Ford Kiernan writes insults that sound earned by years of acquaintance, and delivers them without fuss. With Greg Hemphill, he makes Still Game warm, rude and worth returning to, even when the later punchlines soften.
Fi1m perspective
In Still Game (2002), Ford Kiernan makes Jack Jarvis's rudeness sound casual, while placing the line precisely where Greg Hemphill's Victor McDade needs it. We laughed at their insults because the two men sound as though they would speak this way with nobody listening. The deadpan delivery helps. So does writing that gives them more to exchange than interchangeable complaints about getting old. The warmth comes from hearing how well these men know one another, without being told how fond of them we should feel.
The partnership took shape in the sketch series Chewin' the Fat (1999), which introduced Jack and Victor before they received their own programme. Kiernan and Hemphill went on to co-write all nine series of Still Game, first running from 2002 to 2007 and returning from 2016 to 2019. Moving the pair beyond sketches gave their everyday habits more room. It also made the surrounding people important: the ensemble gives the Glasgow banter its credibility, making the familiar sitcom exchanges sound particular to these people.
Kiernan draws on Glaswegian characters observed while working as a tailor and barman, which helps explain the attention to ordinary speech. He and Hemphill give their pensioners daily lives and resilience, rather than treating age as sufficient material for a joke. The supporting characters' optimism helps keep the comedy warm. Nobody has to become polite for that warmth to register. It would be misleading to separate Kiernan's achievement too neatly from Hemphill's: the shared writing and the timing between them are central to what works.
The weakness comes when affection starts doing the work of a sharper joke. Some later punchlines in Still Game are softer than the delivery deserves, and knowing the characters cannot entirely rescue them. We still enjoy the familiarity between Kiernan and Hemphill, but the writing has established a standard that makes those easier laughs noticeable. Spend an evening with Jack and Victor; there is no need to promise them the whole week.
Biography
Ford Kiernan is a Scottish actor, comedian and writer. Born on 10 January 1962 in Dennistoun, Glasgow, he began performing comedy in the early 1990s after working as a tailor and barman.
He is best known for his long collaboration with Greg Hemphill. Together they created and starred in the BBC Scotland sketch series Chewin' the Fat (1999–2005) and the sitcom Still Game (2002–2007, 2016–2019), in which Kiernan played Jack Jarvis. He also wrote and produced Still Game, and co-owns the production company Effingee Productions.
Kiernan has appeared in films including Gangs of New York (2002) and The Angels' Share (2012), and in other television roles such as Dear Green Place (2007–2008) and Happy Hollidays (2009).
