FORD Kiernan and Greg Hemphill are relaxing into the two very comfy armchairs, placed in front of a Christmas log fire in a swish Glasgow hotel. Their legs are crossed languidly, and the comedy partners are about to have their photo taken.

But the manner of Hemphill’s leg-crossing causes Kiernan to take mock offence. “When you cross your legs don’t point you right leg away from me,” he chides his chum, grinning. “Point the leg inwards, same as mine, otherwise we’ll look like we’ve just had an argument and you’re in a big cream puff.”

Kiernan is right to point out the lack of pictorial symmetry, but the very fact he can berate his colleague shows that the pair are closer than reindeers on a sleigh. Not only are the Still Game co-writers and stars entirely comfortable in each other’s company, there is a sense that they need to be around each other. They are, it seems, their Still Game characters, Jack and Victor. In the long-running BBC sitcom (which began in 2002, with the characters first breathing life in a 1997 Edinburgh Fringe stage show), Jack and Victor make the best of their single-bar electric fire lives in a corner of Glasgow that looks like the Depression has yet to lift. But they cope because they can laugh with, and at, each other.

Kiernan and Hemphill don't have to worry about heating bills (their last Still Game Live outing at the Glasgow Hydro ran for 21 nights, creating riches that could give Croesus a run for his money) but they know the real value of friendship. Their working relationship hit the buffers in 2008, but clearly their time apart has shown they need each other in their lives, as pals and as comedy partners.

Now, the lead reindeers of Scottish comedy explain over lunch that they are pulling the sleigh that is Still Game back to the Hydro in February with a show entitled Bon Voyage. And why not? They had fun packing the place last time around, with their sell-out 21-date run on the same stage. And the challenge is to do it again. Already the pair have sold out 15 nights, and counting. So what’s it all about, lads? What’s the storyline audiences can look forward to? Who/what is leaving Craiglang, the fictional setting for Jack and Victor's high-rise flats? Isa? Methadone Mick? The sell-by stickers on the loaves in Navid’s corner shop?

“It’s never going to happen,” says Kiernan, grinning, of answering the question. “We’re still selling tickets.” And I’m in the business of selling newspapers, Ford. So help me out here. Nothing comes back. The pair simply sit and grin at each other, having clearly taken a vow of verbal celibacy. Come on, it’s Christmas, guys. Mistletoe and everything.

OK, same question, in a different form. Did they feel that two-hour storyline for the last theatre show was a big ask? And how will they fill those 120 minutes this time? “You’ll have to wait and see,” says Hemphill, but Kiernan’s ice is a little thinner and he cracks. “It’s February in Craiglang,” he says, smiling. “It’s freezing cold and depressing.” Hemphill joins in. “And there is a lot of danger and peril about. It’s about survival.”

Sounds good. Big drama leads to big comedy. They then reveal that comedian Bruce Morton is part of the cast, which is nice because Morton was the conduit for the pair coming together for the first time. And they offer up the little stocking-filler in that actor and singer Lorraine McIntosh also joins the cast. Is there a bit of love and romance in the mix? “Absolutely,” they say in unison.

Great. Does the Deacon Blue musician cause Jack and Victor’s hearts to sing? “She’s there in her capacity as an actress,” says Kiernan, then adding in actor-ish indignation: “Naw, f*** it. We’re saying nothing else. We’ve told you more than anyone else.”

Fair enough. But what did they learn from the previous experience that they won’t be repeating? “The last time we filmed the show and released a DVD,” says Kiernan. “This time we’ve asked the BBC not to film it.”

Is this because it could affect ticket sales? Hemphill quickly cuts in. “No, it’s because when we watched it back last time we realised it wasn’t an accurate representation of the show. What we realised is the Hydro show is a completely different animal from the TV show. Putting the theatre show on the television is like inviting people to come to a party, but only letting them look through the window. Theatre shows are all about being there.”

