STILL Game legend Greg Hemphill has revealed he’d bring the hit show back “tomorrow” but said “sometimes these things are better left alone”.
Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill from Still Game
Still Game legend Greg Hemphill has revealed he’d bring the hit show back “tomorrow”.
But the 55-year-old said it’s not just up to him and “sometimes these things are better left alone”.
Thanks to Netflix re-runs and social media clips of the funniest moments Scotland’s most successful sitcom has never really gone away since it came off air in 2019 after nine series.
Still Game became a comedy phenomenon after making its TV debut in 2002.
Greg has since become a poster boy for wild swimming and is back on our screens this Hogmanay with sketch show Queen of the New Year. Fellow Still Game creator Ford Kiernan, who played Jack Jarvis to Greg’s Victor McDade, now hosts a podcast.
But the pair are still in business putting their characters’ name to a range of alcohol and merchandise.
Greg admitted they are always looking for something else to do together – but find it hard to follow up such a well-loved show.
He said of Still Game: “We speak all the time. And we did bring it back. We were so grateful to come back and do three more series and the live Hydro shows.
“So who knows? I’m 55 and my character is 75. It’s one of the magical things about it.”
And the writer, actor and director revealed a spooky coincidence and wondered if there could be something more in the air.
In January it will be 27 years since the pair got together to do Chewin’ The Fat with fans hoping there could be a celebration for the sketch show’s 30th anniversary.
Chuckling Greg said: “I was stood in the supermarket yesterday and there was a guy in front of me I thought looked familiar. And it was Ford.
“It was so curious. I hadn’t seen him for a few weeks and there he was in front of me.”
Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan in Chewin’ the Fat(Image: BBC)
The pair became national treasures with Chewin’ The Fat running until 2005 and Still Game which began in 2002, until after series six in 2007 the show looked like it had run its course.
There were claims the pair had fallen out but they insisted it was burnout and they got back together with the original cast including Paul Riley as Winston, Gavin Mitchell as Boabby and Sanjeev Kohli as Navid.
After the ninth series and almost 50 live shows at the Glasgow Hydro the team apart from Boabby faded away in the controversial final episode. But the show about pensioners in fictional Craiglang is baked into Scotland’s psyche now.
Greg said: “I’ve heard a few people saying Still Game has become this comfort blanket.
“I’ve heard people saying they use it to go to sleep which sounds like an insult.
“But it’s actually really sweet because it must be reassuring and a comfort for some people which is one of the biggest compliments which I could ever get.
“And I’ve heard foreign folk saying when they arrived in Scotland someone gave them a Still Game DVD to help them understand the culture and maybe the accent.”
A Still Game legend is gearing up for a different role as they prepare to host their own radio show(Image: BBC)
Greg is also creating a new tradition – following on from the likes of Scotch & Wry and Only An Excuse? with Queen of the New Year which has become a Hogmanay must-watch.
Together with Robert Florence, best known for Burnistoun, who also wrote sketches for Chewin’ The Fat, the pair write and collate jokes for the annual look at the year’s news with a Scottish twist.
This year they’ll poke fun at Katy Perry’s space trip, Spider-Man in Glasgow and, of course, Scotland’s qualifying for the World Cup.
Greg said: “It’s a showcase for new talent who haven’t had a lot of experience. We’ve new writers and great new perform-ers like Ayo Adenekan, Betty Valencia and Katie Barnett.
“Robert and I write, curate the writing and pop up from time to time but we don’t like to take up too much of that real estate.
“The sketch format is a young person’s game. I’m 55 with a bald spot and a beer belly.”
He and Robert get together in September to start writing for the show deciding what stories need slagged.
This year though they had to take a “wonderful” Hearts joke out about being top of the league – but had to pull it when Celtic staged a fightback under Martin O’Neill, worried the Jambos might not be top when the show aired on Hogmanay.
Greg laughed: “It looked like they weren’t going to be top when Martin O’Neill came in but then Wilfried Nancy came in and it looks like Hearts will be top of the league for Hogmanay. We can pull jokes up until mid-December then it’s very difficult.
“It’s one of the fun challenges for a show like this.”
And while he laughs off suggestions that it is in the same league as the likes of Rikki Fulton just yet he is hoping Queen of the New Year will be an annual show for years to come.
Queen of the New Year 2025, Hog-manay, BBC One Scotland at 11pm.