Still Game's Gavin Mitchell reveals all!

As Boaby the barman in Still Game, Gavin Mitchell is known for his dodgy mullet.

But when Mitchell struck up a friendship with Robin Williams when they starred together in Bill Forsyth's 1994 film Being Human, his wig had a much more illustrious heritage.

The actor was one of a group of Scottish actors playing prehistoric raiders in the comedy-drama, alongside future Still Game co-star Paul Riley.

'We were told not to cut our hair and not to shave' Mitchell recalled on the Kick Up The Arts podcast, adding that in the make-up queue, 'everybody's trying to be really cool that Robin Williams is going to appear. Classic kind of West coast of Scotland guys, try to look like I don't care.

'I was last in the queue and they basically run out of hairpieces. I was sitting looking in the mirror, and I could see this discussion going on behind my back. It was all very hush-hush and low. I can see a bit of panic. "Well, we don't know … But we'll have to be very careful, you know? … Well, shall we?"

'And they brought out this box and it was like the Crown Jewels. They took out this hairpiece, and they bring it over to me, and they're putting it on. "Now, you have to be very, very careful with this, right?"

'Why?'

'Because this is Sigourney Weaver's hair from Gorillas In The Mist.'

Happily for Mitchell, Weaver's weave proved an icebreaker for him with the late Williams. 'We used to have a laugh about it, I've got in on tape' the Glaswegian recalled.

'Rob and I, jumping about each other, kidding on we were apes, picking at each other and he would go, "Oh, security!"'

They bonded over impressions, too. 'We did kind of click, strangely, we taught each other impersonations… I taught him Sean Connery and he taught me Gregory Peck… he would do Keith Richards, I would do Mick Jagger. Which was quite tough. Because, you know, it's Robin Williams. He was hard to play with, a steamroller.'

The slow, meditative tale of one man's soul travelling through history, Being Human – which also featured Bill Nighy, Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and John Turturro – was not a box office success.

But 'Robin accepted the film and took from it a fraction of his normal fee, apparently, because he loved it so much and he loved the idea. It spoke volumes to him and he always spoke about it affectionately' Mitchell told Kick Up The Arts host Nicola Meighan.

Their friendship endured after the film. 'He always sent me a Christmas card every year and I visited him a couple of times at home, and also he came over.

'He invited me to Billy Connolly's Highland Games up in Canada… And to my eternal regret, I never went, just because it was like Eric Idle and Steve Martin and all these people. And I just thought, "I don't belong there. I'm not good enough to hang about with these people".'

© Eva Rinaldi via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.0

Mitchell also revealed that the arrival of Still Game on Netflix has brought him a certain international notoriety. People from all over the world, 'from Zimbabwe to Japan', quote the sitcom's drink order catchphrase at him: 'Two pints, prick!'

Once, flying home from a holiday in Gran Canaria, he was approached by a stewardess. She passed him an envelope, that said: 'Hi Gav. We've met before and we have such-and-such in common, all these different people we knew from bands and things. And you did me a favour before, you made a video for me. When we land, I'd love to buy you a pint you prick.

'And it was signed "Captain Patrick". It was the captain of the plane. Calling me a prick at 35,000 feet.'

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 13 Nov 2025