Scottish sitcom wins nationwide slot

Scottish sitcom Still Game is to be broadcast nationwide next series, despite fears viewers south of the border wouldn’t be able to understand the strong Glaswegian accents.

The show, about two cantankerous pensioners, is the most successful comedy in Scotland, attracting up to 44 per cent of the audience, but BBC bosses have been reluctant to network it.

Stars  Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill branded the corporation ‘anti-Scottish’ for its stance and lobbied hard for a nationwide release.

Yesterday they won their battle, with the announcement that the fourth series will be aired nationally on BBC2 next year, as well as in its BBC1 Scotland slot.

Hemphill said he was "chuffed to bits" with the news, telling The Scotsman: “An awful lot is made of whether they will understand it, but I’m sure they’ll lap it up."

And Kiernan told the Daily Record: 'It's about bloody time. It's been a long wait but we're really delighted that it's happened at last.

“Changing the accents wasn't even up for discussion. They didn't ask for it and we would never have put up with it if they had.”

The duo will start writing the next series of the sitcom this summer, and it is expected to air in May 2005.

BBC Scotland executive Ewan Angus said: "It is a credit to the strength and calibre of writing from Ford and Greg, and the performances from them and the rest of the cast, that the next series of Still Game will now go UK-wide.”

Kiernan and Hemphill originally performed Still Game at the 1997 Edinburgh Fringe. Their characters of Jack and Victor then became part ofsketch show Chewin The Fat, before spinning off into their own series.

Published: 7 Jul 2004