[1] He was educated St Modan's High School in Stirling, followed by the University of Edinburgh, where he studied Philosophy and English Literature.
After the Standard stopped publishing he held a number of jobs in the Scottish press.
During four years in the Far East he mixed news coverage with making films for Newsnight and The Money Programme and Assignment.
Despite strenuous attempts to learn Japanese, the nearest he got to fluency was with cab drivers after an evening in the bar.
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