Still Game - Series 2 - Episodes 7 To 9 (DVD 2003)

Still Game series 2 is the odd series out. At time of its first transmission, the series was still only airing in Scotland; and series 2 ran for nine episodes rather than the usual six. (English viewers saw some of them in the graveyard slot the BBC assigned to a SG 'greatest hits' run, a year before series 4 was aired.) In many ways, buying this DVD is the perfect corrective: now you can see them all, and on a single disc too.

When you talk of SG, there's only really good and less good, instead of good and bad. A few episodes are a bit slow and don't go far ('Shooglies', 'Tappin'), but the rest are up the usually fine standard. Jack and Victor have their first falling out. We see life beyond Craiglang through Jack's daughter. Tam falls in love, and Pete the Jaikie's secret past catches up with him.

The supporting characters start to come into their own with this series, with more time given over to them. ('Buntin' for Pete the Jaikie; 'Brief', 'Dug' for Isa; 'Doactors' for Tam and Winston.) There are many highlights: Celia Imrie's turn as the sultry Mrs Begg, Vince Gallagher (The Clydesdale Poisoner)'s return to Glasgow, Eric's technicolour yawn in 'Brief' (along with the return of Mankie Frankie.)

In short: few comedy collections should be without it, though check the other series out first.

Still Game is a little comedy and very much you need to have a sense of the culture where they come from and what it is all about, it is the sort of thing that may not be around in a few years to come and to have the complete series will make it all the more appealing to collectors.