The 30-year-old man who posed as teen and went back to Scots school was Jackie Bird's biggest scoop

dailyrecord.co.uk:

It is BBC anchorwoman Jackie Bird’s most famous interview and, even today, she finds the story of the man who almost got away with living his life over again utterly compelling. Brian Mackinnon was 32 when he returned to his old high school and fooled classmates and teachers into thinking he was a Canadian teenager called Brandon Lee to fulfil his dream of going to university and becoming a doctor.A quarter of a century later, the story is being told in the film My Old School written by a former classmate and starring Alan Cumming but whose voice is actually that of Mackinnon himself. Pursued by the world’s media, Jackie was the first person he spoke to after his double life was exposed. Here, she remembers their extraordinary meeting.We broke the story on Reporting Scotland that a chap had gone back to his old school years later and posed as a pupil.It was truly jaw-dropping.

Very quickly the whole world wanted the story. Journalists were flying in from everywhere, particularly the USA.People wanted to see him and hear him speak.

They wanted to know how he pulled it off and persuaded the school that he was 16 when he was really 30-odd.Thanks to a lot of negotiations behind the scenes, we persuaded Brian to tell his story in a documentary, The Lives Of Brian.Throughout the whole saga, he always wanted to be the man who told his own story.The problem was at that time the media was following him everywhere he went.I knew of a hotel in Tighnabruaich in Argyllshire that would be the last place you would expect to find a media fugitive.They agreed to put Brian and I up with a TV crew.

We even booked in under assumed names.The only problem was the hotel receptionist, who hadn’t been told.Her jaw dropped when Brian walked in