STILL Game’s Greg Hemphill has revealed how his plans for a new sitcom were dramatically scuppered.
The funnyman, 54, spent a year writing a show about a butler based at the Royal Family’s Balmoral estate who rented out the historic castle to pay off a gambling debt.
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The idea proved popular with network bosses and the show was originally snapped up by HBO.
But days after completing the script, Queen Elizabeth passed away and forced them to shelve the show completely.
Greg, who played pensioner Victor McDade in Still Game, said: “I was f*****g raging.
“I’ve been pitching loads of stuff the past year but everything has bounced.
“I pitched a science fiction thing and a death of the high street thing and they said ‘nah’.
“Then me and my mate were talking about Balmoral and we thought ‘how long is the Queen at Balmoral – eight weeks?’
Telly fave Greg then had a hilarious brainwave and turned to his pal for approval.
Speaking on Some Laugh podcast at Glasgow‘s Pavilion Theatre, he added: “Wouldn’t it be cool if the butler had gambling debts and rented Balmoral out as an Airbnb.
“I thought ‘this is a f*****g good idea’ and we sold it to HBO.
“We spent a year working on this script, sent it to them and then the Queen died.
“Me and my pal Donny were high-fiving thinking we’d be up there with Game of Thrones.
“The whole nation went into mourning and I was f*g raging.
“The moral of the story is do not write sitcoms about ailing beloved 96-year-olds.”
STILL GAME STAR'S OLYMPIC FIB
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BY DARREN MCCONACHIE
STILL Game star Greg Hemphill has revealed that pal and co-creator Ford Kiernan thought Olympic medallist Fatima Whitbread had passed away – thanks to an almost decade-long lie.
Hemphill was appearing on the Some Laugh podcast and shared an anecdote about how Paul Riley, who played Winston Ingram, would always tell fibs on set to deceive his fellow cast.
The sitcom co-creator revealed how he got caught up in one such prank alongside his long-time comedy partner Ford Kiernan whilst the trio were getting into character for the hit show.
After seven years, Hemphill picked up the phone to an amused Kiernan who called him a “c**t” for telling him that the Olympic javelin thrower had died.
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The Craiglang sitcom ran from 2002-2019 and featured Greg’s pal Ford Kiernan, 62, as larger-than-life pensioner Jack Jarvis and Jane McCarry, 53, taking the role of nosey neighbour Isa Drennan.
The late Queen died peacefully at her beloved Balmoral estate in Ballater, Aberdeenshire in September 2022.