Kiernan concurs. “It’s a two-hour theatre show and when it’s cut down to an hour you lose the energy. And we want to make the theatre show unique. What we’ve also realised in writing the stage show is how much of an ensemble piece it is. In the TV show, Isa [the nosey neighbour], for example, may make a short appearance. And that’s it. But in the stage show everyone has to be represented. They all have to have their own story equally.” He breaks into a laugh. “We’ve got to give everybody enough to say. We don’t want to have anybody out the back greetin’ or phoning their agent while we’re out there on stage.” Hemphill offers a knowing smile. “It’s fun to put the thing together. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle.”

The whole project is predicated on "fun". In conversation, the pair use the word more often than we hear Bing sing during the festive period. Yes, they’ll make small fortunes, but there isn’t any way these two single-minded creatures would double up to write more Still Games if the main attraction wasn’t emotional uplift.

The duo reveal that the decision to stage a second theatre show was made while they were having "great fun" writing series seven of the TV version (which ended last month), but put it to the backs of their minds. Then, Kiernan offers, they took themselves off to Los Angeles where they wrote an outline. “We went out for three weeks, visited beaches, went to the cinema, ate like pigs and drank beer at night.”

“And we wrote a bit,” adds Hemphill, grinning. “And we met some people we knew such as actor Tony Curran and writer Ed McCardie.” “And Craig Ferguson, who invited us to his house," adds Kiernan. "What we did was pick their brains about how the industry works.”

That suggests the pair were on a little bit of a recce, testing Tinseltown’s interest in Still Game? “Yes, it was nice to meet people, with the show having a bit of cachet,” says Hemphill. “Agents were interested and we told them how successful the Hydro gig was. But who knows?”

Is there a chance Still Game could translate into American? “Maybe,” says Kiernan, 54, who has been a salesman, a businessman and a stand-up in his day. “But LA doesn’t act quickly. And we did get a real sense of how brutal the industry is out there, how quickly you can be washed up and abandoned. And there are other factors. Craig Ferguson is the same age as me. And he’s been in LA 20 years now, doing sitcoms, game shows, the lot.”

He looks to his writing partner, who grew up in Montreal and came to Glasgow to study, later joining a comedy act. “It’s an enormous leap of faith going out there. I don’t know about you, Greg, but I think I’m too old to go. Although it would be a lovely way to live.”

Christmas this year is on hold for Hemphill and Kiernan; for now, the focus is on getting the new stage show right. While they used to write at home, the pair now work from Hemphill’s office in Glasgow’s west end, above a pie shop. “We generally get together about 10.30am and knock off about four,” says Hemphill. “We used to start at nine am till four, watch Countdown and go home, but we learned French and Saunders would write for about two hours a day. So now we write for an hour and a half, have lunch and later do about an hour. That seems to work.”

Give me a little bit of the plot, guys, for goodness sake? Nothing. It would be easier to get the Russians to admit hacking for Trump. So you give in. We go back to the delights of the last show, which had a Bollywood-style dance number and Bowie’s Space Oddity performed on a high wire by actress Maureen Carr, thanks to Isa’s drug episode.

Hemphill laughs in recall. “We wanted Jack and Victor to dance like young men so the drug storyline gave us that opportunity.”

And it all worked so well. So what will you offer by way of spectacle this time around? The pair say nothing. Instead, they turn the tables and ask what I think didn’t work so well. OK. Breaking the fourth wall, talking to the audience didn’t work for me. Too much reality, less opportunity to immerse in Jack and Victor’s world.

Kiernan picks up on the debate. “We broke the fourth wall to make a connection with the audience. And this time we will acknowledge them again because it really worked. There is an ownership of the show with the audience.”

The pair talk in detail about the pros and cons of the last show. It’s clear they have learned a great deal about creating a two-hour spectacular, played out in front of 12,000 fans.

“What we learned is, there a lot more freedom and fun to be had in a theatre show, and that audiences will suspend disbelief a lot more when what they are watching is live,” says Hemphill. “For example, when Winston lost his artificial leg, which we replaced with a ukelele that played a tune when he walked, we would never have gotten away with that on television. Viewers would have been thinking, ‘That guitar neck would never take his weight.’ But theatre creates a different reality.” “It’s true," agrees Kiernan. "If you saw that storyline on television, people would turn to their partners and say, ‘That would never happen.’ But you don’t get that in theatre. People don’t talk about what they’ve seen. They accept it, so once the lights go down you can go for broke.”

