With Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill makes Glasgow pensioners sound as though their conversation would continue without an audience. We rate the care behind that apparent ease, though Still Game sometimes relies on fondness to finish the joke.
Fi1m perspective
Greg Hemphill's Victor McDade can trade an insult with Ford Kiernan's Jack Jarvis without making it sound prepared. In Still Game (2002), the line has to arrive at exactly the right moment while seeming to have occurred to the speaker just then. We laughed at their casual rudeness because it sounded like a conversation between old friends, not two performers waiting for their turn. As co-writers and performers, Hemphill and Kiernan understand how much a joke depends on the person receiving it. They give each other something to play.
The partnership took shape on Chewin' the Fat (1999), a sketch series mixing broad comedy with observations of ordinary Scottish life. Jack and Victor appeared there before getting their own sitcom. In Still Game, Hemphill and Kiernan give them more to do than exchange interchangeable complaints. Being a pensioner is not a sufficient joke, and the writing is at its most satisfying when an insult belongs to this friendship rather than to old age in general.
Still Game ran from 2002 to 2007, then returned in 2016 for a revival that continued until 2019. Hemphill also co-wrote and directed West Skerra Light (2016), his first full-length drama as director. The sitcom's return set the partnership a less conspicuous writing challenge: finding fresh exchanges for characters whose habits were already familiar. We want the pleasure of recognising Jack and Victor, but we also want them to say something we had not anticipated.
They succeed often enough to make Still Game an easy recommendation, with a reservation about the later writing. The ensemble makes the Glasgow banter convincing, and Hemphill and Kiernan do not need every exchange to prove that their characters are lovable. Some later punchlines, though, lean too heavily on affection already earned. We can enjoy seeing these men again and still wish a line had been rewritten. Start with their sitcom for the friendship, provided polite conversation is not a requirement.
Biography
Greg Hemphill is a Scottish comedian, actor, writer and director. Born on 14 December 1969 in Springburn, Glasgow, he moved to Montreal, Canada, in the mid-1970s and returned to Scotland in 1988. He studied for an MA Honours degree in theatre, film and television at the University of Glasgow and made his stage debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1990.
Hemphill is best known for his long collaboration with Ford Kiernan. Together they created the sketch show Chewin' the Fat (1999–2005) and its spin-off sitcom Still Game (2002–2007, 2016–2019), in which Hemphill played Victor McDade. He co-wrote and co-produced the series through their company Effingee Productions.
His other credits include the film Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) and television roles in Silo (2023) and Dinosaur (2024–). He served as Rector of the University of Glasgow from 2001 to 2004 and is married to actress Julie Wilson Nimmo.
