FORD Kiernan laughs as he rewinds on bygone days when he and writing partner Greg Hemphill would take a break from creating Still Game to watch Countdown.

Well, not only to watch Countdown, but to take part, from the comfort of their easy chairs in Kiernan’s Glasgow home.

They’d compete against each other. Hard. One afternoon, Hemphill won with a nine-letter word score, and scooped their £10 bet.

“He gave it to me in pennies,” says Greg, grinning.

“Aye, I had a jar of coppers in the kitchen,” says Ford, producing a wicked laugh. “I thought, ‘F*** him.’”

That sense of fun and mischief once defined the duo. It was this chemistry that helped take the pair from writing the first Still Game stage play in 1997 to go on to create radio sketch show Chewin’ the Fat, and eventually to six series of Still Game, the sitcom which elated much of the nation.

Then came their seven-year estrangement when, from 2008, they huffed and puffed and marched off in different career directions.

Yet, if there’s a residue lingering around the bath the pair used to share, figuratively speaking, it’s hard to see.

But in getting back together to write the new series, how much of a hill was there to climb?

After all, the pair claimed they were exhausted at the end of series six of Still Game, and felt they had run out of ideas.

“We were super exhausted,” says Ford, with the emphasis on “super”.

Greg agrees and says: “We were. And it’s probably safe to say that if we’d gone on to write series seven, straight after six, we wouldn’t be here now talking to you.”

Ford chips in, in more serious voice. “We had to personally expand. It was a great privilege to be locked into a great job, but at the same time, you need time to do your own thing.

“Greg was 36 at the time. And when you’re younger you don’t want to be defined by one thing. You don’t want to turn into Francie and Josie.”

His partner agrees. “Actors go through that phase [of being defined by a single success] but sometimes come out the other end.”

He adds: “When Leonard Nimoy brought out his first autobiography it was called I Am Not Spock. When he brought out his second it was called I Am Spock.”

Kiernan lets out a huge laugh at his chum’s reference. Both know they can afford to be a little Francie and Josie.

During the Separation Years, both enjoyed individual success. Gradually, in 2013, the pair began chatting again and plotted their return, with a show at the Glasgow Hydro.

But could they still be funny? Would they struggle to find their concession passes to Pensioner World?

Greg’s face suggests they did, for a while. “When we began to think about ideas for the Hydro show we actually talked of an interactive game show.”

“F*** me,” says Ford, laughing at their own folly.

Greg continues: “Then we thought: ‘That’s not what Still Game is about.’ Then we looked at taking the best bits, but we realised: what are we doing?”

The Hydro gig was an immense success and thankfully, the comedy muscles built up for the Hydro stint were still pumped for the new series.

The plot lines leapt out and the pair came up with dialogue faster than two Glasgow windiehingers.

But was there a thinking whimsy could have crept into their writing, a sense perhaps that life’s too short, so let’s do something mental?

“Yes,” says Greg. “Every time you sit down to write there is always that temptation. But then you look at shows like Roseanne, when the family won the Lotto …”

Ford adds; “You have to remember this is about a bunch of broke pensioners on a housing estate. They’re not going to have cash to spare. This isn’t the brothers in Frasier.

There will be no political references in the show. In Craiglang, the independence referendum never happened, Brexit will never be bothersome. Nicola, Ruth and Kezia have never been born.

“We avoid politics, religion and sport because they are so divisive,” says Greg.

Ford nods in agreement and reveals how porridge left a bad taste. “Once we wrote, innocently, a piece of Jack and Victor dialogue about Victor taking salt in his porridge and me taking sugar. But people watching this saw it as a metaphor, that this was something to do with political allegiances..” He adds, laughing: “F*** that stuff!”

The pair were in the States recently, for three weeks. Panning for gold in them thar’ Hollywood hills, lads?

“For a holiday,” says Ford. “And maybe to try and come with new ideas for bits and bobs.”

On Twitter recently comedian-turned-mega star Craig Ferguson posted a picture of himself and F&G at his home. Does this suggest a business arrangement? Could Craig Ferguson, who has more money than God, be thinking of spending a little of it on promoting the Still Gamers, in a production sense?

That’s just speculation, of course. But what the LA trip strongly suggests is Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill are emulating their screen creations, the best of friends.

Yet, the biggest clue of their unquestionable unity emerges when they gang up on a poor defenceless interviewer, who simply asks them in upbeat voice how it felt to wheelbarrow home the cash from the 21 sell-out nights they enjoyed at the Hydro.

“Whit, you’re talking to us about money?” says Ford, laughing. “You’re the one who lives in the West End and drives a convertible. I drive a Smart car these days. Get yersel’ tae France,” (The place he suggested relocation to wasn’t a country.)

“That’s right,” says Greg, playing comedy feed to his co-writer. “And do you think we spend all our time in a Jacuzzi, phoning in our writing?”

The boys are back. And in harmony. Still Game will still be funny. No mistake. They’re once again taking baths in Matey. No residue left behind whatsoever.

• Still Game returns to BBC One on Friday at 9.30pm