By Still Game director, Michael Hines

Over the course of 55 episodes of Still Game, Jack and Victor have been thrown out of distilleries, pubs, and country houses. They’ve flown to Canada, rowed down the Kelvin and spent Hogmanay in a lift with Isa and Winston’s overfull bladder. But the one place that will always remain at the heart of the show is Craiglang, that fictional area of Glasgow, that exists like Narnia, out the back door of the Clansman.

Craiglang is a mixture of several areas of Glasgow: Maryhill, Townhead, bits of Castlemilk and Partick with some of the original locations now lost to redevelopment and new housing. The Clansman no longer exists as a real pub and Stevie’s bookie shop has had more reincarnations than Winston has had losing bets.

I’ve directed 54 of the 55 episodes, Colin Gilbert having directed the pilot. Colin’s locations in that pilot episode (‘Flitting’) set the template for the Craiglang universe – (like the Marvel Universe only with dogshit). The high flats, the surrounding wastelands, the grim and the grey. The only thing we changed was the original Clansman pub. I moved it to what was the Gimlet in Maryhill, reshooting all the pub scenes bringing in Gavin Mitchell as the long suffering barman.

Ford and Greg knew what kind of place they wanted the sitcom set in: “This park is like Beirut” they bemoan in ‘Gairden’ and whenever a new location comes up in a script, we now instinctively know the kind of place it has to be to become part of Craiglang. It must feel real, rooted in a place many of us know of, a place where the old have to not only rage against their own dying of the light but fight against the cold and the rain and the wind that always cuts through you.

Still Game returns: behind the scenes on the hit BBC comedy

People often ask me what the secret to Still Game’s success is, and I usually answer “Because quite simply it's just very very funny.”

Ford and Greg’s scripts are brilliant and a joy to direct – but bringing those scripts to life and making them feel real is a big responsibility. Taking those words off the page and putting them on screen is my favourite job but also one of the hardest.

My creative team and I must make sure we get it right: the locations, the design, the tone, the feel of the show. So that it endures and reflects the harsh world these pensioners are surviving in.

I love directing the show. It’s the thing I’m most proud of and one of the joys of bringing the new scripts off the page and on to the screen is working with the creative departments - design especially - to ensure it feels the same as it always has yet still moves with the times.

Still Game has always had a heart, that warmth of real friendship. There are strong relationships within all the banter and rudeness. Placing that into a community that is real and recognisable, not just in Glasgow but across the UK, is vital to the show.

One of the things I love is hearing people say “My granny had that ornament/vase/mug/hideous souvenir/ in her living room” or “I remember those tins/that clock in my grandad’s kitchen”. My design team and I work hard to make the interiors feel real, lived in, and belonging to the older generation but as they would live today. Believe it or not we have long conversations about the last time Isa would’ve had the place decorated.

Still Game returns: behind the scenes on the hit BBC comedy

I think the show still feels as relevant and contemporary today as it did sixteen years ago when it started. When the last series came back after a 9 year break we wondered who in Craiglang would have a computer. Would they have flat screen tellies? Mobile phones? But the truth is that the older generation aren’t stuck in museums. Sometimes younger viewers simply have a nostalgic perception of how it should be.

There’s a political element to the programme that I also love. In one of my favourite episodes ‘Cauld’, Winston points out that Tony Blair wants “us pensioners dead, we’re an expense to the government.” You then cut to them betting on the Hypothermia Death Derby – their wonderful two fingers up to the harsh reality of death. That's an example of the black and bleak humour used to survive the reality of being old and poor in a city. And that politics and understanding of the ‘older’ world – strong community, being together, keeping an eye out for the neighbour, actually knowing who your neighbour is – is found still in many places. And it’s that political and social ethos that you need to be able to grasp and infuse the show with.

My father’s family were dockers in Birkenhead, across the Mersey from Liverpool, and I think the similarity to Glasgow - the port, the influx of workers, the west coast cold wind outside and the warmth of the fire inside, the friendliness of locals and sense of community - helped me have the right sense and feel for the show.

Still Game returns: behind the scenes on the hit BBC comedy

Of course the show’s success comes from the brilliant scripts, and we rarely need to change a word. All life is in them - the occasional sadness, the realisation death is coming to us all, that old people still swear and the odd grinning junkie - it all contributes to a rich tapestry. And of course, I am genuinely blessed with a brilliant cast who completely inhabit their characters.

As with most UK comedies, directors are there to enable, facilitate and not get in the way of the jokes. The writers are frequently on set as performers or sitting by me at the monitors. So there is an art to putting your directorial stamp on a programme that belongs to the writers who also happen to be the stars. Asking a lot of questions helps too. For example, Ford particularly has an eye for ‘old Glasgow’ – how the pub should look, what should be in it and more importantly what shouldn’t.