What ideas did they consider for the stage show, and reject?

“A lot of people suggested Best Of Jack and Victor sketches, and lacing some Chewin’ The Fat sketches [which featured Jack and Victor] through Still Game. It’s acceptable – that’s what Monty Python did on stage – but then we thought, ‘No, that’s not right'.”

“We were going to blow up the high flats in the stage show," laughs Hemphill, "but then we thought it would make for a great last episode for the TV show, which is what happened. But with this new one the challenge is not to re-tread anything we’ve done. We want to take the story forward.”

How remains to be seen. So let’s divert and talk about the recent TV series, which picked up audiences of more than four million a week. Both are clearly delighted but did they acknowledge the series seemed a few degrees darker, exemplified by the introduction of a drug addict (Methodone Mick) and the fear of their homes being razed to the ground?

“I don’t think that was a conscious decision on our part,” says Hemphill. Kiernan adds: “Not it wasn’t, but when you think about it, nine years has gone by since the last series. The characters are older. We’re older. We were certainly aware there was a bit more brinkmanship between Jack and Victor this time around. And this wasn’t a dynamic we had seen before. It wasn’t part of their usual make-up, each trying to get one up on the other.”

Hemphill agrees; “Yes, we were arguing a lot. But then we are both nine years older. And like Jack and Victor we are trying to make sense of the world.”

As sure as Santa wears a red suit the BBC will recommission a new series, most likely to run this time next year. “Yes, we’re waiting on word from the BBC, and we want to do it. This is about the time when the BBC will drop the bomb.”

Have they thought about Still Game: The Movie? “No,” says Hemphill, emphatically. “Inbetweeners is a great example of a sitcom that has transferred to the movie screen, but that’s watched by teenagers, and it’s teenagers who go to the movies these days.”

Mrs Brown’s Boys managed to make the transfer. “Yes, but Mrs Brown’s Boys has a wider demographic. It’s a huge sitcom hit with £10m viewers and it's a worldwide hit. We’re still growing our audience, which may sound crazy after 19 years.”

Kiernan agrees. “Four million watching our show isn’t enough to warrant a movie. But it’s enough to get a new stage show on the go.”

The pair are constantly coming up with ideas, new projects. Hemphill had success in directing his Hallowe'en comedy-drama, West Skerra Light, shown last autumn.

After the Hydro show, however, the writers don’t know what they will be working on, apart from the likely TV series eight. “The dance card is pretty full,” says Kiernan. “We’ll see what happens after the Hydro. People asked about a Christmas special this year but where was the time?”

But you two only work for an hour a day. What if you stepped it up? “That’s true,” laughs Kiernan. Hemphill joins in with a more reflective voice. “I wonder if we will ever write another sitcom because there’s the worry it won’t be as successful as Still Game. Yet does that mean we shouldn’t do it, or at least try it? I don’t know.”

“Doing another sitcom isn’t something I would want to do,” says Kiernan.

Hemphill takes the thought onwards. “And we’ve got lots of story ideas that can be run through Still Game.”

The chat wonders away. To wallpaper. While Still Game (the TV series) has looked a little more bleak this time around, several viewers have commented on the contrasting living room wallpaper seen in the once dingy Craiglang flats, suggesting it looked very expensive – as though it could have been created by an upmarket design house like Timorous Beasties.

“Nah, we lost the original paper, but then someone found a placemat with the design on it,” says Kiernan. “What the artists on the show did was photocopy the placemat and glue it onto the wall. So there’s nothing expensive about our wallpaper.”

No, the signs of austerity will remain. The dark clouds will still pervade. Life will be delightfully dark, and funny. And the pair will have fun writing the new series. But first, they’ll have fun finishing Bon Voyage. Yet, you never really revealed the central plot line, lads?

The pair don’t even speak. They both burst out laughing. Both still having fun.

Still Game: Live 2 Bon Voyage is at the SSE Hydro 4-16 Feb 2017. Tickets from www.thessehydro.com 0844 395 4000