Alastair was born in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. In 1961, when he was seven, his family – Alastair, his parents and older brother – took an assisted passage to New Zealand. They sailed on the Rangitoto via Panama, with stops in Curacao and Tahiti. Mutiny On The Bounty was being shot in Tahiti during their visit. Alastair remembers being shown on board the Bounty. “I didn’t get to meet Marlon Brando, though.”