Â鶹Éç

As the battle over reaches its climax - and no-one seems keen to predict an outcome - developments continue apace.

Today, two pensioners put their money where their mouths are, donating tens of thousands of pounds towards their favoured scheme - the £14m arts centre planned for the gardens by Peacock Visual Arts.

But Sir Ian Wood's £140m civic square has its supporters too - with a £5m donation from an anonymous businessman over the weekend.

Meanwhile, singer Annie Lennox is relying on the power of the pen by writing to every single councillor with a say in Wednesday's vital vote on the future of the gardens.

'Techincally difficult'

Describing herself as a "former resident who retains strong links with the city", she said allowing Sir Ian's plan to go ahead would amount to an act of civic vandalism and urged the council to listen to its electorate who voted against the scheme in a recent consultation.

And adding further fuel to the flames, at the annual convention of the Royal Incorporation of Architects, members were asked to vote on their preferred scheme, with all 122 architects present voting for the Peacock arts centre, and against the civic square plans.

Their professional view is that the civic square scheme is "technically difficult and financially draining" as well as leading to the loss of an important breathing space in the centre of Aberdeen.

And anyone who thinks the finances can be eased by combining the two schemes is in for a shock.

The Scottish Arts Council has today written to the councillors to put paid to the suggestion that their offer of £4.3m to the Peacock scheme can be simply transferred to the Civic Square project, if it includes an arts centre.

Last chance

Iain Munro, the co-director of Arts explains that the investment only applies to the specifics of the Peacock project, and because it's lottery money, is time sensitive.

He says: "It would be unrealistic to expect our current financial commitment to be held indefinitely and transferred to an as yet undetermined project.

"Unless of course it is the intention that Peacock's current plans become an initial phase of redevelopment and can be delivered quickly."

After several years of stand-off, that seems an unlikely outcome.

And with the money already on hold for 18 months, and the Scottish Arts Council due to morph into Creative Scotland in a matter of weeks, this could be the last chance for the Peacock plans.

Not many people turn down the offer of a high profile death scene from the director Ridley Scott.

But when Charlie Allan was asked whether he'd agree to be the extra killed off by a strongbow shot to the eye, he had his doubts.

"He killed me off in Gladiator," says Charlie,"so I didn't mind that but I was thinking, if he kills me off, what happens if there's a sequel?"

And Charlie, whose towering presence and massive beard means he won't fool anyone if he returns from the dead, has more reason than most to want to be in the sequel.

As chief executive of the Clanranald Trust, which he and some friends set up a decade ago to promote Scots heritage and culture, film work has become an important source of revenue.

They've appeared in almost 100 films - everything from battle recreation sequences for tourist bodies to big movies such as Braveheart, Gladiator and Robin Hood.

And the money they make is ploughed back into their work, specifically at the moment, the medieval fort they're building in the Carron Valley.

it's a far cry from the glamour of Cannes. money's tight so most things are done by hand, whether that involves scraping bark from poles, digging trenches, or building a palisade around the site.

The harsh winter pushed everything drastically behind schedule and the volunteers, and employment placements are struggling to play catch up.

But if all goes to plan, Charlie and his team hope to open Duncarron Fort for business in the summer of next year.

Their vision is of a hands-on visitor experience, part educational, part tourist attraction.

One of the stone houses would be in a constant building state to demonstrate the techniques and processes.

It would be available for weddings and events, and of course as a film location.

It's all come neatly full circle already, with a film company from Ireland expressing interest, even in its current unfinished state.

And the Trust have just taken possession on an unusual souvenir of their latest film.

Spurred on by Russell Crowe, who as well as starring in the film, is one of the producers, they were in the process of asking the props department for a massive battering ram.

The £60,000 prop, created specifically for the film, had been nicknamed Rosie by all on set.

"Then Russell comes up next day," says Charlie," and he says, I've sorted it. and I said what? And the penny dropped. He'd got Rosie for us. He was so pleased, he was dragging me across by the sleeve, saying 'look, she's all yours'."

Rosie arrived in Scotland earlier this week and is being stored at a secret location but it's hoped she'll be the centrepiece at an open day at Duncarron Fort later this summer.

And that the generous benefactor will drop by in the near future to see how the whole project is going.

John Barrowman is a big fan of pantomime. You can tell, from the fact that he bounds out to a gathering of media, and children from his old primary school, in full glittering panto costume.

And it's only May, for goodness' sake.

Barrowman has made appearing in panto something of a tradition. This is his sixth, but the first in Glasgow, and the biggest pantomime promoters Qdos Entertainment have done anywhere.

