Back on BBC One after nine-year absence

Still Game is to return to TV, almost nine years after its last series, and promoted to BBC One.

All the original cast, including writers and stars Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, are reuniting of the six new episodes.

They will be filmed this summer in a purpose-built set at BBC Scotland’s Dumbarton Studios and will air on the flagship channel nationwide later this year.

The series began on BBC One Scotland in 2002, and subsequently picked up by BBC Two nationwide, which aired the last episode, a Hogmanay Special, on January 2, 2008. 

But its enduring appeal was proved with a mammoth 21-night run of live shows at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro Arena in 2014, which took £6million in ticket sales.

Kiernan, who plays pensioner Jack Jarvis, said: We’re super happy to come back with the show - we had no idea how much it had been missed until we played the Hydro! Myself and Greg are really excited about getting the gang together again and we are putting our all in to make our fantastic audience feel like we’ve never been away.’

Hemphill, who plays Victor McDade, added: ‘We are thrilled to be given this opportunity, with the full support of the BBC Network, to don the bunnets once more! On behalf of all the cast, I'd like to thank Still Game fans for keeping the show alive after all these years. We'll save a seat for you in the Clansman.’

The returning cast also includes Jane McCarry as Isa, Sanjeev Kohli as Navid, Gavin Mitchell as Bobby, Paul Riley as Winston, and Mark Cox as Tam.

The new series will be a BBC in-house production, and was commissioned by Shane Allen, the corporation’s controller of comedy commissioning, who called the sitcom ‘a comedy phenomenon’ which ‘holds a very special place in the hearts of our audience’.

The new six-part series will be executive produced by Ewan Angus and Steven Canny, directed by long-time Still Game collaborator Michael Hines and produced by Jacqueline Sinclair.

Published: 12 May 2016