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Just One Thing inspiring change in Pentlands Club member Allister

(Allister second left with his wife and supporters and Roman Kemp far right)

It’s not everyday our Club members get to feature within a television show, but this was the case recently for Pentlands Club member Allister McKillop who was involved in a BBC series called ‘Just One Thing’.

Allister was the star of the episode alongside presenter Ronan Kemp, where they focused on the physical and mental wellbeing benefits of ‘Easy exercise’ – a form of exercising without strenuous activity involved.

The programme was broadcast in March 2026, and is available to watch here until early March 2027.

We caught up with Allister to find out about the experience of being part of the programme and how he has been inspired to bring the exercises to the Sporting Memories Club.

More on Allister

Allister has been part of our Pentlands Club for several years alongside other local activities and initiatives such as Dementia Friendly sessions and Men’s Shed. He was diagnosed with Autism in his early life and also had a passion for cycling, until a few crashes on the bike dented his confidence.

That lack of confidence meant Allister had not cycled for many years, which had put a toll on his physical and mental wellbeing. So when he found out about being part of a programme which might help him get back into exercising, he took the chance, right away.

“I received an email through my Men’s Shed involvement asking if I knew of anyone who might be interested about being part of a TV programme that was focusing on mental health. I thought it might be something good so asked a few mates from the groups I’m a part of and replied that I did indeed know some possible candidates”

“But after speaking with the production team, I was surprised that they ended up only focusing on me.”

Lights, Camera Action!

It was then time to film the programme!

The filming began with Allister at his home, before he was asked to do some filming at later stage with presenter Roman Kemp – who Allister admitted he didn’t know before welcoming in his house to film.

“I had only found out about 20 minutes before filming with Roman as to who he was! And there he was doing his stuff outside the house and all the neighbours were out agog! We didn’t tell them anything because we weren’t allowed to talk about it.”

“The director then said: ‘Roman’s ready for you now. just stand back and open the door.’- And that was it and was totally unscripted for me. I had no idea what to do. They wanted me to be genuinely surprised, so, the first time I met Roman was when he rang the doorbell!”

Allister went on to detail the filming process and the involvement of his wife Anne and friends.

“The first three days was just me getting filmed. Seven hours a day near enough”  

“We were filming for about two weeks in total and long hours for me. And we had about two days with the group of supporters who were my wife Anne and my friends Linda from The Meeting Place and Ali from the Men’s Shed.”

“We went to Calton Hill and the bowling venue which was all good fun. There are times where you do strange things for certain shots for the programme and then there are points where you are all chatting along and you forget about the filming. It was an enjoyable experience.”

After the filming was complete it was then time to wait for the editing process before the programme was aired in March 2026.

The impact of being part of the programme

Allister reflected on the impact that being part of the ‘Just One Thing’ series has had on his physical and mental wellbeing, including slowly introducing him back into his passion for cycling.

“I mean, I’ve lost two stone, believe it or not since starting the exercises. I wasn’t in a mentally very good place beforehand and I love exercise - so I was missing that. If you’ve watched the whole programme, you’ll know the issues and that helped me get across that mental blockage. And now I’m back on the bike. Indoor at the moment. I’m not that confident yet, but my daughter and son are going to take me out on the road soon.”

The exercises and lessons learned from the programme will also be brought to the Pentlands Sporting Memories Club too by Allister.

“We’re going to do it (the exercises) at the Club as well. We’re going to show the programme at our upcoming sessions and hopefully get my fellow members inspired to be a bit more active. And the best part is the exercises are very easy to do and straightforward. You can master them very quickly and they do work, so it’s just about giving everyone the confidence to try them at Sporting Memories and at home.”

A huge congratulations to Allister and everyone involved with the programme – we hope it inspires more people to become active through easy exercise!