The knot of autograph-hunters outside the stage door after 10pm told the story: this was no run-of-the-mill Saturday night concert by Scotland’s national orchestra. And terrific though the solo contributions of guest leader Hannah Perowne, first cello Betsy Taylor, pianist Lynda Cochrane and traditional musicians Fraser Fifield (whistles) and Lorne MacDougall (pipes) had been over the course of the evening, the fans were not waiting for them.

The performance celebrated the work of a Scottish composer, but the presence of two screen stars, Richard E Grant and Peter Capaldi, was crucial in filling the house with their contrastingly charming ways, the former engagingly vulgar from his first utterance, the Scotsman characteristically droll, even with his laboured Doctor Who gag.

Although their individual personalities shone through, the pair wrote little of their own script. That, like the music, was provided by Lanarkshire’s Patrick Doyle, celebrating his 70th birthday by having a couple of famous friends relate his adventures in the screen trade, the RSNO play selections from his film scores, and his family share the limelight on stage as well as filling a fair share of the seats in the auditorium.

The Herald:

Doyle’s music has soundtracked a varied programme at the multiplex and the concert covered a lot of ground, from his early association with Kenneth Branagh to work with directors Ang Lee, Mike Newell, Grant himself on the autobiographical Wah-Wah, and Brian De Palma, and on box-offices hits including Bridget Jones’s Diary and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Daughters Abigail and Nuala added vocals and some family reminiscences, and Mairi MacInnes provided the Gaelic singing on a selection from Gillies MacKinnon’s remake of Whisky Galore.

Five years ago, Celtic Connections marked Doyle’s 65th birthday with the BBC SSO, and two pieces from that concert, the Scottish Overture and Corarsik, written as a gift for actor and writer Emma Thompson, were repeated here, while the programme was brought up to date with a reprise of the march he wrote for this year’s Coronation of King Charles III.

The composer, typically, had a wry tale of his first meeting with the monarch to go with the performance, and there is, beyond doubt, a lot more anecdotage where that came from. As conductor Dick Brosse joked, he expects to be back on the podium in Glasgow in 2033 to mark Doyle’s 80th. The remark got a laugh, but you’d be very foolish to bet against the truth of it.