I'm not scarred by my tough start...we're too lily-livered now

As Rab C Nesbitt star Gregor Fisher prepares to go on tour as himself, he reflects on his string-vested Glaswegian philosopher, being an 'adaptable' child and the joy of working with actress Sarah Lancashire

- By Karen Rockett

Gregor as waster Rab C. Nesbitt with actress Elaine C Smith, who played his wife Mary

WITH his string vest, shabby pinstripe suit and filthy headband, Rab C. Nesbitt was the drunken Glaswegian wastrel in the BBC sitcom that ran for over 25 years.

He was uncouth, unkempt, unemployed and horribly opinionated.

We should have hated him but we didn’t thanks to some incredibly sharp scripts and actor Gregor Fisher’s hilarious and often endearing portrayal of him. Now fans just might get to see Rab all over again as Fisher embarks on a UK theatre tour.

“I am sure he will pop up on stage in some form,” promises Fisher. “A character like that comes with a bill, in that casting directors start to think that’s all you can do, but it was jolly good fun playing him for all those years - and they paid me!

“I don’t miss standing on a street corner in Glasgow in the freezing rain though with my nipples at 45 degrees sticking through that bloody vest.

“We always seemed to film it in the middle of winter but I am grateful to Rab, he kept a roof over my head and provided for my family for many years.”

Originally, Rab C. Nesbitt was a recurring character in the BBC2 sketch series Naked Video but was so popular he got his own series, running from 1988 to 2014, with viewing figures of five million at its height.

However, TV’s biggest slob-come-street-philosopher was something of a Marmite character.

Fisher adopts a posh old lady from Edinburgh accent to denounce Rab’s potty-mouth swearing.

“If you think it was just about the swearing or being drunk then you are missing the point and if you don’t understand him you won’t find him funny,” he says. “If Rab were just a swearing drunken waste of space he wouldn’t be likeable but he was so much more than that. I liked him.

“There are Rabs in every town and every city, they might look different or be a different colour but they are there.