Get ready for Burnistoun's Big Night

The television special, airing on BBC One on Monday, August 17, is the much-anticipated first batch of new material from the cult viewing sketch show that disappeared from our screens after just three series. And it doesn't disappoint.

Written and performed by Robert Florence and Iain Connell it takes a snapshot of various characters getting ready, going out and zig-zagging their way through the streets back home.

In between sketches the local radio station's DJs, from has-been Stevie to the potty-mouthed presenter who bleeps his way through the show, take us through the night.

The comedy duo has always hinted at one-off specials after Burnistoun ended in 2012. Busy running their own production company Bold Yin in the intervening years it took the success of sell-out live show back in April at the King's Theatre in Glasgow to focus their minds.

"We had the idea of doing something - sketches all set around what different people are doing on a Saturday night. That was the original idea. It was only when we started thinking about the Burnistoun live show we thought if we're doing that it should be Saturday nights in Burnistoun," explains Connell, 38.

Fans will be delighted to learn that the special takes Burnistoun off in a whole new direction.

"It was nice to do it a wee bit differently from a normal episode, to be able to run it through the night and have the radio stuff in it. Weirdly, having done three series of Burnistoun this feels most like the one where we've established it as a place. Because we've done that it feels more successful," says Florence, 38.

"It was good fun, it was nice to shoot it differently and it's also the first time we've done a Burnistoun thing where we haven't screened it for an audience and there's no laughter track. So that gives it a new feel. We're curious to see what people think because it is quite different from before."

There are a host of new characters to meet, along with favourites Peter and Scott, Jolly Boy John, the "Up the Road" guys and the Quality Polis, McGregor and Toshan. You might need to take a second look at the faces behind the lipstick, eyeliner and long, carefully coiffeured locks of two new female characters to recognise Florence and Connell. When the camera moves behind them, you'd never know who it is in a million years. They pair have gone all Hollywood and hired body doubles.

"You get this nice thing where you actually see us from the back. These lovely lassies came in and asked, 'What is it we're doing here again?' I said, 'You're our backs'," says Florence.

"You're my body double," chips in Connell, as Florence hoots with laughter.

The Exclusive Girls are not the first women the pair has played on screen but they are unanimous in the verdict that they are the most beautiful. No offence guys, but top marks to the makeup artist.

Florence and Connell met as teenagers at Springburn youth theatre group Toonspeak and have honed their talent over the years, writing for Chewin' the Fat as well as sitcoms Legit, Revolver and The Sunny.

Following characters from the first drink of the night to the last dip of pakora, via nightclub toilets, chippys and karaoke bars, the cast includes regulars Louise Stewart and Gerry McLaughlin, who also appear in the live stage show, along with Still Game's Jane McCarry and Waterloo Road's Holly Jack.

They bring a wonderful, chaotic mix of scenarios on screen, including a middle-aged couple struggling to cope with the after-effects of Viagra to twentysomethings who get talking to ageing clubbers Des and Gary at a bar.

"On a Saturday night there's a wide range of different things people do, everybody doesn't go to a club. They go to bowling clubs, some people stay at home with a wee glass of wine, so we wanted to put all that stuff in it and go to as many places as possible, and look at as many different people, including the guys who are paranoid about being too old," laughs Florence.

Connell adds: "I'm surprised nobody has asked yet if that's us."

They are referring to Des and Gary, the ageing clubbers who know they're past it but still want to hit the town at the weekend. That's the beauty of the characters, we all recognise someone we know in each of them.

Some sketches and scenes were filmed out and about on Sauchiehall Street over a weekend, which wasn't the challenge you might think.

" We just went out with the crew, camera, sound, and did the sketches on the street . People were going by and shouting but it was fine. I think people in Glasgow are really used to seeing filming, they're really chilled out about that stuff. We took a couple of selfies with them," says Florence, who hit the headlines earlier in the summer after claiming he had spent the night in a nightclub toilet when he fell asleep.

The last time I met the duo tickets for Burnistoun Live and For Real, on during Glasgow Comedy Festival, had sold out in less than an hour and the guys were dumbstruck at the appetite fans still had for the show.

Now due to demand, three new dates have been added at the end of August, following the TV special. The stage show will be the same as the April performance, slightly tweaked to take account of the spontaneity of the audience who shouted out every line in the lift and denim "jaisket" sketches.

This was the first time Florence and Connell had performed live on stage the Burnistoun characters and they were blown away by the audience's reaction.

"We first appeared as McGregor and Toshan from the back of the stalls but our route involved us actually going to the next level up in the theatre. There were just a few people there, a group of four or five guys who clocked us and screamed, 'Quality Polis'. We thought, 'The audience is going to be into this'," laughs Connell.

Sounds like a great night out ...

Burnistoun's Big Night, August 17, BBC 1, 10.35pm