Rab C is back to his best and about to hit the stage

NEXT Sunday is set to be a day of “ranting” for Scotland’s favourite layabout Rab C Nesbitt.

Gregor Fisher has revealed that the full cast will be reunited for the first time to read the script of the new show.

It’ll be a major stage production following in Still Game’s footsteps at the SSE Hydro.

Elaine C. Smith, Tony Roper and Barbara Rafferty will all join Gregor to go over the script from the original writer of the BBC sitcom Ian Pattison.

“Everybody will be there to see what we think of it,” confirmed Gregor, 63, who now lives in France.

“I did panto with Roper, I saw Elaine a few weeks ago in Glasgow and I keep in touch with Barbara regularly.

“Everyone has read it separately, but we haven’t all been in the same room as a Nesbitt cast.

“I haven’t had the semmit on for a while but I think it’ll be good fun.

“I don’t know whether people will like it or not, but I fancy it.”

The Nesbitt get-together comes two days after the release of Gregor’s movie Whisky Galore.

It’s a remake of the 1949 comedy based on the real-life tale of the SS Politician which ran aground off the coast of Eriskay during the Second World War carrying 264,000 bottles of malt whisky.

The original film, based on Compton McKenzie’s book about islanders swooping for the scarce Scotch, became a classic.

But Gregor says he had no hesitation about the new version, also starring Eddie Izzard and James Cosmo, which was shot in Portsoy, Aberdeenshire.

“It’s a re-telling of a much-loved story and just about the most pleasant job I’ve had.

“The locals couldn’t have been nicer, the cast and crew were lovely and I really wanted to be involved. Even the weather was nice.

“ I never know about things I do though. I thought nobody would ever want to watch Nesbitt after the original one-off.”

Meanwhile Gregor has told how he learned that he’d never be revisiting one previous role.

Last month’s Red Nose Day Actually short film for Comic Relief showed what a number of the Love Actually characters had been up to since the smash hit 2003 movie. But viewers were shocked when Bill Nighy’s ageing rocker Billy Mac revealed that his manager Joe, played by Gregor, had died.

“I actually got a call from Richard Curtis to say he’d come up with a line about ‘big man, big heart attack, big hole in my life’,” revealed Gregor.

“He said he liked it and was going to use it, so he thought he’d better tell me in advance.

“It was lovely of him to take the time. My agent told me it caused quite a fuss.”

Whisky Galore is in cinemas in Scotland on Friday and then UK-wide from May 19.