Still Game is a Scottish sitcom created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill and produced by Effingee Productions, the Comedy Unit and BBC Scotland. Kiernan and Hemphill play the lead characters, Jack Jarvis, Esq and Victor McDade, two Glaswegian pensioners. The characters first appeared in the pair's previous TV sketch show Chewin' the Fat, which aired in Scotland for 6 years from January 1999 until December 2005.
Following its debut on 6 September 2002, 62 episodes of Still Game were aired, including Christmas and Hogmanay specials; in addition, numerous live performances were produced. The first three series were broadcast exclusively on BBC One Scotland, though five episodes selected from the first two series were later broadcast throughout the UK on BBC Two in January and February 2004. From the fourth series onwards, Still Game was broadcast across the UK on BBC Two.
After series six had aired in 2007, the production of Still Game ended due to Kiernan and Hemphill experiencing burnout; the Scottish press initially reported rumours that a feud between the two had occurred, but they have since denied this. They eventually returned to write and star in the seventh series, which debuted in October 2016 on BBC One. It was announced on 13 July 2018 that a ninth and final series would be produced, which would see the characters go into "comedy retirement". The final series premiered on 24 February 2019 as one of the first programmes to be broadcast on the brand new BBC Scotland channel.
Still Game was acclaimed by audiences and critics, and is considered a classic in its native Scotland. In a 2020 poll, readers of The Scotsman voted Still Game as the best Scottish television programme of all time.
History
Still Game started as a stage play featuring three characters: Jack Jarvis, Victor McDade, and Winston Ingram. Due to a broken lift, the three men are stuck in Victor's flat and discuss a variety of subjects ranging from death to sex. The stage play toured Scotland, England, Ireland and Canada before returning to Glasgow, where the show was filmed at the Cottiers Theatre in 1999 and released on video on 22 November 1999. A DVD of the show was later released on 2 December 2002. It is available on YouTube, as of January 2022. A small number of revisions accompanied Still Game'''s transition from stage to television. Gavin Mitchell, who originally played Winston (and was replaced by Paul Riley for later performances), played the part of Boabby in the series. Characters mentioned in passing were later fleshed out into supporting characters.
In 1998, Jack and Victor appeared in a number of skits in a tongue-in-cheek documentary about Scottish pop music called Och Around the Clock. In these, they are shown to be watching while sitting in Victor's flat. Their skits centred on the duo's disparaging comments about the performers. The characters reappeared in Kiernan and Hemphill's sketch show Chewin' the Fat, nearly every episode of which featured Jack, Victor, Tam and Winston, with minor differences from their counterparts in the series. By the time Still Game became a show in its own right Winston's physical appearance had changed significantly, but he was still played by Paul Riley. As the show evolved, supporting characters assumed greater prominence. Jack and Victor made their final appearance on Chewin' the Fat in the 2002 Hogmanay Special.
For the show's first three series, the broadcast of Still Game was limited to BBC One Scotland. The show was then moved to BBC Two for the fourth series and shown throughout the UK. On 28 December 2005, the first Christmas special was shown on BBC One, the first UK wide broadcast of the show on the channel. A fifth series of the show started filming in February 2006 and was shown the following June on BBC Two. As of 2006, series three had not been shown across the whole of the UK, and only five episodes from the first two series were shown on BBC Two from 17 January to 14 February 2004. The second series was shown UK wide from 10 July 2008. This meant it was listed as a new series in TV listings, even though it was not new for Scottish viewers. In the first three series, the episode titles were all Scots words that were related to the episode. Starting from series four, the episodes were titled using standard English, so that international audiences could understand them.
The events of Still Game take place in a floating timeline where the characters remain the same age from series to series. One of the most prominent examples of this is that Victor reveals that he is 74 years old in "Scran", an episode of the second series, but it is not until the fifth series ("Smoke on the Water") that he celebrates his 75th birthday. The sixth series of Still Game ended on BBC Two on 23 August 2007. A Christmas special was aired on BBC One Scotland on 23 December and for the rest of the UK on BBC Two on 28 December. There was also a Hogmanay special called "Hootenanny" aired on BBC One Scotland, later aired to the rest of the UK on 2 January 2008.
Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Paul Riley's company Effingee Productions is thought to have split up after Riley walked away to go it alone after being refused more control over the future of the company by Kiernan. Hemphill stated that he didn't want a "boardroom battle". The split ultimately resulted in the indefinite hiatus of the series. In 2012, Gary Miller acquired the rights to the original stage play of Still Game and, working with producer Kenny Boyle, the show toured, with a new cast, to The Tron theatre, FTH theatre, and The Ayr Gaiety Theatre. The original play had not been staged for 14 years. Kiernan and Hemphill came to see the performances and consequently began considering reviving Still Game officially.
