ALL the great actors will tell you that timing is everything in their profession, and yesterday Brian Cox, one of the very best that Scotland has ever produced, said timing would be everything for the next independence referendum.

Appearing at Alex Salmond... Unleashed at the Edinburgh Fringe, Cox said the Brexit vote meant indyref2 was inevitable, adding that now was the time for the Yes movement to “get our act together”.

The Hollywood A-lister, who flew in specially for the occasion, also spoke of his decision to take on the role of Winston Churchill knowing that members of his family detested the former MP for Dundee.

He has been tipped for awards for his performance in Jonathan Teplitzky’s film Churchill, which follows the Prime Minister’s attempts to get D-Day postponed.

“Churchill was a great man and was liked in Dundee through most of the First World War, but the Dardanelles campaign (also known as Gallipoli) and his use of the Black and Tans in Ireland cost him the support he had in the Irish community in Dundee,” said Cox.

Salmond revealed that he had once told a newspaper his own uncle hated Churchill for his conduct towards the miners during the general strike of 1926. He said: “The papers ran with the story that my uncle had said Churchill should have been hanged for what he did.

“I apologised to him but he replied: ‘Did I not tell you that hanging was too good for that man?’” Cox also criticised President Donald Trump for being “out of control”, while Salmond revealed that he had thrown letters from Trump about his Scottish golf courses on the fire because they were so annoying.

Salmond said: “He would send me overnight letters, this was before he discovered social media, with press clippings highlighted and on them he would write ‘read this’.

“I would get these letters and I have to tell you that after a while, I just threw some of them on the fire.”

Cox said Trump’s recent press conference following the Charlottesville racist riots had been disastrous. “He completely lost control, he was just out of it,” he said. To loud applause, the actor then predicted Trump might “not serve the four years” – the length of a presidential term.

Cox and Salmond agreed that Brexit was “a juggernaut heading over a cliff” and the actor went on to say that leaving the European Union made the second independence referendum inevitable, but the timing of it would be crucial.

Cox said: “Brexit is misguided, but unfortunately we have been caught in the middle and we need time to get our act together. We need time to regroup and get our act together.

“We will get it together but it really is about the timing, it’s about finding the right moment that we can go to another referendum. I think Brexit is going to be such a disaster unfortunately, but we will benefit from it.”

Salmond defended the SNP government’s handling of the General Election campaign. He said: “When Nicola Sturgeon put the referendum issue to the Scottish Parliament and got it through, she wasn’t to know that Theresa May was going to go up a Welsh mountain and have a brainstorm and decide to call an election. Now we have to wait and see what Brexit will do.” In a charity auction, a member of the audience paid £1000 to have dinner with Cox and Salmond, and the actor, who has been diabetic for many years, asked that the money go to the charity Diabetes UK.

Salmond later paid tribute to Cox and the artistic community, saying: “Brian and all our creative artists made such a difference to the first referendum and I am sure they will do so again when the next referendum takes place.”