Still Game duo bid to fend off the cold in new live show

● Jack and Victor back on the stage in politics-free instalment

Still Game favourites Jack and Victor are set to do battle with a big freeze – but their creators have promised their return to the live arena will steer clear of politics.

Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill have revealed that the Craiglang pensioners will find themselves struggling to stay warm in the latest instalment of the hit comedy.

They say the show, which opens on Saturday at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, will be set in “real-time” Glasgow, when people are struggling to stay warm and still paying off the cost of the festive season.

But while elements of pathos will be present, the pair have vowed to deliver to the fans “a show they can talk about for a long time to come”.

They have promised them a “holiday” from a political landscape totally transformed from when the first Hydro show was staged in September 2014 – immediately after the independence referendum.

Kiernan and Hemphill created six series for the BBC before a rift between the pair led to a seven-year hiatus for Still Game. The recordbreaking success of the initial Hydro run paved the way for Still Game’s return on TV last year. But Hemphill said they are under more pressure now.

He said: “Although we hadn’t done Still Game for seven years the last time, there was an enormous goodwill in the room. We had that luxury and people welcomed us back with open arms. This time we don’t have that. We have to work hard and make sure everybody is on their game. We’re our own harshest critics. We don’t want to put anything out half-baked.”

Kiernan said: “The last show was a reunion, this is more of a big night out. We’ve got a phenomenally faithful following. They’ll not be disappointed. We’ve gone out of our way to give them a show they can talk about for a long time to come.

“We’re doing it in real time. It’s February and the story is all about how Jack and Victor are dealing with the cold. It’s a really bad winter and they are trying to hatch some kind of plan to stay warm.”

Hemphill said: “We sometimes have scenes that are a little bit downbeat and drama-driven in the TV show, but when you come to a place like this you want to give people a good time from start to finish.

0 Still Game’s Greg Hemphill (Victor) and Ford Kiernan (Jack)

“While there are elements of pathos in there you tend to go go about them a little bit more light-footedly. We don’t want to surprise our upset everybody. It’s February, it’s bloody freezing, the Christmas bills are in, but people are here to have a good time.”

The new show will be unveiled weeks after the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House and while many Scots are coming to terms with the impact of the Brexit vote.

The first Hydro show was staged immediately after the independence referendum and deliberately avoided any mention of the result.

Hemphill said: “That was deliberate, because we wanted to bring people together. They had 18 months of debating with their family and friends. It was time to put it to bed.

“Things are changing so dramatically now. If you wrote something for the fourth of February by the time of the fifteenth it would be irrelevant.”

Kiernan added: “The whole thing about Still Game is it is a holiday to get away from all that nonsense.”