Still Game

BBC One, Thursday night 

**

LIKE a dog returning to its vomit, it is rarely appetising for a critic to revisit a programme they have so recently slammed.

But such is the national treasure status of Still Game, which holds a place in Scotland’s affections somewhere north of Irn Bru and south of Archie Gemmill’s World Cup goal against Holland, your critic was back on the sofa last night for old time’s sake. Big mistake. If the opener was tatty, this week’s offering was just mince. The infuriating thing was that the episode, the second of six, had some very tasty morsels that recalled the show’s glory days. More of these, and it will be game on again for BBC Scotland’s flagship comedy.

The big news last night was that someone died. Or rather two people did. The first was Old McLeary the undertaker. His replacement, Iain Duncan Sheathing (initials IDS, bit political, as Ben Elton would say) arrived with a fearsome reputation. According to Isa, Craiglang’s answer to Twitter, a touch from IDS meant a body would kick the bucket within days. Alas poor Eric, you drew the short straw.

Between the vulgarity, swearing, nonsense (would men of Jack and Victor’s age mix up Charlton Heston with Heston Blumenthal?), and plain old rotten writing (the Gina Lollobrigida pay-off line creaked so badly it needed a double hip replacement), it was touch and go for my sense of humour.

On the upside, the scene in the flats when IDS came calling on Jack, Victor and Isa raised a laugh, ditto Navid’s set up to the Govan joke, which wife Meena hit out the park. But the language in the Gina L story and other plunges to the comedy depths? No thanks.

READ MORE: Still Game character leaving the hit BBC comedy revealed

While a certain amount of adult humour goes with the post-watershed scheduling, a lot of families watch Still Game on catch-up. Do you really want to explain some of those lines to an inquisitive ten-year-old? Two Doors Down is on at 10pm, and while it too goes overboard on the swearing at times it is cleverly crafted and genuinely funny. The same goes for Rab C, The High Life, and Gary: Tank Commander. No one is expecting Still Game to be Frasier, but nor do we want it to turn us into a nation of Private Frazers.