He played one of Scotland’s best-loved comedy characters for almost two decades and has starred with Hollywood stars Al Pacino, Richard Burton and John Malkovich.
Now Gregor Fisher has hinted he is ready to don the string vest once more and return to our screens as street philosopher Rab C Nesbitt.
Gregor, 65, says early talks have begun to bring back the finest comic creation of his long and illustrious career.
Asked if he would return as Rab, he told the Daily Record: “Nothing is ever finished until the fat lady sings.
“There are a lot of people involved in this. The ingredients are being discussed. The cake has not yet been mixed and the oven isn’t lit but we talk. Gently.
“We want to get this right. I don’t want to barge into this and neither does anybody else. But yes, there’s talk.
“It’s very gentle talk and if we make it more than that we’ll frighten all parties out of the water. So we don’t want to kill the thing before it happens.”
(Image: BBC)
The news will delight fans of the series, which co-starred Elaine C Smith as Rab’s long-suffering wife Mary and Tony Roper as his pal Jamesie Cotter.
The BBC comedy, created by Ian Pattison, ran from 1998 to 2014 but with the end credits having rolled on Still Game, a return of Rab C could be just what the nation needs to lift its spirits.
Gregor is preparing for a key role in the hit Broadway musical, Dr Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.
He’ll get to talk about his time as Govan’s booze-swilling ne’er-do-well, his life and career at a special event taking place at Greenock’s Beacon Arts Theatre later this month.
A Wee Blether With Gregor Fisher on November 23 will see him talk about his childhood, his first TV spot alongside Rikki Fulton in Scotch & Wry in the late 70s and playing Rab.
There may be tales from his work with Burton in the film 1984 as well as his roles in Love Actually and the remake of Whisky Galore.
Gregor, who is still well known for his turn as the Baldy Man in Naked Video and Hamlet’s cigar ads, declared his health is better than ever after a heart scare.
He said: “My specialist said I’m better than I’ve been for a long time. I said, ‘What do you mean?’
“He said, ‘You’re in better nick now than you were before the incident and you’ll probably live to get a Queen’s telegram.’
“I said, ‘It’ll be a king’s telegram because she’ll have slipped away by then.’”
Appearing with Pacino on the 2004 film The Merchant of Venice made a lasting impressing on him because the Hollywood actor was going through a custody battle at the time.
Gregor said: “John Sessions and I had to go to Mr Pacino’s private rehearsal room in New York every day. He was spending mornings in court which didn’t bode well for the afternoons.
“He always used to turn up for lunch, then we’d rehearse. He was a nice guy. He comes from planet Pacino but a lot of these big American stars come from their own planet.
(Image: Mirrorpix)
“He tended to rub your neck a lot before a take and say, ‘Let’s do it. I spent most of the time thinking, ‘What’s all that rubbing about?’”
Gregor told of the menial jobs he worked at before he was accepted to train as an actor. He said: “I used to make lavatories in Shanks in Barrhead when I left school.
“I thought, ‘I don’t like making lavatories.’ I might have been sacked from Shanks. I was sacked from a few jobs.
“Then I worked in a chicken farm with 2000 to a shed all in cages. It was dreadful.
“I had to collect eggs and I had to muck out. You’ve never seen so much chicken s*** in all your life. Then I worked as a grass cutter and I got sacked for sitting down and smoking a cigarette.”
Recalling how he became an actor, he added: “I muttered words of one syllable to the careers officer and he slapped a syllabus from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and he said, ‘This is where you need to apply.’
“I’d done a couple of plays at school and one of the teachers must have thought I could do something.
“I got into the drama school at 18 and I turned up in what was left of my grey flannel school uniform and all the other students were in their Afghan coats. I felt like a prat.”
(Image: Greg Macvean)
Next up, he is co-narrating the Grinch musical in Edinburgh from November 26 to December 1.
He said: “My children reminded me we used to watch the Jim Carrey film when they were wee. According to my daughter Cissie, who is a film agent, there’s another movie of it with Benedict Cumberbatch. She told me I had to do it.
“It was tempting and I thought it would be fun because it won’t take me weeks and I’ll get back to France for Christmas and it will all be lovely so that’s what I’m doing.
“There’s no smutty jokes and it is full-on high octane night for the family in the theatre, just out of Hollywood.
“You’ll be floating when you see it and think, wow.”
