Gig review by Jay Richardson at the SSE Hydro, Glasgow

The original Still Game stage show played to more than 200,000 people over 21 nights and just about sustained the balance of embracing the theatrical potential of the enormous Hydro venue with retaining the cosy warmth of a sitcom that's beloved north of the border.

Unsurprisingly, creators Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill have learned some things from their 2014 experience, with the show's second live outing for the evergreen Jack, Victor and friends more assured in walking that tightrope.

The two pensioners might dismiss flash and spectacle as obscuring the true, kitchen sink dramas of real people. But happily they haven't reckoned on the egos of Tam, Winston, Isa, Navid and Boabby the barman, who all claim a pyrotechnic display, acrobatic set-piece or loud rock entrance for their introduction.

The vision of Isa wielding her mop like an Amazon, sparks fizzing from the end, or Tam foiled in his Evel Knievel-like swagger, establishes a baseline of big, cartoonish silliness that recedes into the background, but can always be revived for a fantasy sequence or injection of clownish energy.

What comes to the fore instead is the storytelling, adhering to the age-old formula of transforming a sitcom into a film-length narrative by sending all the main characters on holiday together. The set-up is typical Still Game: Tam's legendary stinginess is turned against him by Winston and the rest all join in, despite their misgivings, once an all-expenses paid freebie is within their grasp.

Naturally for their age demographic, the holiday is a cruise around the Mediterranean. But appropriately in a venue situated in Scotland's traditional home of shipbuilding, this also allows Winston to glory in his former job and boast to an appreciative audience of what it means to be Clydebuilt, hubristic pride before his sea leg(s) fail him.

Meanwhile, in the run -up to Valentine's Day, a chorus line of eligible widows and Jack and Victor's unlikely employment as the ship's professional dancing companions adds a delightful, devilish twinkle to a production that frequently balloons into full-blown filth, with graphic reminders that lustful urges don't disappear in middle-age.

Boaby, Isa and Navid get swept away by their romantic desires too. And while at times, the dialogue can seem a little too Fifty Shades Of Grey for its own sake, the sight of Jack and Victor competing for the same lady's favour with one-upmanship about how long each has been a widower is hilarious, just one of many allusions to loneliness and death that occasionally emerge amid the more knockabout, farcical elements.

As ever, the core cast's spiky banter is a joy, while Kiernan and Hemphill distinguish themselves as physical performers in scenes on the ship's gym equipment and dancefloor – like Les Dawson on the piano, it takes skill to be able to dance badly, well.

As the co-workers Navid and Isa edging towards something more, Sanjeev Kohli and Jane McCarry add layers of emotional depth not usually demanded of them by the sitcom, while Gavin Mitchell as Boabby gets to channel his previous theatrical performances of Casablanca with his cack-handed attempts at suave wooing.

Support comes from Deacon Blue's Lorraine McIntosh as the vampish nightclub singer Jack and Victor take a shine to, right at home on the big stage. And stand-up Bruce Morton as Winston's accomplice in revenging himself on Tam, looking more nervous. Though arguably, that's in keeping with him struggling to maintain his cover for the scam.

The show is a little too long in the cruise section. But it's tremendous fun throughout and the high jinks remain true to the characters while taking them to new places, literally and emotionally. Tellingly, you leave satisfied if this is to be Still Game's final live voyage, but keen to return if there are further productions still to come.

Review date: 6 Feb 2017
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett