Colin Gilbert

In Still Game (2002), the sight gags give the dialogue a rest and keep the comedy moving. Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill’s pensioners sit within an ensemble that makes the Glasgow banter convincing. We warmed to them because the exchanges feel like people used to one another’s company, including its irritations. Colin Gilbert’s direction leaves the actors to do the important work between themselves. That is an undemonstrative contribution, and a useful way into a career spent making Scottish television comedy.

After establishing BBC Scotland’s Comedy Unit in 1983, Gilbert produced programmes including City Lights (1984), Naked Video (1986) and Rab C. Nesbitt (1988). The mix of sitcom and sketches gave him sustained work with recurring characters and Scottish performers, including Gregor Fisher in Rab C. Nesbitt. He co-founded the independent Comedy Unit with April Chamberlain in 1996 and continued nurturing writers and performers. Among the programmes he produced was Chewin’ the Fat (1999), the sketch show from which Still Game grew.

Gilbert produced the first series of Still Game and was executive producer on series two to five, from 2003 to 2006. That distinction matters: we should not credit him with every successful exchange, or make him answer for every later weakness. Kiernan and Hemphill are its creators as well as performers, and much of the pleasure comes from the ensemble they lead. His early production work helped establish Craiglang’s tone and locations; the finished programme gives us good reason to value that groundwork.

The jokes do not always repay that affection. Some later Still Game punchlines rely too heavily on our fondness for the characters, a weakness worth acknowledging even in a programme we recommend. The audible audience laughter can also crowd a joke, though we mostly welcome it in a comedy so dependent on communal banter. Start with Still Game, but do not expect it to leave you alone with the jokes.