David, best known to UK television audiences as Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Walker in Linda La Plante's long running Trial and Retribution series, has agreed to follow in the footsteps of other Scottish actors such as Blythe Duff and Gwyneth Guthrie by taking on the role of chieftain for this year's event, which takes place on Saturday, August 21.

Away from the small screen David has become a well-known figure on Bute through his ongoing association with Spirit Aid, which he founded in 2001 and which is now a fixture of life on the island through its work with young people in Malawi and at home in the UK.

The charity has gone on to become one of Scotland's most successful small scale humanitarian organisations, and David spends several months each year visiting its relief projects.

He has also made several visits to Bute to talk to the island's young people at Rothesay Joint Campus, where pupils have chosen Spirit Aid as their charity partner and where a huge range of fund-raising projects have been undertaken in the last few years.

Those projects will move to a new level later this month when a group of teachers and pupils from Bute leave to spend 16 days in the village of Mulonde.

A group of Malawian teachers will also be making a return trip to Bute later in the summer.