Look who it isnae as Still Game star Boabby heads for West Lothian theatre stage

Daily Record

04-06-2025

Gavin Mitchell who's best known as Boabby the Barman is heading to Bathgate
A Bathgate audience will get the chance to question a Still Game star when he takes to the stage in the town later this month.
Look Who It Isnae – An Audience with Gavin Mitchell, will see the 60-year-old actor offer up behind-the-scenes stories and insight from his years of working in theatre, film, TV and radio.
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Gavin is instantly recognisable thanks to his role as the acerbic Boabby the Barman in the hit Scottish sitcom TV series.
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Hailing from the north of Glasgow and an area he describes as the 'lovely fishing village of Springburn', Gavin first got into acting almost accidentally through a dare with one of his pals.
'A good mate of mine Iain Muir and I didn't know what we were going to do in life,' Gavin admits. 'He was a joiner but hadn't finished his apprenticeship. I did casual theme painting at the Citizens Theatre and he was doing casual joinery work.
"We had the skinny, peely-wally look, with black hair, and Iain was asked to be an extra in the next show. He told me he didn't want to do it, I said' What? I'd love to do that'. So, he said if you do it, I'll do it and we shook hands on it.
"So that's how it started and from there on in I learned on the job, I was at the Citizens for four or five years. I was working with Glenda Jackson and Rupert Everett and people like that.'
There was a very significant development in the mid-90s when Gavin and the other actors who would eventually find national acclaim as the characters in Still Game, were thrown together for the first time.
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'I worked with Ford [Kiernan] and Greg [Hemphill} on a sketch show in 1996 called Pulp Video and that's sort of where the Still Game characters first started. Greg and I played old men in a couple of the sketches, then out of boredom while we were waiting about we just started talking like two old men and making each other laugh, Ford thought there was something in it and wrote a couple of sketches.
"Jane McCarry [Isa] was in Pulp Video as well and Sanjeev {Kohli - who played Navid] worked on it as a writer. I was Winston originally. We all kind of met then, almost 30 years ago.'
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Although the last Still Game television show was recorded around seven years ago Gavin admits he is still often called a pr**k by passers-by, an term often-used by Jack and Victor when greeting Boabby in The Clansman.
'It's always done with a fondness,' he said. 'It's kind of weird as Still Game only took about two weeks out of my year. Despite the fact I'd been acting for about 15 years before that and all the work I've done since, I've done all sorts, but I'll always been known for Boabby.'
Gavin has taken on a variety of roles over the years, from film, telly and radio right through to opera. He's been playing Humphrey Bogart's role in Cassablanca on and off for 15 years, a role he will revive again at this year's Edinburgh Festival.
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But before that, what can the audience expect when he takes to the stage in Bathgate?
'The show will inevitably talk about Still Game but it will also be about the other side of things,' Gavin revealed. 'How I got there, the people I've worked with throughout the years – including becoming friends with Robin Williams and things like that. There will be loads of anecdotes and stories from over the years.
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'I have clips from shows and ads that have never been seen in this country. I have questions that are sent in from celebrities, some I know, some I don't. I've had questions from Chesney Hawkes, Amy McDonald, Susan Boyle and Midge Ure. But my favourite part of the show is the second half when the punters in the crowd get to ask me questions, because you never know what you're going to be asked and what way it's going to go, it's kind of unpredictable.'
Look Who It Isnae – An Audience with Gavin Mitchell is at the Reconnect Regal Theatre on Friday, June 27.