CREDO

Latin. (n) ‘I believe’. A set of beliefs which influences the way you live. Actress Jane McCarry is just as mischievous as her Still Game character Isa

Actress Jane McCarry shares the same wicked sense of humour as her muchloved Still Game character Isa

I grew up in King’s Park in Glasgow.

I always liked dressing up and putting on shows in the garden for the kids who lived round about, but I never thought of it as being a career.

My first job was at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.

It was a play called The Guid Sisters, which I’ve since done with the National Theatre and The Lyceum. We went to Montreal in Canada for a month, then toured Scotland; I got my Equity card from doing that. There was a great cast – we had Dorothy Paul and Ashley Jensen, who has gone on to do brilliant things.

When I wanted to have kids, I didn’t think I’d be able to carry on acting.

You get these different wee theatre jobs, and I wondered how I would be able to tour about for three months or so at a time. I went to Jordanhill, to do my teacher training for teaching in secondary schools and was 30 when I did that. I thought I should be serious and grown up. I didn’t want to give up but I wanted to be able to pick and choose more. When I was younger, I went with the flow.

Still Game came about after doing a BBC Scotland Comedy Show called Pulp Video.

Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill were in that. There was a gang of us, but when Ford and Greg got together, there was a kind of magic. In the Still Game pilot, there was a different actor playing the barman, then after that, it all came together and they got the chemistry right. We had all known each other from way back, we all made each other laugh, and we could see that when playing the characters. There was a love between the characters, because we had that as friends.

The strangest place I’ve ever been recognised was in a sexual health clinic.

I was going in for the coil – not an STD – as you get referred there. The janitor saw me on the way in. I went in, just before it closed, and was told to get up on the bed, drawers off, legs akimbo, up in the stirrups. There was a knock on the door, and a voice called ‘Jane!’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m through here,’ and the janny came in. It turned out the doctor was also called Jane and he had thought the clinic was finished, and there I was. Thankfully, he didn’t ask for a selfie.

Sometimes people tweet you, saying, ‘I saw you in the street, but I didn’t come up,’ and really, they’re lovely.

I’ve never had anyone being unpleasant to my face and I’ve only ever had one nasty person on Twitter. I had a look at some of the other tweets she’d sent. She claimed I had been in Boots and was horrible to the customer service girl. I hadn’t been there, and I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone in customer service, and if I had, I wouldn’t speak to someone like that. Either she confused me with someone else, or she was just telling lies to try and get a reaction from me. She was vile about everything.

I don’t think I’ll be a well-behaved pensioner.

I’ve never behaved all my life, so why would I start then? I never behaved as a child, I never behave when I’m working, I haven’t behaved the way I should as a teacher. My own parents and my parents’ friends never acted like older people. They were always such fun and liked a carry on. I think for all of us on Still Game, we all had role models like that, so we played the characters not as you would expect pensioners to be.

‘I don’t think I’ll be a well-behaved pensioner. I’ve never behaved in all my life, so why would I start then?’