It was a horrible mistake to put this on TV.

Critics, friends and social media all praised the Still Game stage show at the Hydro, so I looked forward to seeing it transferred to TV, but it was a crashing disappointment.

The posh theatre critics who'd reviewed the stage show kept mentioning the 'self-referential gags', but how could they do otherwise? The show opened with a spate of these and they set the tone for the rest of the performance. As Jack and Victor mocked comics who fall out and reunite, it became clear this wouldn't just be an extended version of the TV sitcom. This was something wildly different. That may have been fine if you were sitting in the Hydro with your over-priced Coke, but it quickly grew tiresome for me sitting at home with my reasonably-priced tea.

Jack and Victor laughed at comedians who make comebacks and perhaps this skit echoed the Scottish fear of being seen as too big for your boots. OK, we're at a big fancy arena, pulling in thousands of pounds and people, but we're still ourselves. We still know who we are! Is that what this opening scene was about? Maybe not, and I'm ascribing motives to it which weren't really there. Perhaps they just had to stuff such material  in to pad out a lengthy stage show.

The banter then opened out into a patchy stand-up routine where Jack and Victor joked at the audience's disappointment when they woke up on Christmas morning to find they didn't have the Lady Gaga tickets they'd hoped for.

There were some mild laughs but wouldn't they just get on with the story?

Finally, a plot began to emerge and we were back in the grotty Clansman with Isa barrelling around with gossip, Tam being stingy and Winston being crude. It was familiar territory, but gladly so, as the shaky skits at the beginning, and the inevitable echoing we could hear, had chipped away at the cosy feel of the TV version of Still Game. On TV, our hirpling heroes pad between their poky flats, the lifts, the shop and the pub. It's a confined world where you can almost feel the heat from their two-bar electric fire, and that's where much of the show's heart comes from.

That heart was dissipated on the vast stage, and the thin plot kept vanishing amidst gimmicks like Boaby and Tam 'rewinding' their conversation, iPad Facetime being flashed up on large screens, and an awful lot of daft singing. None of this fitted into the cosy, well-worn feel of the TV version of Still Game.

Perhaps it worked when viewing it in an arena but it didn't work when patched together as a TV show, especially with Isa who was overacting like someone from an am-dram group at your local community centre.

Jack and Victor had the responsibility of driving the momentum and, as there was so little, they often seemed to wilt. This meant the supporting cast were by far the funniest, particularly Winston, 'staunin' in the Clansmen wi' a ukulele fur a leg!'

There were just too many gimmicks and meanderings and filler. Cut all of that out and you just might be left with a neat idea for a sitcom…