WRITER Ian Rankin has claimed Scots are the most perverted people on the planet.
Addressing a large audience at an event in Edinburgh, the crime novelist said Brits are among the most perverted people in the world – and Scots are the worst of the lot.
His surprising outburst came as he introduced a showing of Hitchcock’s 1954 classic Rear Window last night [Tuesday].
Rankin – whose Rebus novels are noted for the rarity of sex scenes – told the audience that the films’s appeal was in its voyeuristic nature.
In the movie James Stewart plays a wheelchair-bound photographer who begins to suspect a neighbour of murder after spending hours watching him through his studio window.
Stewart’s character spends seven weeks spying on characters with a telescopic lens as they move around their kitchens and bedrooms, and is accused of being a “peeping tom.”
Speaking to the Edinburgh audience before the screening, the 55-year old said: “You’re in for a treat.
“The thing about this film is, it’s going to prove to you that you are a pervert – everyone in the cinema is a pervert.
“We’re all perverts – every human being is a pervert – and British people are more perverted than most, and Scots are more perverted than most British people.”
He told an amused audience: “This is a film about voyeurism, and we’re all voyeurs. And what this film does is it says to you it’s okay to look at people and study their lives.”
Rankin has admitted that he has found sex scenes “really hard to write.”
In a recent interview the author said he felt relieved when an editor asked him to remove a sex scene from his third Rebus novel.
“I’m not keen on following Rebus into the bedroom, either,” he admitted.
Not content with branding Scots as the biggest perverts on Earth, Rankin also asked the audience to pose for a picture to “piss off Phil Jupitus” – who was due to introduce a showing of Terry Gilliam’s 1985 classic Brazil last night (Wed).
“Before we begin I’m going to ask you all to wave at me so I can piss off Phil Jupitus”, he jibed, before posting a picture of the audience to Twitter.
