When actor Paul Riley raided his mum’s attic for props needed for a cash-strapped new stage show, he could never have guessed how successful it would become. Paul was one of three actors in the 1997 stage comedy.
The two others were Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan. The show was the first outing of a new play – Still Game. Twenty five years, nine television series, 50 live shows and even a Netflix contract later, Paul jokes he will always be grateful to his late mum’s old rug.
Paul, who played Winston Ingram in the show, said: “Looking back to that original stage play we could never have guessed what lay ahead. I’d worked with Greg around six months before and he called me up and said, ‘I want you to come and meet Ford. We’ve just written this thing called Still Game.
“We went to Ford’s house and sat in the living room and went through the play. Right away Ford and Greg said ‘Do you want to do this?’ and I said ‘Absolutely’. Originally it was just Winston, Jack and Victor.
“We didn’t have any money, and before putting the show on at the Edinburgh Festival we went up to my mother’s house and climbed up into the loft and pulled out an old carpet. We found an old couch and we stuck up a pair of old curtains, and those three things were the set.
“We had toothbrushes that we used to drag grey make-up through our hair to make us look old. In one show at that festival we played to 15 people. Jump forward and we were playing to 12,000 people at the Hydro every night.”
Paul was just in his 20s when he started playing grumpy old man Winston, whose character lost a leg as a result of heavy smoking. This year Paul, a double Bafta award-winning actor and comedian, turns 53 and is touring the country with his own new show Auld Before My Time – An Evening with Paul Riley, which kicks off at the Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock on 4 March 2023.
The show is Paul’s opportunity to share with fans interesting tales and funny anecdotes from his 30 year-long career. He said: “When I started playing Winston I was just a young man. Now I might be much closer in age to him but I don’t feel any different. In my head I still feel like I’m 12.”
Paul said wherever he goes he regularly gets stopped by fans of the show. He never fails to be amazed by how much they know about Winston and his own career as an actor.
He said: “Long before Still Game, and not long after I left the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, I got my first jobs on the telly – in both Taggart and Take the High Road. In Taggart my character didn’t even have a name. I came up in the credits as ‘Student in the garage’.
“The story had Blythe Duff and James McPherson coming into the garage looking for some wrong-un who’s under a car. They come in and say ‘Where’s so and so?’ and all I had to say pretty much was ‘Who wants to know?’
“For that, I was in the credits and to this day I still get occasional cheques from places like Poland, usually for something like 48p. My other early telly job was as a photographer in Take the High Road, but I nearly lost the job as soon as I got it because I couldn’t do what was asked.
“For my scene I was told ‘We want you to drive the car’ – but I had to tell them I couldn’t drive. They said ‘OK. We’ll park the car up and you can come out and light a cigarette’ – but I had to tell them I didn’t smoke.
“In the end they just got me to get out the car and play with my camera. I was only in High Road and Taggart for about two seconds each but I’ll often get messages on social media from folk who have just watched the episodes and spotted me.” Paul wasn’t the only member of the Still Game crew to have a role in Bill Forsyth’s 1994 film, Being Human, which starred Robin Williams.
He said: “Myself and Gavin Mitchell were both in that film – so a future Winston and a future Boaby the Barman with Robin Williams, all filming on a beach in Lochinver. Robin was just the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet. Because he had been working with 15 Scottish people, the next movie he shot was Mrs Doubtfire and that’s why she has a Scottish accent.”
Paul finds a lot of fun in some of the conversations and requests he gets from fans. He said: “I was at an event last year where a guy came up and thumped his prosthetic leg on to the table and asked me to sign it. He told me I had the prosthetic leg limp down perfectly as Winston.
“Two hours later a five-year-old wee boy dressed fully as spiderman came up to me and said ‘Shut it Tadger’ – Winston’s catchphrase – and then he just walked away. That’s the randomness of the things I encounter.
"I know of one guy who is coming from America to see my new show because he’s found Still Game on Netflix and he’s absolutely obsessed with it. Hearing things like that is crazy, but great.”
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