Still Game

Still Game returned to our screens. It has something like a 70% penetration in Scotland and many fervent fans south of the border, and any random 30 seconds are still only 1,000,000% cleverer and funnier than any entire series of Mrs Brown's Boys, but I wonder if it's not in danger of beginning to run its course. It cantered through all the houses amiably enough - Boabby trying to gentrify The Clansman, jokes about lemongrass and insanely overpriced bottled beer - but cantered at very much one pace, one note, throughout. (Yes, I do appreciate that I've just invited 70% of Scotland to appear outside my nice New Town flat with pitchforks, torches and angry cries of "bawbag".)

Still Game, series 8 episode 1 review

In the golden age of the sitcom, some shows were recorded in front of a studio audience and the others had canned laughter superimposed. The former now costs too much and the latter, in which producers decided where the laughs are placed in post-production, has long been thought too tacky. But there is a third way. When Still Game (BBC One) was recording its seventh series two years ago, an audience attended a screening and supplied the laughter track.