Jack Jarvis

Jack Jarvis is played by Ford Kiernan. He has been best friends with Victor for sixty years and they are neighbours who live on the same floor of Osprey Heights, a tower block in Craiglang. Jack is a widower; his wife Jean died in 1991. The couple had a daughter, Fiona, who emigrated to Canada. Jack spends most of his time with Victor, often visiting their local pub - The Clansman. As Victor is the leader of the two in most situations, Jack is happy to follow him around. He is shown to be slightly less smart than Victor, and more likely to be swayed by peer pressure from Winston and Tam and, since the seventh series, would get certain words mixed up only for Victor to correct him (such as saying "discretion" instead of "desecration", as evidenced in "Dead Leg: Part Two"). However, Jack has shown himself to be more observant than Victor on several occasions— notably when, in the episode "Wummin," he recognises (albeit incorrectly) that Bert Findlay's strange behaviour shows signs of an impending suicide. Jack seems to have less of a way with words than Victor, sometimes trying to say something witty but only coming up with a one-word insult. In his younger days, Jack worked in his father's butcher shop. In the first episode, "Flittin'," Jack was said to be 74 years old, the same age as Victor. In all other episodes, his age is stated as 72. Jack is a stout, squat man with blond hair (which has gotten whiter across the series) and a moustache. He can frequently be seen wearing a bunnet when outdoors. In a sketch on the sister programme Chewin' the Fat, his surname was given as McAlpine.