More of me & Isa? I’m Game for that..
Chatshow host insists he was so smitten by guest role on hit comedy that he’d love to do it all it again
CRAIG Ferguson thought he’d just have to put talc in his hair and don a cardigan for his cameo in tonight’s series finale of Still Game.
Instead, he found himself shivering in a canal as part of a storyline which sees him romancing Craiglang busybody Isa.
But he loved his stint on Still Game so much that he hopes Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill will write a spin-off for him and Jane McCarry, who plays the local gossip.
Craig takes on the role of Callum Coburn, a Craiglang native who found success as a Hollywood stuntman.
He said: “I do remember being in the Forth and Clyde canal at one point and thinking, ‘Ford and Greg had said to me, ‘It’s easy. You just put some talcum powder in your hair and wear a cardigan and you’ll be fine.’
“And there I was standing in a freezing canal and I thought, ‘Well, this has got a wee bit out of hand.’ But I loved it and it was so funny.”
Craig, 55, and Jane, 48, got on so well that he is hoping to come back as Callum.
He said: “I’ve said to Jane we should do a Still Game spin-off of Callum and Isa: The Golden Years.
“It would be like Frasier, which was the spin-off to Cheers, of course. There are people in charge of that kind of thing and I don’t get to choose but can you imagine?
“I think it would be lovely and I certainly would think about that.
“Jane was fantastic. When I turned up on set and met this rather glamorous actress who wasn’t yet transformed into Isa, it was amazing.
“She’s a spectacular actress. I really loved working with her.
“I would love Callum to return. I would do it in a heartbeat to work with these guys again.”
Craig’s own career mirrors his Still Game character. He was born in Springburn and grew up in Cumbernauld. He left school at 16 to work as an apprentice electronics technician before teaming up with Peter Capaldi in a band called Dreamboys in the 80s.
The future Doctor Who inspired Craig to get into comedy and he branched into acting and TV presenting.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1994, finding success on The Drew Carey Show while writing and starring in films including Saving Grace.
In 2004, he began hosting The Late Late Show and was anchor for 10 years before James Corden took over in 2014.
Still Game is his first British TV show for 25 years.
Craig explained: “I’ve been in America for 23 years but I’ve been back in Scotland for a lot of that time too.
“What I stopped doing was working in Britain but I’ve continued to come back to my home in Ayrshire. I spend a lot of time here.
“The first time I came back to work was in 2012 when I brought my Late Show over to Scotland. I loved it so much that I thought, ‘I’d like to do more’. “Wherever my family are, that’s my home. My hometown is Glasgow, of course, but I don’t know what ‘home’ is any more.”
But he couldn’t return permanently to Scotland because his life is in America.
He’s been married three times and has two sons, Milo with second wife Sascha, and Liam, with current wife Megan, who he married in 2008.
Seen as a trailblazer for Scots breaking America, Craig admitted his time in the States has been a “mixed bag”.
He said: “Some of it’s great and some of it’s tough but it’s where my life is.
“My kids are American, my wife’s American, my life to a large extent is American and certainly I pay my taxes in America so it is what it is.
“I’m grateful to have done well. It really changed my life going there.”
He met Ford and Greg – who play Still Game leads Jack and Victor – when the pair were in Los Angeles writing the eighth series.
Craig said: “I had been a fan of Ford and Greg from the days of Chewin’ The Fat.
“I ran into them in LA and I said, ‘You could at least write a part for me.’ Greg said, ‘Well, it turns out there is something we’re thinking about...’
“A couple of months later, Greg texted me and said, ‘We’ve written you a part – are you interested?’ and I said, ‘I’m in.’
“I signed up before I even read it because I trust them and thought it would be fun. And I was right, it was.”
Although he’s only 55, Craig revealed: “I was alarmed at how easy it seemed to be to turn me into a pensioner.
“The costume and make-up were like, ‘There you are, we’ve combed your hair and here’s
your tweed jacket … off you go.’ I thought, ‘Really, that’s it?’ Craig joins a list of star Scots such as Robbie Coltrane who have guested in Still Game since it began in 2002 but none got their hands on Isa. As the pair grow closer, she has to fend off competition from gooseberry Edith. But as romance blossoms, Isa faces a crisis of conscience. Although she’s been widowed for years, she still feels uneasy about taking things further with Callum. Craig – who has a radio show and will be touring the US and Canada in the autumn – described his Still Game experience as “delightful”. He said: “I refuse to do things that I’m not crazy about. I’ve reached this nice place where I do it if I feel like doing it. “It was strange because after the first hour I felt like I’d been doing it for years.
“I knew a lot of the crew, people I’d worked with in the BBC ages ago, so it felt very comfortable. I haven’t loved doing a job as much in years.”
And if he could be any Still Game character…
Craig said: “I think it would be Boabby. He controls the alcohol in Craiglang and I think that means he controls a lot of what is going on.
“He’s the gatekeeper to the pub and that’s a very powerful position to be in. And he has a fantastic mullet!”
Craig knows exactly why Still Game’s success is evergreen.
He said: “It has a lot of heart but it’s not sentimental.
“Scottish people in particular, they like heart but don’t like sentiment. James Joyce said ‘sentimentality is unearned emotion’ and he’s right.
“The emotion in Still Game is a real thing but it’s not clouded in sentimentality and I think that’s good.”
Still Game, tonight, BBC1, 9.30pm.
I signed up before I read it because I trust Ford and Greg CRAIG FERGUSON ON JOINING THE CAST