CHAMPION Helensburgh stone-skimmer Alex Lewis is set to feature in a prime time slot on the country’s newest TV channel next week.

Alex’s story will form a key part of ‘Sink Or Skim’, a new documentary on the efforts to transform stone-skimming from a beach holiday pursuit to a fully-fledged, and fully recognised, sport.

The 30-minute programme had originally been earmarked for broadcast in the late spring – but it will now form part of the schedule on only the second day of the brand new BBC Scotland channel.

The documentary will be shown at 7.30pm this Monday, February 25.

READ MORE: Helensburgh stone-skimmer Alex is British champion - again!

The former Lomond School pupil, who was crowned British stone-skimming champion in 2017 and smashed the All-England Stone Skimming Championship record with a throw of 95 metres last year on his way to winning that title for the first time, told the Advertiser: “I’m not really nervous about appearing on TV – but I’ve been warned I’m likely to be contacted by a lot of journalists straight afterwards!

“Hopefully the programme will be the thing that really helps get stone-skimming off the ground.

“It was originally going to be aired in May, but it’s fantastic to see the transmission being brought forward to a prime time slot on the second day of the new channel.”

Monday’s documentary will also feature another Scots stone-skimmer, Dougie Isaacs from Blairgowrie, who holds the stone-skimming distance world record with a throw of more than 122 metres.

Alex’s exploits have been featured extensively in the Advertiser over the last two years – most recently when he announced last August that he hoped to bring a major stone-skimming championship, featuring some of the world’s best skimmers, to Helensburgh, using the skating pond at the top of the town for the event.

READ MORE: Alex aims to bring world's best stone-skimmers to Helensburgh

The idea attracted a mixed response from the Helensburgh public, some of whom voiced concerns over the impact on wildlife at the pond, but it has been backed by west of Scotland MSP and Helensburgh resident Maurice Corry.

Alex added a second British championship title to his trophy cabinet last summer, having earlier clinched the All-England crown with a throw 12 metres better than that of his nearest challenger at Windermere in the Lake District.

The new BBC Scotland channel launches on Sunday, February 24 at 7pm. It can be found on Freeview and Youview at channel 115 (HD) and channel 9 (SD), on Sky channel 115, Freesat channel 106, and Vigrin Media channel 108.

Re-tuning will be required on some Freeview receivers only. Other TV platforms will update automatically before the new channel launches.