An authority on vintage television continuity, Alison was born in the Thames/London Weekend region but spent most of her life in the HTV West region before adopting Glasgow as her home. Her contribution to Butcher Boy involves mumbling, knocking things over, and generally making everyone else's job more difficult. She puts her artless handling of keyboard instruments down to the fact she has poor co-ordination and surprisingly small hands.

As well as playing with Butcher Boy, Alison performs with Garry under the name All My Friends, sings in a chamber choir called The Madrigirls and, for reasons best known to herself, is trying to learn Icelandic.

Alison secretly dreams of being a magician's assistant and would like to hear from slightly villanous conjurers. This is not a joke.