YOUNG at heart pensioners Jack and Victor are coming back for another round.
Hit BBC television show Still Game looks ready to delight Scottish audiences in a return to its stage roots, possibly featuring Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill as its famous lead characters.
Mysteriously, yesterday the news was released that: "Jack and Victor have a big announcement."
The new development is not initially expected to be a return to the small screen "at least in the short term", according to sources.
Kiernan and Hemphill, the writers and stars of the show, offered the media the chance to hear the "very special announcement" about the show next week.
The show came to an end on television in 2007, and fans have long discussed a return of the irascible duo, but a split between the two writers and actors seemed to have ended hopes for a reunion.
Still Game remains one of Scotland's most successful TV comedies: 44 episodes were broadcast over six series, two Christmas specials and two Hogmanay specials in its five-year run.
The announcement, next week, is not connected to the BBC and sources suggest a staged production is in the offing.
A BBC spokesman said: "We are awaiting developments from Ford and Greg."
The writers' statement added: "For the first time in six years Ford and Greg will be reunited with Paul Riley (Winston), Jane McCarry (Isa), Sanjeev Kohli (Navid) and Gavin Mitchell (Boabby), as they announce details of the hit show's exciting new venture."
One possibility is that Still Game could be returning to the stage at the new Hydro venue, as some of the media relations yesterday were handled by the SECC.
Last year Mr Hemphill, who has recently performed on stage for the National Theatre of Scotland with An Appointment with the Wicker Man, said that the pressures of filming the series had ended his partnership with Kiernan and damaged their friendship. At that time, he said it might be five or ten years before the team reformed.
They parted after a disagreement over the future of their production company, Effinggee.
On a possible return for the characters, he said: "I'll open my door and Jack will be standing there and I'll just say 'Hello stranger' because he's been away for a few days or something."
He added: "It's kind of sad, really.
"It reflects the pressure we were under that we never really acknowledged.
"We rarely took holidays. Stuff like that, it all bubbled up."
Kiernan also recently acknowledged the pressures of the show.
He said: "I don't see a lot of Greg now but when I do I talk to him.
"Our relationship was fairly strained. We were working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, writing, producing, performing.
"It put a real strain on us, missing holidays and other stuff like that.
"When we looked back at the body of work we'd done, we realised we'd been working longer than The Beatles."
The show was largely shot in Glasgow and is set in the fictional Craiglang area of the city.
Still Game started as a stage play, featuring three characters: Jack Jarvis, Victor McDade, and Winston Ingram.
Due to a broken lift, the three men were stranded in Victor's flat, and discussed a variety of subjects ranging from death to sex.
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