Still Game Series 8

[Malcy]

Starting on Thu 8th of March finally.

https://twitter.com/BBCScotland/status/964069273751601153/video/1

[Serge]

I'm going into this one with my expectations duly lowered after the car crash that was most of the last series. I do seem to remember reading somewhere that they are killing off one of the main characters in this series, which smacks of desperation/gimmickry. I also see that Greg's wife, Julie Wilson Nimmo, is joining the cast as a new regular (she used to be in 'Chewing The Fat' with them, too.) I hope they tone down or get rid of Methadone Mick.....but I'm not optimistic.

[Lorenzor]

All this knowledge is modern knowledge, and I want to know if there is a continuous update?

[ajsmith2]

Some more info on the 'darker tone' of the new series here:

https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/still-game-stars-warn-shadow-of-death-will-loom-over-new-series-1-4696458

Sounds like it has potential if done right, although by the same measure it could easily just be a gimmicky bit of nothing being talked up in pre-publicity.

They're teasing us with killing a character off, (of course they already did that last season anyway after Jake D'Arcy passed) and there was a picture in some tabloid a few months back saying 'who will it be?' featuring various regulars, the most obscure of which was Shug, so I'm 90 per cent certain it will be Shug. (The Simpsons did the same thing in pre publicity for when they killed off Maude Flanders and later Rabbi Krustofki, whereby a lineup of regulars was shown among who they were each the most conspicuously obscure, so it was pretty obvious who it would be). Maybe I'll be wrong though.

Been rewatching  the original 2002-07 run recently, and I think it's noticeable how the early episodes are a bit more soapy and episodic, with a lot more sense of the characters just drifting along and a higher incidence of 'serious' bits. The later episodes tend to be more tightly plotted and put humour and set pieces first. Not saying one's better than the other, just an observation. The show was definitely on the verge of going off the rails though when it ended in 2007 with the stupid Frances/Tam plotline. And the 2016 series was all over the place and definitely the worst.. I'm hoping that was just teething troubles while they struggled to get back  into the groove though and not a permanent decline.

[Serge]

Yeah, Shug or Eric would seem to be the most likely candidates for which character is going to be killed off - Paul Young is 73, and James Martin is 85, so you'd imagine filming is more of a chore for them than it is for the rest of the cast. Having said that, Ford Kiernan and Paul Riley are both 56, so if they carry on doing it, they won't need to be using make-up to make them look old for much longer.

The first series in particular does show them finding their feet, especially the first episode. I don't know whether it was done as a pilot, but the implication in that episode is that Jack and Victor aren't especially close to Winston, as opposed to later episodes, where they're all the best of mates. I like some of the serious bits - one of my favourite moments is when J & V are on the plane waiting to go to Canada, and Victor says, "Canada, eh? Jeezo!" and Jack pats his arm, and they just look at each other like the old mates they are.

[Malcy]

A friend of a friend was an extra at the funeral but she didn't want to know who's it was rightly so. They've done well to keep it out the papers/Twitter etc.

I was really disappointed with the last series so hope this is an improvement. Didn't see the fuss about Methadone Mick at all.

Was watching Pulp Video last week. Very early proto-still game sketches with Hemphill as Victor, Kiernan as Archie, not Jack, & Gavin 'Boaby' Mitchell playing a decrepit forgetful shaky Winston. Also has an early version of Jane McCarry's Isa.

[Namtab]

Really hope this is good, as I'm such a fan of most of it - one of the most genuinely warm comedies I've seen. However, last series killed my enthusiasm stone dead for the most part - Still Game's never been a bastion of subtelty, but uninspired Cuckoo's Nest parodies and 'ha ha methead' characters don't do it for me.

[Twed]

Greg is married to Miss Hoolie???

[Malcy]

Greg is married to Miss Hoolie???

Yep. My mum works at Glasgow airport and met them and their kids last year and said they are bloody lovely folk.

[ajsmith2]

I'd seen this Beatles interview before, but I found out recently that the guy talking to George and Ringo is Paul 'Shug' Young in his 'Young' er days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm8frWeoBA0&t=

[Serge]

Ha ha! That's amazing. I know he's a friend of Billy Connolly's going back a while, presumably from when Connolly was first starting out in the sixties.

[Desirable Industrial Unit]

They're teasing us with killing a character off, (of course they already did that last season anyway after Jake D'Arcy passed)

They also did that in a big way with an earlier series, outright stating that a character would die in the final episode, which they did but only for a minute.  I don't entirely trust them when they're up to this stuff.

[Malcy]

They also did that in a big way with an earlier series, outright stating that a character would die in the final episode, which they did but only for a minute.  I don't entirely trust them when they're up to this stuff.

This one is for real.

[Hank the Rapper]

Didn't want to set up a new thread, but wondered of youse guys' thoughts on the new (almost finished) series of Two Doors Down? I found the first two series go someway to filling the Still Game void, particularly in the wake of SG Series 8.

Young Fergie (One of the Neds) plays one of the more sympathetic characters in TDD.

But yes, even when bad (YA BUNCHA SHEEP-SHAGGERS!) Still Game still picks me up, so hopefully this 'un hits the earlier heights.

