With T2 hitting cinema screens this week, now is the perfect time for a refresher course on all that was disturbingly brilliant about the original.
So, let's get down to work...
1. The first 20 minutes of the original film was re-dubbed for the US as viewers couldn’t understand the Scottish accents.
2. The infamous Crosslands Pub where the brawl scene took place is now a hipster bar. The facade is now covered by wooden panels and a black question mark as its logo.
3. Ewen Bremner, who played Spud, claims that the original Trainspotting film brought the skinny jean into men’s fashion. The actor spoke in an interview with Time Out explaining how the costume designer Rachel Fleming “basically invented” the men’s skinny jean. She would re-stich women’s jeans and cut men’s jeans to create “that whole movement”.
4. The horrendous toilet scene in the original was actually filmed using chocolate mousse.
5. The author of the novels, Irvine Welsh, appears in a cameo role as a drug dealer.
6. Kelly MacDonald who played Diane had no experience in acting before taking on her role. Director, Danny Boyle, wanted an inexperienced actress to portray the 15-year old.
7. Ewan McGregor had to lose two stone to play the role of drug-addict Renton.
8. The film was shot in just over seven weeks and due to the low budget, the actors only had one take for many of the scenes.
9. Johnny Lee Miller who played Sick Boy, was the only non-Scottish actor in the main cast.
10. The title 'Trainspotting' was chosen because Irvine Welsh saw similarities between trainspotting and drug addictions. Boyle explained that the two activities are things that “only the people who indulge in that pastime truly understand”.
