Dame Edna Everage isn't playing possum on Scottish independence.
The television and stage superstar – or gigastar, as she likes to say – said she is "very glad" Scotland is to consider leaving the UK in a referendum next year.
The lady with the wisteria-hued hair, elaborate spectacles and outsize ego, the most famous creation of actor and comic Barry Humphries, was in Edinburgh yesterday enjoying being in "Caledonian parts" and promoting her final stage tour, Eat Pray Laugh!, which comes to the capital's Festival Theatre this autumn and Glasgow King's Theatre next year.
Dame Edna said: "Scotland cares for Dame Edna and Dame Edna cares for Scotland. And I must say, I am very glad Scotland is leaving England and joining up with New Zealand."
The fictional housewife superstar, created by Humphries, 78, in the 1950s, declared herself a fan of Glasgow and its architecture, as well as one of its most famous restaurants.
"I know very well Glasgow is the graveyard of English comics, but I can tell you it is not the graveyard of the Australian," she said.
"Glasgow audiences are opinionated, they are a little bit more lively than Edinburgh audiences, who like to think about things before laughing. Glasgow audiences are more relaxed.
"I think Glasgow is a city of great beauty, I love its architecture – the bits you have left – and it is, in its Victorian beauty, not unlike Melbourne.
"So I will have a walk around its streets, its Mackintosh buildings and its tea rooms. I will go to the Ubiquitous Chip and eat in there.
"You will see me in your local shop, you local grocers, I will be around to hear the local gossip."
The tour will also feature another of Humphries' creations, Sir Les Patterson.
"I can give you this an exclusive to The Herald," she said. "I have no script, I make them up as I go along. It is a shame I have to share the show with Sir Les, he is a leech and a parasite."
Dame Edna said she was sad to be leaving the stage but it was time to move on. Last year, Humphries, whom Dame Edna calls her manager, said: "the fact of the matter is I'm beginning to feel a bit senior. It's the best aerobics you could do, leaping around on stage, but it's gruelling."
Humphries is returning to television in a new comedy set in the First World War. He will play a headmaster at a school where three men remain in England rather than fight on the western front, in the Sky show Chickens.
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