Starry-eyed lovers

TWENTY seven years ago, Elaine C Smith was a teacher. And her job took her to union meetings in Edinburgh. But one night as she waited outside the hall for a meeting to commence, Elaine was "hit by a thunderbolt".

"This creature walked up the stairs and I was stunned. Excited beyond belief I said to my pal Who's that?' "Bob Morton,' she replied."

"And I was in love. He didn't notice me at all though, I learned later. At least not until I spoke at a meeting and I was funny.

"At the end of the night a big group of us went to the pub for a drink. We didn't talk to each other but when Bob heard I needed a lift home he offered to take me, in spite of the fact he lived on the other side of Edinburgh.

"I thought I'm in! He's daft about me! And so I invited him in for coffee, which went well and we chatted away."

But then the unthinkable happened.

"As he left he shook my hand. A handshake! Here was this man I was instantly in love with and he shakes my hand like I'm his bank manager."

Any romance looked dead in the water, not helped by the fact that both were seeing other people at the time.

But then events took a turn. Elaine split up with her boyfriend, and she heard that Bob had a pal in a band who was looking for a singer.

Hopeful singer Elaine called Bob to talk about perhaps joining the band. But she knew in her heart that this was a golden opportunity to connect with the love of her life.

"I phoned, and was all eager and excited to hear his voice. This was the big chance for him to ask me out on a date, this man I adored. And I just knew it was reciprocated and he'd been waiting desperately by the phone for my call."

In her dreams.

"What Bob actually said was Look, I'm watching Blake's Seven. Can you phone back?'"

Elaine was devastated, but came to appreciate a man's passions can be confusing to the fairer sex, even if they involved dodgy sci-fi shows with cardboard sets and wooden acting.

"So I did call back, and we arranged to meet for coffee to talk about the band. It went well, but at the end of it the swine again shook my hand."

But Elaine persisted.

"A friendship developed, even though I was totally daft about him. Meantime he told my pal Anne he thought I was quite a woman' and I held onto that line.

"Gradually, one night, romance struck."

The couple married and now have two girls, Katie and Hannah.

"Like every couple we have to work at marriage but it's great," says Elaine.

"We've been through a lot together." CITY OF LOVE SEASON: Showbiz writer Brian Beacom hears the stars recall their moments of true romance JAMES MCAVOY AND ANN MARIE DUFF ACTING brought James McAvoy and wife Ann Marie Duff together.

The pair starred in Channel 4 drama Shameless as screen lovers before becoming entwined off screen. James denies that it's difficult for relationships that begin on set to be sustained in everyday life?

"No, I don't think so," says the film star.

So there's no danger of getting your emotions mixed up with those of the characters you are playing?

"That can be confusing," admits the Last King of Scotland star, "but it can also be a very exciting on set.

"You're in an institution that creates itself in a week, then maintains itself for three or four months and then disperses.

"And it becomes a very close thing and it's very easy for passions to be magnified. And that's brilliant."

But it's not him.

"I don't think Ann Marie and I would still be together if that was the case." JOHN MICHIE AND CAROL FLETCHER TAGGART star John Michie has a packet of crisps to thank for meeting the love of his life, Carol.

Carol, who is the mother of the couple's three kids, is a former dancer with TV's Hot Gossip.

"We met when I was filming an ad for Walkers Crisps," recalls John.

"She was a dancer and I really fancied her. So I offered to take her to rock n'roll dancing, which I could do a little bit, having learned previously in France.

"So we danced and I was knocked out. And I loved her whole attitude. Carol is the daughter of a northern coalminer and this was really attractive to me.

"Having been to boarding school and rejected the elitist attitude I was never going to marry a high society girl, I had to get out of that social milieu.

"And meeting Carol was perfect. The relationship worked right from the start. We haven't got married but Carol got pregnant fairly quickly and we just kept on having kids."

Life in the early days was a struggle for the jobbing actor, with a family to support.

And then Taggart came along and changed all of their lives.

"I spend six months of the year in Glasgow, and in the Glasgow flat I have a poster of Carol from her Hot Gossip days.

"It's a constant reminder of the fantastic girl I've got at home." COLIN MCALLISTER AND JUSTIN RYAN JUST six years ago, Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan were described as budding TV stars'.

You couldn't use those words about them now.

They have become one of the most popular duos on television and are much in demand, having done a number of successful series.

They have also been pioneers in that they were the first gay couple to present a show on British TV.

Justin and Colin met more than 20 years ago in a Glasgow night-club and have been together ever since.

A few years ago Justin said: "We are a couple, we have been since we were 17 and 18, and I assume we always will be. We are inextricably linked. Our lives are intertwined around each other." GREG HEMPHILL AND JULIE WILSON NIMMO THE course of true love didn't run smoothly for acting couple Greg Hemphill and Julie Wilson Nimmo.

"I kind of stalked Greg," revealed a giggling Julie.

"He was in a comedy group called The Trio Brothers and they played at the Old Athenaeum and I totally fancied him but he never noticed.

"I used to sit on the steps outside the drama school and I'd pretend to be smoking so I had an excuse to be there just to see him.

"It wasn't until years later I told him I'd been stalking him. He said he liked me but he thought I was really weird and a bit hyper."

She laughed again. "I was always a bit tomboyish. I was the one at drama school who didn't have a boyfriend. But then I saw Greg's eyes and that was that."

Romance blossomed when they went on to work together on a radio comedy and then the TV sketch series Pulp Video.

The couple married in September 1999 in the gambling capital of Las Vegas. They were actually married 1000ft up in a hot-air balloon floating high above Sin City. ROBERT CARLYLE AND ANASTASIA SHIRLEY ROBERT Carlyle's wedding in December 1997 to Anastasia Shirley was highly romantic.

They married at the stroke of midnight in the Great Hall of Skibo Castle, the exclusive, up-market hotel in Sutherland.

There were just 33 invited guests, and the party continued well into the wee small hours.

The couple met on the set of Cracker, where Anastasia was working as a make-up artist.

They now have three young children.

Robert has described his marriage as "a big part of me".

"I really need Anastasia. We help each other a great deal," the maverick actor has been quoted as saying of his wife.

"She's more pragmatic than me. She's taught me an awful lot in my life, such as how to handle myself with dignity.

"She's better than me in the sense that she says: This is fine, this is what's happening.' But she can certainly see when things are going wrong." KELLY MACDONALD AND DOUGIE PAYNE THE scene: the top of the Empire State Building. The year: 2001.

The views are little short of stunning, but Kelly Macdonald and Dougie Payne have their mind on other things.

Dougie has gone down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

As Kelly recalled later: "I didn't know quite what to say, but yes' seemed to work."

The actress and the Travis bass-player grew up a few streets apart in Glasgow, but didn't meet until they both were in London.

Their first date - "Just a normal one," said Trainspotting star Kelly - had been to a pub.

The couple got married in August 2003 at Castle Lachlan, on the shores of Loch Fyne, in Argyll.

Kelly recently won an Emmy award for best supporting actress in a TV movie, for her role in The Girl In The Cafe, opposite Bill Nighy.

Dougie and his Travis band-mates are poised to release their latest album shortly.