The Clansman isn’t a wine bar, Navid’s isn’t a deli, the high flats aren’t exclusive apartments but nor are they places to mock – they are not the joke. Boabby is the fool in his pub, not the pub itself. Navid is king of his domain even if its full of foosty gear. We laugh because we feel we know the place. We’ve all been in those pubs and shops and flats at one point or another.

I always try to challenge our team - costume, design, locations - with the question: Is that what Jack would be doing? Is it what Victor would wear? Is that café the right place for them to visit? It may sound pretentious, but I take great pleasure in finding a new dodgy wee corner of a street to put Winston on when he's meeting Eric.

The show seems to be loved by people from all walks of life and all ages. I think that’s partly because we've all had grandparents and we all know a Jack or a Victor and certainly an Isa or two. Again, it goes back to the reality.

Still Game returns: behind the scenes on the hit BBC comedy

Sure we occasionally have crazy incredulous storylines - Big Innes throwing an oven out of the 14th floor for one - but those more cartoonish plots can only work because of the truth of the ordinary life the show has at its core: the drinking in the pub, going to the shop, the bookies, avoiding Isa.

Ford and Greg have absolutely understood the fact that the daily routine of the pensioners is the framework around which the nonsense can emerge. The small things matter - the teacakes and papers, the daily pint - and we have tried to present those as routine. Everyone has their own position in the pub. The drinks are their ‘usual’ two pints or a dram. Jack and Victor have their particular seats in their flats. Their lives are set and ordered and I believe it’s important to keep those things consistent.

Some people will read this and think you can’t analyse comedy too much. Well, to a point that’s true, but you can make it better. Make it work, enhance the moment of revealing the punchline and by keeping a very careful eye on what’s in the background of every shot, as well the foreground – the performances, the framing, the editing, we can try and make every laugh the best it can be.

Every good sitcom needs writing that allows the viewer to know the characters so well that we take pleasure from how any of them will react to any situation. We all know Tam is going to look at the financial cost/gain of every interaction he has. When we performed the shows at the Hydro, you would get 10,000 people applauding and cheering every character’s entrance like some beefed up American sitcom – they loved seeing their favourite arrive onstage, and Greg Hemphill made the point – it’s no longer our show, it’s the people's. We can’t mess with that formula now.

We even got people muttering about how the new high definition cameras and widescreen aspect of modern television was not ‘Still Game’ as if the very quality of the production values were not what they were used to nor wanted.

I find that fascinating. Comedy is harder to execute than drama: anyone can say ‘I don’t think that’s funny, it didn’t make me laugh’ and be valid in their own opinion. You can’t and won’t please everyone all the time, but Still Game isn’t niche, isn’t for the few. Its reached an audience that still sits down as a family to watch. It’s viewed in groups, I heard about pubs and golf clubs on nights we were on shushing the bar, turning the TV up and the entire place watching together. And in today’s watch-when-and-and-how-you-want society, I think that’s a lovely thing.

Still Game returns: behind the scenes on the hit BBC comedy

So now Ford, Greg, me and the team all have a collective responsibility to that audience to maintain the quality of the scripts and the way in which we make it. I try to shoot it so that the exteriors loom over the characters, frame it in a way that points up the harsh geography they live in. Craiglang isn’t for them. The brutal high flats towering over them, the neds surrounding them, the increasing cost and decreasing income; life isn’t easy and yet these grumpy buggers fight against it. Hence the title of the show.

I take no credit for the writing and creation of the show - that’s entirely Ford and Greg’s and they deserve every plaudit - but I do take pride in its transfer to screen, the realisation of the script and the style of shooting and placing in locations and sets that allow the brilliant performances to shine.

It’s not easy and it’s not always fun but turning up every day to be abused by my cast and told by my crew “be careful, you might get what you ask for” is still the best job in the world. We put in visual jokes, be they the price board in the Clansman or the clues to the episode on the blackboard. We have fun with names and props, most of the crew will get a name check somewhere, either on the newsboard in Navid’s or on a made up brand of whisky on the shelf.

Also Series 8 has thrown up some real challenges. No spoilers, but there were a few stunts that took us out of our comfort zone, if not out of Craiglang... I think the boys write it knowing fine well I’m going to be calling them up saying “Exactly how had you seen this?”

I hope it goes on until they think it’s time to hang up the teacakes.

Meantime I think I’m probably too close to it to really know why it has become such a cultural success. I’m proud of that fact but you’d probably need to ask Isa to interview a few fans to get to the bottom of it. It’s a hell of a responsibility but this kind of show is exactly why you go into storytelling.

STILL GAME RETURNS THURSDAY MARCH 8, BBC ONE, 9.30PM