JINGS n’ crivvens (and any other couthy Scots expletive you can come up with). 

How do you take an iconic, but two-dimensional cartoon strip such as The Broons and turn it into a braw, living, breathing, stage show? 

How do you take a piece of Scots history conceived when the Spanish Civil War was raging and Billy Butlin was opening his first holiday camp, and present it in a modern context? 

And perhaps more to the point, how you give it a two-hour dramatic form, comedic value and a narrative strong enough to stop an audience from getting scunnered? 

That’s the task facing Glasgow-born playwright Rob Drummond, in turning a 1936 comic strip concept into a national touring show. 

No pressure there then, Rob.

 “You’re right,” says the writer,  smiling. “When David Hutchinson of theatre producers Sell A Door asked me to write the stage play I was taken aback. 

I said ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right person?’ 

“You see, a lot of the theatre I do is experimental and less populist, although I’ve certainly got nothing against populism.”

Rob Drummond is the man behind marquee theatre events such as Bullet Catch and Wrestling, in which he studied the forms for months before performing as a professional magician and wrestler. 

He is a writer who analyses the human condition, trying to work out why we behave in the way we do. 

But he has never entered the colourful world of black and white newspaper cartoon pages. Until now. 

“We didn’t want to do an annual on stage, with eight frames and looks like a sketch show,” he admits, smiling.  “It would die on it’s a***. So what I’ve done is tried to find a mix of homage and new material.

“What we are trying to do with the stage show is to create something that’s faithful to the spirit of the cartoon strip, and deferential to the material, but also has something to say.

“I read something from every decade of the cartoons and what I found amongst the comedy and farce is lots of pathos and emotion, which I never saw as a kid. 

“Then one strip in particular struck home. Back in the 70s, Maggie was getting married and Maw Broon (played by River City star Joyce Falconer) was crying at the loss. 

The readers knew why. How could Maw survive without her kids?  She is called ‘Maw Broon’ after all. She doesn’t even have a first name.”
The Broons – the stage Show features Maggie (Kim Allan) getting married. Again.  

Rob reckons the theme of change and fear is entirely of the moment. 

“Given we are in a post-Brexit, post referendum country, it’s really relevant this story is about a family trying to stick together and work out what they are as a unit, and somehow retain their Broonsianism.”

This isn’t a single-themed theatre show. That would never work. “Every character has their own storyline, which is a bit Tarantino-esque, and they all overlap. And in this way you have fast-paced movement.”

But how can the humour translate onto the theatre stage? 

“Yes, it’s very much misunderstanding humour. Paw says he has to get up at eight o’clock and the Bairn misunderstands and thinks he says ‘potato clock.’ 

And she makes him a potato clock. That’s the charm of it. And we have some of that. But running alongside the main plot and the sub plots.”

The Broons, the comic strip, has evolved (somewhat) over the years and is set in modern times; bookish Horace has a lap top, the twins have mobile phones.  

But surely the modern-day sensibility would be all-pervasive, and the anachronistic Thirties behavioural patterns abandoned? 

If this truly were the 21st century surely the twins (Duncan Brown and Kevin Lennon) would be off backpacking in Thailand, posting pics on Facebook from a pole dancing club? 

Maggie would be taking ecstasy at T in the Park and getting a Police Scotland caution. Daphne (Laura Szalecki) would be on Tinder every night searching for love. And Hen (Tyler Collins) with his very camp moustache and girl-less life would most likely be out as gay?

“Hen may be gay, but it was never said in the comic strip so to suggest that would not be Broonsian,” says Drummond, grinning. 

“But we do ask if Hen wants to go off and see the world. We do wonder if Joe (John Keilty) could still become a boxer? 

“And there are little Easter eggs in there for the hardcore fan. We get to hint at why Grandpaw (Kern Falconer) is such a mischievous old codger. 

“We give him a back story, and DC Thomson have been very kind.”

The Broons may live eleven-to-a-flat in 10 Glebe Street, but Auchentogle’s  housing allocation unit will never come under scrutiny. 

“The Broons have changed slightly over the years to adjust to the time they find themselves but the core values; family, loyalty, remain. It’s a very Scottish thing. They work (as an entertainment form) because they are about community.”

Kim Allan plays Maggie in the stage show. But she never considered playing a cartoon character to be problematic.  

“Well, you don’t,” says the 23-year-old rising star of television and film.

“The idea is to try and bring some truth to the character, play her as real.  So I bring some of my own experiences to Maggie, about being a young woman having boyfriends, wanting to grow up. Maggie is a lot more glamorous as a person than I am however, but I do belong to a very loving family.”

Kim, who has starred in Outlander and Sky’s The Five  adds, smiling; “My mum always says she wanted to be Maggie, this gorgeous woman who was a bit forward, who knows what she wants.”

Still Game star Paul Riley plays Paw Broon. He admits that making the walrus-moustached, whimsical figure three dimensional has been an interesting challenge.  

“Yes, for one thing, since we’ve never actually heard him speak we needed a voice. 

“And we talked about that for a while and reckons he’s sort of East Coast, not too near the ocean. 

“What you do (to find the character) is look for clues in the cartoons, which centre around Paw.” Is Paw Broon henpecked ? “No, well a little bit. Maw Broon is definitely the boss. But Paw knows who he is. You get a real sense of that.”

The Broons stage show features music from a range of decades, punctuating the emotion of a scene with song, from Frank Ifield to the Bluebells. 

But Rob Drummond is determined the script will operate on several levels, and still appeal to the die-hard Broonsians. 

“I’ve tried to become an authority on the Broons,” he says, smiling. 

“You’ve got to know more than the majority of the audience, or you have no right to do it.”

The Broons tour Scotland from September 27 culminating at Glasgow King’s Theatre from November 7-12.