On 15 October 2013, the Daily Record ran a front-page story that the show would be returning. On 23 October 2013, Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill announced details of live shows entitled Still Game Live at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow at a press conference. They were scheduled to perform four shows beginning in September 2014, but due to high demand, it was extended to 16 and then 21 shows. On 24 October 2013 Kiernan confirmed in the Daily Record that the tour of the original stage show had been one of the instigating factors for Still Game's return. The 21 shows at The Hydro ran from 19 September 2014 until 10 October 2014, played to 210,000 fans and made £6,000,000 in ticket sales. The show received mixed reviews. In November 2014, a special sketch featuring Jack and Victor visiting the set of River City was made for Children in Need. The sketch also featured a cameo of a director, played by Still Game director Michael Hines. On Hogmanay 2014, BBC Scotland showed a documentary celebrating the show titled Still Game: The Story So Far. The programme featured interviews with the cast, celebrities who have appeared on the show and super fans, including a look at some favourite moments.
On 12 May 2016, the BBC announced that the show would return in 2016 with a six-part seventh series, nine years after the previous series concluded. Filming of the new seventh series started in the summer; the series began airing on 7 October 2016. The show's return attracted its highest ever overnight audience for a single episode on 7 October, taking a 58% share of the Scottish TV audience with 1,300,000 viewers. The show also aired for the first time on BBC One across the UK nationwide and drew a total audience of 3,200,000. The show's floating timeline manifested itself in even more extreme ways than in the original run; for instance in the episode "The Undrinkables", it is revealed that the now-childless Tam and Frances are only celebrating their second wedding anniversary, while Fergie and Sinead have only been married a year in the episode "Small Change", despite the pair marrying in the fifth series episode "All the Best", a full ten years previously.
As an acknowledgement of his role in bringing about the revival, Hemphill and Keenan wrote the part of Walter Ingram, Winston's long lost brother, especially for Gary Miller. In September 2016, a second live show Still Game Live 2: Bon Voyage was announced for the SSE Hydro. The second stage show was to run for ten nights beginning 4 February 2017, but in October 2016, a further five performances were added. Unlike the previous live show, this show was not televised or recorded in any other way.
On 16 March 2017, it was announced that an eighth series has been commissioned to air on BBC One with plans to broadcast towards the end of 2017. The series was pushed back to start on 8 March 2018. Before the start of the eighth series, Hemphill revealed that he and Kiernan were about to start writing the ninth series and had planned a third and final live show afterward. On 13 July 2018, the BBC announced that Still Game would return for the ninth and final series later in 2019. Filming for the ninth series started in August 2018 and was completed on 14 September 2018. The third and final SSE Hydro live show Still Game: The Final Farewell was officially announced on 1 November 2018, with five shows in September 2019 taking place over three days. A further 5 shows were announced on 2 November.
In August 2024, it was announced Still Game would be back as a comic book, with the first volume releasing in September.
Series and episodes
Series Airdates Channel Series 1 6 September 2002 – 11 October 2002 BBC One Scotland Series 2 28 March 2003 – 23 May 2003 Series 3 7 May 2004 – 11 June 2004 Series 4 22 July 2005 – 26 August 2005 BBC Two 2005 Christmas Special 28 December 2005 BBC One Series 5 19 June 2006 – 24 July 2006 BBC Two 2006 Hogmanay Special 31 December 2006 BBC One Scotland Series 6 12 July 2007 – 23 August 2007 BBC Two 2007 Christmas Special 23 December 2007 BBC One Scotland 2007 Hogmanay Special 31 December 2007 2014 Live at the Hydro 7 November 2014 Still Game: The Story So Far 31 December 2014 Series 7 7 October 2016 – 11 November 2016 BBC One Series 8 8 March 2018 – 12 April 2018 BBC One & BBC Two Wales Series 9 24 February 2019 – 28 March 2019The first episode aired on Sunday 24 February 2019, the opening night of the new BBC Scotland channel, with subsequent episodes being shown on Thursdays, the last episode in the series being aired on Thursday 28 March 2019. BBC Scotland
Cast
Main cast Ford Kiernan as Jack Jarvis Esq. Greg Hemphill as Victor McDade Paul Riley as Winston Ingram Mark Cox as Thomas "Tam" Mullen Jane McCarry as Isa Drennan Sanjeev Kohli as Navid Harrid Gavin Mitchell as Robert "Boabby the Barman" TaylorThe episode "Fresh Lick" refers to his alter ego as Troy the Gardener, a porn star in his younger days.
Recurring cast Shamshad Akhtar as Meena Harrid James Martin as Eric "Auld Eric" Jones Paul Young as Hugh "Shug" McLaughlin Jake D'Arcy as Peter "Pete the Jakey" McCormackThe episode "Cauld" refers to his name being Pete Tain, however, in "Recipe" his name is McCormack. Matt Costello as Stevie "The Bookie" Reid Lynne McCallum as Peggy McAlpine Sandy Nelson as Chris "The Postie" Armstrong Kate Donnelly as Frances Mullen Maureen Carr as Edith Jamie Quinn as Derek "Fergie the Ned" Ferguson Scott Reid as Michael "Methadone Mick" Doherty Marj Hogarth as Fiona Jarvis Mary Riggans as Sadie Bruce Morton as Ian Duncan Sheathing (and Doctor in previous episodes)
Production