BARRHEAD’S community spirit puts it on par with fictional town Craiglang – according to a star of hit TV comedy Still Game.

Jane McCarry, who plays gossip girl Isa Drennan, praised the town when she and fellow cast member Mark Cox, better known as tight-fisted Tam Mullen, spoke to the News after an interview with community radio station Pulse 98.4.

The King’s Park actress didn’t hesitate when asked whether any parallels could be drawn between the show’s fictional setting and Barrhead.

Jane, 46, said: “Anywhere where people look after each other and there is a sense of community can be compared – and there’s plenty of that in Barrhead.

“I know people who live round here – it’s a great place to stay.”

The actors stopped by Pulse 98.4’s studio at St Luke’s High last Wednesday to promote the newly-commissioned eighth series of Still Game.

While Newton Mearns resident Mark was in agreement with his co-star about Barrhead’s close-knit community spirit, he moved quickly to quash a rumour that had been circling the town.

A cheeky Twitter user claimed to have seen Mark rummaging for a bargain in the town’s Asda store – much akin to the behaviour normally associated with his penny-pinching character.

Grinning, the 44-year-old insisted there was no substance to the allegation.

Mark, whose children attend sport classes at Barrhead Foundry, said: “Somebody tweeted – which was rubbish – that I was in the Asda in Barrhead.

“They said, ‘Just saw Tam looking at the discounted section’.

“If I looked at it, it would be the discounted bakery bit – I like that!”

Both Jane and Mark welcomed the news that Still Game was returning to BBC One next year just as much as the show’s legions of fans did.

The pair, who run an after-dinner speaking business together, can’t wait to get back in front of the cameras.

Hopeful that there will be plenty more gossip to be spread, Jane is already looking forward to learning what Isa will be getting up to.

She said: “The writing is excellent. The boys (creators and co-stars Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill) are really clever. You turn the page and you’ve got no idea what’s coming.

“My oldest is always asking, ‘Mum, what do you have to do?’ because he knows everybody at school is going to see it.

“It’s one of those things: this could be the last series or it could go on for another year, couple of years. We’ve got absolutely no idea.”

Having featured in the programme alongside Jane since the first episode in 2002, Mark is also regularly taken aback by the quality of the writing.

Referring to the latest series, he said: “The reaction was very good. It had very good viewing figures in Scotland and down south as well.

“It’s taken on a new fan base. A lot of things have changed since the last time it was out.

“It got a very good slot this time on a Friday night. There are a lot more English folk watching it now so it’s quite exciting times. It’s taken a trick as they say.

“People are very fond of it, very warm to it. It’s good to be involved in something that people really like.

“It’s all in the writing, really. You can’t make a good show out of a bad script.”