BROADCASTER, writer and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli has returned to Scotland after 20 years to "bang the drum for independence".

The Glasgow University law graduate and secular Sikh says he plans to play a high-profile role in the Yes campaign. Kohli believes Scotland is not getting a fair deal from the current constitutional settlement.

"I'd like to have been around at the time of the Act of Union," he said. "I'd like to know what it was that made us think it was good idea. I get the impression that we entered that agreement on more equal terms than we find ourselves with now."

Kohli, 44, brother of actor/writer Sanjeev of Still Game fame, is a familiar face from BBC documentaries, quiz shows and radio shows. He wrote, directed and starred in Channel 4 sitcom Meet The Magoons and appeared on the likes of Question Time and Children in Need before landing the role of roving reporter on The One Show. He is set to appear next month in a one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe titled Hardeep Is Your Love, in which he reflects on romance in middle age.

"I left Scotland for London because that's where all the work was. Now, I've moved back to Scotland and I'm not sure I'm going to return to London. For me, Edinburgh is architecturally the most beautiful city in the world and Glasgow is the best city in the world."

Of the Yes campaign, he says: "It's not about creating a country, it's about restoring a nation."

In 2007, Kohli lost out to former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy in the race to become rector of his old university.