Their 3D Aladdin will play to 3,000 people a night in the Clyde Auditorium, which with 46 performances, means they have a whopping 138,000 tickets to sell.

No mean task in a country like Scotland, with a long tradition of pantomime, and audiences loyal to particularly theatres and performers.

Qdos managing director Michael Harrison knows that better than most. Just a few years back, he was director of the King's panto, starring Elaine C Smith and Gerard Kelly. Now in a spot of poacher turned gamekeeper, he'll be hoping to win over some of those panto fans.

Partly, he believes, that'll be down to the show's scale - and its 3D technology. We're given a sneak preview at the launch, and it's pretty impressive, perhaps even better than the cinematic version, with volcanic rocks spinning through the audience, spiders dangling over our heads and bats flapping through the auditorium. Barrowman is even upstaged at one moment, by a brazen 3D genie.

Barrowman, they promise, will also fly over the audience on a magic carpet.

But the show also employs more traditional weapons - the Krankies for example, who'll return to the Glasgow pantomime stage for the first time since Jeanette Krankie was seriously injured in a pantomime at the Pavilion.

Don't underestimate the following they command in panto circles, and I'm told their tribute to Subo, seen on stage in Wolverhampton last year, is likely to make a return.

But it's homecoming boy Barrowman, who the promoters believe will be their most important weapon in selling out the show before the summer is over (they started selling tickets last December).

His previous shows in Birmingham and Cardiff broke all previous box office records, and with a forthcoming appearance as a villain in Desperate Housewives, a new series of Tonight's The Night, made here in Scotland, and two pantos a day from December 11th, it's going to be a busy year.

And as he posed for photos with pupils from his old school - Mount Vernon Primary - he was quick to point out that it was there it all began.

"I used to line everyone up in the playground," he said, "and I'd say, you're all appearing on Opportunity Knocks and I am Lena Zavaroni."

If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by politics and simply want to sink into a good book, there are worse places to be than St Andrews and St George's West Church in Edinburgh, where the annual Christian Aid book sale gets under way from Saturday.

Since it began in 1974, the sale has raised £1.8m pounds for charity.

With 100,000 books on sale, it's not just one of the biggest, it's also one of the most eclectic.

This year's offerings range from a rare edition of Hans Christian Andersen fairy stories - familiar tales like the Ugly Duckling alongside less familiar ones like The Galoshes of Fortune - to an 18th Century travel book whose description of Edinburgh, penned in 1776, says: "The view of the houses at a distance strikes the traveller with wonder; their own loftiness, improved by their almost aerial situation, gives them a look of magnificence not to be found in any other part of Great Britain."

Mary Davidson, the sale's organiser, was asked by a friend to sell books for Christian Aid week in 1974. she made £800.

Now, people bring books to her all year round and it's not unusual for the British Library and the National Library of Scotland to buy works for their own collections.

Dr Reid Zulager, who has a PHD in Scottish literature and history from Edinburgh University, travels from his home in Washington DC every year to help with the sale.

"This year, we have everything from a 1591 imprint of Pliny the Younger, all the way to signed firsts," he says.

"We even have a collection of much of Alan Sillitoe's work in translation in many foreign languages, perhaps of note given his death last week.

"This really is an event for any bibliophile in the UK - and so much more than simply a book sale."

And it's not just books - this year's sale includes a number of donated paintings and etchings. Among them, three etchings by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, patron of the 2010 sale.

Although there are works by male artists, it's the women who dominate with works by Jennifer McRae, Lynn McGregor, Joyce Gunn Cairns, Bet Low and Mabel Royds.

The sale, which is closed on Sunday, continues through Christian Aid Week until 14 May.

Thank you to the Traverse in Edinburgh who point out that they're making their own contribution to the political landscape this week with a guerilla theatre event.

Gordon Brown: A Life in Theatre imagines the sleepless night before the election as the prime minister considers what has been, and what's yet to come.

The Traverse says it is less political satire than surreal biography and with David Greig, Rona Munro, Peter Arnott, Vicki Liddelle, Gabriel Quigley, Andy Duffy, Alan Wilkins and David Ireland all contributing, and scripts being written right up to election day, it'll certainly be an interesting way to while away the hours as you wait for the results.

There'll be two performances on 6 May: at 1pm and 9.45pm, with election results shown after the later performance in the Traverse Cafe bar.

The Traverse's artistic director Dominic Hill says it's simply following in the Scottish theatre tradition of responding to events in the political world.

"All theatre is political in that it is about what affects us, the way we live our lives, our position in society and the world."

Things have come full circle for Mr Brown too. Once a board member of 7:84, now a legitimate subject for Scottish playwrights.