Alasdair Hutton worked as a radio journalist in Australia, as a print journalist for The Age newspaper in Melbourne, and then as an announcer for the BBC in his native Scotland.
He was a volunteer paratrooper for 32 years with the British Army, and later swapped his parachute for a longbow as a Member of the Queen's Body Guard for Scotland, which accompanies the Queen on her public ceremonial duties in Scotland.
He left broadcasting to go into politics and was a member of the European Parliament for ten years. He is now narrator of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Convenor of the Scottish Borders Council.