean, I don'’t think he works at all.
I'’ve seen him very often
walking along the road just up from the post office,
so I think he does a lot of walking.
It was maybe ten years ago
they pulled Bearsden Academy down.
They sold off the land
and built an estate of really expensive houses
called Academy Grove.
They named one of the streets in it,
Norman Macleod Crescent.
Brandon Lee, he behaves and acts
as if he has been a pupil at Bearsden Academy
from the very beginning.
And we are delighted to have him.
Mr. Macleod never got to see that though.
He died not even a year
after the Brandon Lee scandal broke.
I remember he always used to say to us
at the start of every school year,
"This is the most important year of your life."
This is your most important year.
It didn't matter what year you were in
This was your most important year.
I think what he was trying to say was
past is past and that'’s behind you.
The only thing you have the power to change
is what lies ahead.
Since school, ehm...
And I must also say
thanks to Brandon
and us studying together,
ehm, I went to study pharmacy.
I'’m glad that Brandon
was who Brandon was.
Because he made my school life
more bearable.
And if anything was different back then,
I wouldn'’t be who I am today.
- Thanks very much. - OK, bye-bye.
Was Brandon Lee a real person?
He...
Is there much of a difference between
Brandon Lee and Brian Mackinnon?
I mean, who am I talking to now?
Oh, you'’re talking to Brian Mackinnon, of course.
And the difference is simply a name.
All I can say is, what is a person?
Where is the castle?
There.
Dave McKinlay!
Coming up today in the studio, we hear from the man...
When you look at that photo of Brandon,
do you feel stupid?
It'’s odd because we did just accept that he was sixteen.
I know.
Yep.
Okay, so...
So did you, you mug.
Brian is still around Bearsden.
He is often spotted in the local library
on the computers.
I think I know what he is doing on them.
Brian is still applying to...
medical universities and stuff.
And it'’s... He'’s stuck.
If he feels that, you know,
I was destined for this and I'’m only going for this...
- Brandon/ I just want my medical degree.
I want to know, that I know, what I know.
Maybe a medical school dean somewhere
in an English, German
or Swedish speaking part of the world,
maybe they'’d think twice.
I feel given his notoriety,
it'’s highly unlikely
any medical school is going to allow him
to study medicine.
Unless he changes his identity again.
- Brandon/ - I still get glimpses of possible futures,
because... I have got tricks up my sleeve.
Why did he not let you film him?
Why does he not want us to see what he looks like now?
- Brandon/ When you have an adversary,
the thing you have to do, if you really want to prevail,
is do the unimaginable.
Do something that is just so out there,
that no one is even going to dream
that you would think of doing that.
I began to think
did he have some kind of cosmetic surgery?
Because it was a rather mask-like face that he had.
It was an unusual face.