Lovesick's Daniel Ings on why he's fallen for Glasgow big time
The actor reveals the cast's favourite places to hang out while filming the hit Netflix sitcom
Daniel Ings isn't shy about declaring his ardour for Glasgow, the home of cult comedy Lovesick.
"I love Glasgow. I instantly fell in love with it when we filmed the first series," says the actor. "If it was a little bit closer to London, I would live there in a heartbeat."
Lovesick is about a group of 20-somethings who share a flat in Glasgow's West End and struggle to navigate their way through their love lives. There have been three series to date (all available on Netflix).
"We’re usually there for about eight weeks in May and June, which is long enough to get to know a place a bit," says Ings, who plays feckless Luke and also plays a friend of Prince Philip's in The Crown. "It's a second home."
"What I like about Glasgow is it has this energy. There's a vibrancy to it because it's a student town and obviously Glasgow School of Art is there, so there are all these interesting young people making cool art and music. It feels like a young place in a good way. There’s a lot of great music and art and film going on there.
"And Scottish people in general are just so open, friendly and charming."
Ings has also fallen for the Glaswegian accent. "My impersonation of it is horrendous – as the entire crew of Lovesick will tell you – but I do it anyway. I have a really annoying habit of just parroting people’s accents back to them, which is not meant to be rude. It’s meant with love!"
So will be returning to Glasgow this summer to film a fourth series of Lovesick?
"Unfortunately I can’t say because I don’t know. It’s a possibility in the sense that there hasn’t been an indication either way. We all really enjoy doing the show for sure."
If you're lovesick for Lovesick, why not check out some of the cast's beloved haunts. Ings shares his favourite places to eat, drink and boogie...
The Lovesick guide to Glasgow
1. In Finnieston, there’s a road called Argyle Street that has a bunch of bars, restaurants and cafes, including a whisky bar called Ben Nevis which I absolutely love. We spend a lot of time drinking and eating there because the food is also great. I’m a big whisky fan and obviously Scotland is the motherland. We consider ourselves connoisseurs by the end of the shoot. There’s also a great gin bar called The Finnieston on Argyle St. It's a really vibrant part of town.
2. Kelvingrove Park is one of my favourite parks in the entire world. It’s beautiful and there’s an amazing walk you can do along the River Kelvin to the Botanical Gardens and butterfly santuary. There’s an episode in series two where we do a walk and talk all the way through the park. It also has a cool outdoor gig venue – the Kelvingrove Bandstand and Amphitheatre.
3. When I'm filming, my wife and my kids come up too. I always stay in the West End. Last year we stayed on Woodside Terrace, which is this beautiful terrace overlooking the edge of Kelvingrove Park.
4. We filmed the third episode of series three in a great bar called St Luke’s, which only opened about a year ago. It's also a gig venue. In fact Johnny Flynn, who plays Dylan in the show, is also a well known musician and played a gig there in October completely by coincidence.
5. There’s also an episode set in the Barrowlands in series two, which is this incredible rock venue with an old market. We filmed a bunch of real market-sellers doing their patter. A couple of weeks after we were up there, they held the 6Music festival there.
6. We'd just had our second child when I did the last series, so I didn't get to hang out with the cast and crew much. But we spent a lot of time hanging out together when we filmed the previous series and on Friday and Saturdays nights we'd go to Nice N Sleazy. It's a club and music venue and absolutely amazing. The Buff Club is another awesome haunt that we filmed in this time around. It was bizarre seeing a place you’d been out in during daylight hours. It was a bit gross, actually.
7. Crab Shakk is very popular with the cast. We eat there a lot. If you want traditional Scottish food and haggis, there's a great place called Stravaigin.
8. There’s a cool vegan bar called The 78 on Kelvinhaugh Street, which is where my wife and I stayed when I was filming the second series. So we used to eat and drink in there all the time. I’m not vegan, but about six months ago I became a pescetarian.
9. My two-year-old son absolutely loves the transport museum at Glasgow Harbour – it’s called the Riverside Museum. There’s a big sailing ship where you can scrub the deck and things
10. The cool thing about Glasgow is you can be out in beautiful countryside in 20 minutes and Loch Lomond is only about an hour’s drive.
11. In the third series, we filmed in a beautiful B&B at the foot of the Campsie Hills half an hour to the north of Glasgow – Finglen House. It's supposed to be the home of Dylan's parents. When our crew packed up on Friday night, my wife and I stayed on for the weekend with our kids. Sabrina the host was wonderful.
