Delight as Still Game stars back in the old routine
JACK and Victor are still game and having as much fun as ever as the hit comedy series returns to our screens after a nine-year gap.
Last night some 400 fans packed into a Glasgow cinema for a special preview of the first new episode of Still Game, to discover that FordKiernanandGreg Hemphill, who play Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade, remain a compelling double act.
In all, 25,000 people applied for tickets to the event at Cineworld.
Hemphill told the audience that a great deal of work had been put into the new series.
He said: “We wanted to make sure the scripts were ‘bang on’ so we spent a lot longer on the scripts.”
The stars discussed how the show had become a global hit thanks to its distribution on the streaming website Netflix, andthecasthaveeven received fan mail from around the globe.
Sanjeev Kohli, who plays shopkeeper Navid, said: “People say is it as good as it was. It’s actually better and that is just from the two episodes I’ve seen.”
He added: “I feel like the show never went away.”
Kiernan, the writer, added: “Everybody was desperate to get back.
“It sounds like a cliche but it’s a cracking vibe.”
The first episode of the new six part series, which goes out on BBC1 next month, revolves once again around the residents of the fictional Craiglang estate in Glasgow
The two main stars show little change to their attitude of growing old disgracefully.
The opening show is about Jack and Victor being unable to resist the temptations of a catalogue’s innovations that promise to “make life that wee bit easier”.
It swiftly becomes apparent to the pensioners that the gadgets on offer are not as reliable as they seem to be.
The softer side of the BBC comedy also comes through in a parallel storyline that focuses on the brother of supporting character Winston (played by Paul Riley) returning home.
Jane McCarry, who plays the estate’s resident gossip Isa, Mark Cox, who plays Tam Mullen, Gavin Mitchell, who plays Boabby, also took part in the Q&A, which was hosted by presenter Janice Forsyth.
Demand for the return of Still Game increased after the cast took to the stage at the SSE Hydro for a mammoth run of 21live shows.
Hemphill admitted that these live performances gave the team the confidence to come back. He said: “I think it would have been worse if we hadn’t done the show at the SSE Hydro. We would have been much more nervous. That was like a buffer.
“Evenwhenwewere writing that show, we went into the BBC and said we felt like we had some more stories to tell.”
The cast were also asked by a member of the audience if Still Game: The Movie was a possibility.
But Kiernan dismissed any hope of a big screen debut saying, “It’s a difficult area, films. It’s a big worry and you don’t want to get it wrong.
“Films are getting quiet, Netflix are what people are using.”
The TV show gained sitcom status in 2002.
Still Game’s first episode, entitled, Gadgets, is on BBC1 at 9.30pm on Friday, October 7. See Saturday’s Herald Magazine for the story behind the new series of Still Game