Back when watching hit TV programmes was something people generally did at the same time, Still Game felt like a weekly event.
In the early years of the BBC Scotland sitcom, it was the very definition of must-see television.
That was equally a term that fitted any description of Chewin’ The Fat, the side-splitting sketch show created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill that ran on and off from 1999 to late 2005.
The Craiglang crew
Among the most memorable characters created in the series were Jack, Victor, Tam and Winston, the growing-old-disgracefully Glasgow pensioners who’d be at the core of Still Game, first broadcast in September 2002.
Now, 20 years on, five of the stars of the Comedy Unit series are set to celebrate the fictional world of Craiglang during a short run of stage appearances.
Coming to Dundee’s Whitehall Theatre next weekend, People Huv Tae Know! – a popular battle cry of Still Game gossip Isa Drennan – will give fans an opportunity to enjoy an audience with Gavin Mitchell, Paul Riley, Sanjeev Kohli, Jane McCarry and Mark Cox.
Those five played the comedy’s barman Boabby, Winston Ingram, shopkeeper Navid, Isa and Tam Mullen respectively.
A crowd-puller
Of course, Still Game has form as a stage crowd-puller, having originally started life as a play that featured the Kiernan and Hemphill-played Victor McDade and Jack Jarvis, alongside Winston.
Then there was Still Game Live, the phenomenally successful 2014 SSE Hydro-based laughter-fest that sparked the programme’s TV return in 2016 following a nine-year hiatus.
Glasgow-raised comedian and writer Kohli, 50, was in Dundee recently to promote the Still Game quartet’s upcoming tour, and insisted that playing venues in Dundee, Arbroath and Aberdeen would be as apt on a personal level as any hometown show.
“Loads of people have asked me if Greg and Ford based Navid on a specific person,” he said.
“What they’ve seen is what I call the phenomenon of the Asian shopkeeper, when they go to poor areas and serve the community. We’re like the Scots of India, telling stories and jokes.”
Strong Dundee links for Still Game star
The River City actor, who has strong ties to Dundee through his father, who lived in student digs in the city’s Blackness while training to be a teacher in the ’60s, said he expects next week’s Whitehall dates to be as much a night out for the actors as the audience.
“It’s five pals that met in Still Game and are still pals,” he added. “We were all lucky enough to be involved in such an iconic show – I can say that objectively because I’m also a fan.
“We all knew each other from working on other shows like Chewin’ The Fat for about 25 years. The Scottish acting fraternity isn’t huge, so you tend to bump into the same people.
“Being involved in the show and the affection of the show means that we have a load of stories to share. It’s great to see so many people still loving the show and knowing all the catchphrases.
“The show is on Netflix and people who weren’t even born when we started filming watch it now.”
- People Huv Tae Know! whitehalltheatre.com November 4-5 and Webster Theatre, angusalive.scot November 13.
