‘The Best of Flying Pigs does everything it says on the packet. If you can beg, borrow or steal a ticket, do so. Your sense of humour depends on it.’

— Evening Express

An invitation to perform at HMT’s temporary venue at Hilton led to Best Back, our second outing of 2004 and our second ‘Best Of’ production.

Opening announcement: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is Flying Pig Productions. Welcome to ‘Best Back’, oor ‘best of’ compilation. So if ye think this is bad, you should’ve seen the dirt we left oot!”

Initial concerns that our fanbase might balk at being asked to again fork out their hard-earned cash to see material which they now seemed to know better than us proved to be ill founded; enough of you wanted the proverbial another chance to see The Mither! Wedding saga, The Buckie Drifters, Ghengis Khanna and The Liar; Mother Theresa to enable us to sell out our first great muckle venue. Even a couple if feet of snow couldn’t deter the diehards, and as we gathered at Greg and Susan’s for the traditional wine and stovies, we were all agreed that the concussion suffered by one of our number inadvertently head-butting an opening car boot while loading props out of the theatre was a small price to pay for another successful show.

Cast
John Hardie
Moray Barber
Craig Pike
Susan Gordon
Steve Rance
Elaine Clark
Greg Gordon
With
Andrew Brebner

Script
Greg Gordon
Andrew Brebner
Lyrics
John Hardie
Andrew Brebner

Directed by
John Hardie
Musical Arrangements
Steve Rance
Craig Pike

What the Papers Said
Aberdeen Evening Express

In just six years, the Flying Pig has travelled from its launch pad at Aberdeen’s Lemon Tree to the stage of Her Majesty’s Theatre, earning itself a good few air miles – and a theatre full of fans – in the process. This latest show reminds us of their journey so far, presenting the eight talented comedy actors who started out in Student Show and now find themselves perfectly at home on the stage of the city’s largest theatre, where it looks as though they might be tempted to stay. As a “Best Of” show, theatregoers will have seen some of the material before, but predictable it certainly is not, as you reacquaint yourself with such classics as Mither and Archie and Davie, and laugh all over again at the hilarious lines you certainly won’t remember from last time. Characters retired a few shows back make a welcome return – The Liar, Oor Faither, Ghengis Khanna and the boys from The Cruel Sea provide some side-splitting moments, while rewritten lyrics for some of the best-known pop songs vary the pace and become classics in themselves. The Best of Flying Pig does everything it says on the packet. If you can beg, borrow or steal a ticket, do so. Your sense of humour depends on it.

Previous show: The Hunchback of Walker Dam – 2004

Next Show: The Seagull Has Landed – 2005