Jack and Victor bow out with Glasgow gigs next year

Jack, Victor and the rest of the residents of Craiglang are to say farewell to fans with a final run of live Still Game dates.

Creators Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill are writing a new show for their pensioners to perform the SEC Hydro next year.

The five dates – starting on September 27 – have been called the ‘retirement party to end all retirement parties’.

The team previously played 10,000-seat venue in 2014 – which promoted the sitcom return to the screen – and in 2017.

Kiernan, who plays Jack Jarvis, said: ‘We decided a reasonable amount of time ago that we wanted to retire the characters permanently from television and theatre.

‘And there’s no doubt about it this time, Still Game is finished. There won’t be another comeback in a few years. This isn’t Sinatra.

‘We’re retiring them for good now, and I don’t think there will be a dry eye in the house.’

Hemphill, who plays Victor, added: ‘If anyone is entitled to a retirement, it’s Jack and Victor. It’s been 21 years, and when you start doing characters for this long you do start thinking about what’s next for them. 

‘We wanted to bring them back to tell a certain number of stories. And we’ve told them now. So this is them saying cheerio.'

The ninth and final series of Still Game has been filmed and is expected to be screened on the BBC in the new year.

Still Game began as a stage show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1997. The pensioners featured in the sketch show Chewin’ The Fat before being given their own series in 2002. In 2007, Kiernan and Hemphill had a professional falling out, which put the show on hiatus until its comeback.

The cast also includes Paul Riley, Jane McCarry, Mark Cox, Sanjeev Kohli, Gavin Mitchell and James Martin.

Tickets for Still Game: The Final Farewell go on sale on at 10am tomorrow.

Published: 1 Nov 2018