[ajsmith2]

Only seen the new series of Two Doors down, and I thought it was amusing in lots of places, but also hard for me to totally love as the characters seem a bit one dimensional. Like Doon Mackachin's character (who I find the most amusing) and her husband are loud obnoxious and ignorant and that's it. The main couple are the put upon straight men rolling their eyes. Also it's one of these things where it's contrived that all the characters spend every episode in the same location week in week out. It worked in Grandmas House but otherwise I always find that gets a bit wearing. Are the earlier series better?

Also what's with ENGLISH actors Arabella Weir and Doon Mackachin taking SCOTTISH roles? Its Apu all over again for us north of the border (j/k).

[Shit Good Nose]

I'd seen this Beatles interview before, but I found out recently that the guy talking to George and Ringo is Paul 'Shug' Young in his 'Young' er days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm8frWeoBA0&t=

He also had a fishing show not that long ago (although pre Still Game) - Hooked On.

[Malcy]

Some great interviews with the cast and a few plot and episode details.

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/still_game/interview/

[Serge]

Thanks, some interesting stuff there. Slightly odd that Ford talks about Bruce Morton's history with them but seems to have forgotten that he has actually appeared in two previous episodes as the doctor who deals with Winston's leg removal. And I'm not sure why Paul Riley seems to think that David Tennant has been in it.....

[holdover]

He also had a fishing show not that long ago (although pre Still Game) - Hooked On.

He was also once on Noel's House Party as a member of the public on the Wait Till I Get You Home segment. No mention was made of the fact that he'd presented his own BBC show.

[Malcy]

Thanks, some interesting stuff there. Slightly odd that Ford talks about Bruce Morton's history with them but seems to have forgotten that he has actually appeared in two previous episodes as the doctor who deals with Winston's leg removal. And I'm not sure why Paul Riley seems to think that David Tennant has been in it.....

Yeah i saw that and forgot to mention it. Seemed an odd thing to think unless he had a small hidden cameo over the years and this is the first we're hearing of it.

Either that or hes half right, i suppose he did appear as Sylvester McCoy in 'Oot'!

[Hank the Rapper]

Both McCoy and Tennant appeared in Rab C Nesbitt. McCoy especially was heartbreaking, something of a similar performance to Archie in "Oot", playing Rab's PTSD-addled brother, Gash (His son's namesake), reduced to chasing and shouting at pigeons in the street and being a local menty bastard.

[Serge]

Either that or hes half right, i suppose he did appear as Sylvester McCoy in 'Oot'!

Ha ha, good point!

I did wonder if Riley was misremembering Tennant's appearance in 'Rab C. Nesbitt' as somehow being in 'Still Game', though that seems an odd thing to do for someone who actually worked on the show.

Oh, and from those interviews I get a horrible feeling that there's going to be more Methadone Mick in this series than there was in the last. And the episode they talk about where Jack and Victor go on holiday and get stuck inside a caravan for the whole time sounds very close to the Father Ted episode, 'Hell'.

Christ, I'm nitpicking before the show's even been on. That bodes well, doesn't it?

[Sebastian Cobb]

My old downstairs neighbour played the zookeeper in one episode.

[Malcy]

Heads up that details on the big event of this series are trickling out now, the when and the who its not, narrowing things down a bit. I'm staying away from it all. Done well up to now considering i could have known months ago!

[Serge]

Well, I never would have believed that they'd kill off Captain Dandy.

[Desirable Industrial Unit]

Heads up that details on the big event of this series are trickling out now, the when and the who its not, narrowing things down a bit.

I don't know if it's what you're referring to, but there's an interview with Ford Kiernan on the Express's website that really narrows it down, perhaps unintentionally.  Unless he misremembered, it can only be one character.

[Serge]

Phoof.....that was very poor. I smiled a couple of times, mainly at Navid lines, but none of them spring to mind right now.

I know I'm always banging on about the inconsistencies, but....Navid is now older than Isa? He was always meant to be about 15 years or so younger than the rest of the older characters, but now he's meant to have passed his 72nd birthday?

And Boabby wouldn't have noticed the great fuck-off holes in the ceiling?

Ah well.

[ajsmith2]

It was alright. Not the poorest. I thought the Isa plot and Boaby plots dovetailed nicely, and the booze angling club was a half decent setpiece, if stretching credulity on several fronts. I too clocked Navid being the same age as the rest now right away.  I honestly think they intentionally put these inconsistencies in now on purpose to annoy folk on this forum.

[asids]

I haven't seen the start of the new series yet, but I did see Greg Hemphill deciding to tweet publicly to some random guy that "if you don't like it watch something else" because he dared to say on Twitter that the last series was a bit shite. Quite childish from a man approaching 50.

[Serge]

Ah, I fucking hate that attitude - 'all the problems with the thing we made are down to the people who are watching it'. I hate to bring up Linehan here again, but.....

The other thing that struck me, and this isn't Ford or Greg's fault, but filming this in HD sucks the life out of it. The atmosphere just seems unnatural and it somehow makes the performances come across as a lot more mannered. It would be interesting to know how these episodes would fare if they'd been filmed in the old style. But I think the writing is a lot poorer anyway, and no amount of wishful thinking is going to improve that.