Greg Hemphill & Ford Kiernan

Okay, confession time. Back in the late 1990's, everyone in Scotland seemed to be obsessed with Chewin' the Fat. Everyone except me. I watched the sketches, I "got" them, but I never felt I was laughing quite as hard as everyone else.

At this point of my life, as a precocious 10 year-old, all I could think about was the shiny sensation from across the pond, Friends. I had absolutely no time for Chewin' the Fat, with its homegrown catchphrases and seemingly mundane settings. It wasn't until I was bit older, and stumbled upon some of the sketches on Youtube, that it finally clicked. It was us.

Greg & Ford as The Neds.

During the early noughties, there was no hotter property in Scottish television, nay, the entire Scottish entertainment industry than comedy duo Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill. First teaming up in the largely unseen sketch show Pulp Video back in 1995, the pair entertained that nation with classic characters and sketches, first in Chewin' the Fat - alongside Karen Dunbar - and then in spin-off Still Game.

Characters such a hopeless actor Ronald Villiers and The Ned who interpreted the news quickly gained a mass following. Hemphill himself puts the success of the show down to the fact that it was made for Scots, and insists the more Scottish the sketches became, the funnier they were. Indeed, a number of classic catchphrases permeated Scottish culture. For about 3 years, it was almost impossible for a day to go by without hearing either "Ya couple a fannies!", "You've taken that too far", "We're just hear for the banter" or the acclaimed "Gonnae no dae that".

Indeed the characters who would prove the most enduring were the miserable pensioners Jack and Victor. Their spin-off sitcom, Still Game was broadcast across the UK, and was a hit with critics and the public alike. Spawning 6 series' and a number of specials, the show ranks as one of Scotland's top television exports of recent times.

Sadly, this is where the Greg and Ford love-in ends, for now at least. After a widely reported business disagreement, the duo have split up, with no intention of working together any time soon. Both have been working on separate projects, but neither has achieved the level of success that either Chewin' the Fat or Still Game brought.