Still Game character leaving the hit BBC comedy revealed

Viewers saw Eric, played by James Martin, bow out of the hit BBC Scotland comedy series tonight. The Glasgow-born actor, who turned 87 earlier this week, has been part of the cast since the show began in 2002.

Yet, even when dealing with death, there was the stamp of Still Game's trademark dark humour as Eric peacefully slipped away in his happy place: playing the fruit machine at The Clansman.

His departure coincided with the arrival of funeral director Iain Duncan Sheathing whose appearance had struck fear into the heart of the Craiglang community. Eric became the first customer – or victim – for the creepy new undertaker, played by comedian Bruce Morton.

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James revealed that he approached Still Game co-creators Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill about leaving when the duo started writing the eighth series last year.

"I asked to be written out," he says, adding that his wife Christine had convinced him it was time to take things a wee bit easier in life.

"She said: 'C'mon, let's call it a day.' I've been an actor since the late 1960s. I have done everything."

The hardest part, says James, was keeping the secret under wraps after news broke last summer that a long-standing character would meet their maker. How does it feel to finally tell people?

"It is a relief," he admits. "I have been stopped here, there and everywhere. My answer has always been: 'Listen, if I told you, Navid would kill me and Winston would beat me to death with his artificial leg …'

"I only told my wife. I haven't told anybody else. My granddaughter has been pleading with me. But it would spoil it."

James speaks fondly of his time on Still Game, paying tribute to the show's legion of loyal fans.

"Before the first episode of this series, an old couple stopped me and said: 'See you on Thursday!' I will miss that," he says. "I didn't realise it, but he was a revered character, was Eric. Everything happened to him – he was so accident-prone."

His stunt doubles were certainly kept busy. James cheerily reminisces about shooting the famous scene where he, Jack and Victor end up spread-eagled on an icy pavement.

"That was funny – the stunt double for falling on the ice," he recalls. "They brought this guy up from London. He was about 6ft and like a Greek God. I joked: 'Could you not get Robert Redford to stand in there for me? What are you getting big ugly guys like that for?'"

Then there was the eye-watering sketch where Eric addressed the perils of incontinence in old age.

"I have done Shakespeare for the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, excerpts from Shaw, Chekhov and Ibsen, I have been a killer in Taggart – and all I'm known for is p****** myself in Still Game," he laughs.

James is delighted with how his swansong moment in The Clansman panned out. "I liked the way I died at the puggy – I win the jackpot but die," he says. "My last line was to the undertaker: 'It's just about to pay oot …'

"After that scene, the cast and crew gave me the clapper board and a directors' chair with 'James Martin – Eric' written on it. I shed a wee bit of a tear, I must admit.

"There is a lovely photograph of me with all the gang. They had crept into the studio, although I didn't realise because I was lying deid."

Still Game boasts a huge global following which is something that James experienced first-hand while celebrating his 80th birthday in Chicago.

A life-long Celtic fan, he had gone to watch a match at the Atlantic Bar and Grill – home to a Hoops supporters' club. "I opened the door and this guy shouted: 'Hey, it's Eric from Still Game!'" he says.

The man, nicknamed Smiddy, swept James into a warm embrace. "He told me: 'My sister from Maryhill sends me all the DVDs, I love it.' This guy had been in the Chicago Fire Department for 20-odd years, but it was as if he had left Glasgow the day before."

James wasn't the only celebrity in town that day: music legend Sir Rod Stewart also showed up to catch the game. "Smiddy said: 'Hey Eric!' and I replied: 'The name's Jimmy'. He said: 'Awright Eric, can the boys get a photo taken with you?'

"Then they moved onto Rod Stewart. When that finished, he shouted: 'Hey Rod, do you want your photo taken with Eric?' So, Rod came up and said: 'Hello Eric …'"

While Musselburgh is home these days, James is fiercely proud of his Glasgow roots. "I was born at the bottom of Byres Road on Partick Bridge Street at Partick Cross," he says. "I only came to East Lothian in the 1970s. I'm a Glaswegian through and through."

Before turning his hand to acting, James spent 16 years as a firefighter and seven years in the Navy – details that Ford and Greg have cleverly woven into Eric's own back story.

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James – whose past roles include parts in Peter McDougall's Just Another Saturday, Rab C Nesbitt and Netflix comedy Love Sick – insists he's not hanging up his acting hat just yet.

"I told my agent I was going to retire, and he said: 'Jimmy, c'mon, there are very few actors in their eighties who can still remember their lines.' So, I'll pick and choose. If they are looking for a greetin' faced old bugger, they know where to come."

And he hinted we might not have seen the last of Eric either. "Ford said: 'Hey, we might get you back as a ghost or something.' You don't know what these guys come up with. Never say never again."

Still Game is on BBC One, Thursdays, 9.30pm