Scotch and Wry

Scotch and Wry is a Scottish television

Initially running for two series from 1978 to 1979, the show went on to become a top-rating annual Hogmanay special for over a decade.^[1] The series also gave early exposure to emerging Scottish actors such as Gerard Kelly and Miriam Margolyes. In later years, cast members from sister BBC Scotland comedy show Naked Video would also make sporadic appearances.

History

Scotch and Wry was developed from The Scotched Earth Show, a one-off special based on Scottish humorous writing, broadcast on New Year's Day 1977.^[2] Fulton starred in the special, having made sporadic television appearances since his ill-fated Rikki series for STV, which ended mid-run in 1967.

Scotch and Wry first aired on BBC1 Scotland at 10.30pm on Saturday 30 September 1978. Its comedic focus was on predominantly

Another regular target in many sketches was Lanarkshire singer Sydney Devine, who later became one of the show's many guest stars, appearing in a parody of Phantom of the Opera. In the first years of the Hogmanay specials, singer Barbara Dickson performed musical interludes. It also became customary of Scotch and Wry to include a post-closing credits sketch, which was often a dig at The Hogmanay Show which followed immediately afterwards. The best remembered skit – from the 1985 special – involved Fulton interrupting a party to throw his television out of the window just before the show started.

For several years, Scotch and Wry also aired on

Comedy specials have continued to air each Hogmanay on BBC1 Scotland, including Chewin' the Fat, Still Game and Only an Excuse?. Fulton also revived his Reverend I.M. Jolly character for several Hogmanay spin-off specials during the 1990s – Tis' the Season to the Jolly (1993), A Man for All Seasons (1994), Jolly: A Life (1995) and It's A Jolly Life (1999), which marked the character's farewell appearance. A specially recorded compilation, introduced by Fulton, aired in 1996 to mark the 50th anniversary of his showbusiness career.

Characters

• Last Call: the programme's signature sketch was a parody of
  ministers – each with a pun name and played by Fulton. The 'epilogues' were at first deemed controversial and blasphemous by the Church of Scotland. Fulton defended the sketches, stating Last Call was parodying the STV epilogues rather than the Kirk itself.^[1] The sketches opened and closed with an excerpt of the second movement from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. Among the ministers who delivered Last Call sermonettes
  :
  • Reverend I.M. Jolly, an ironically named and perpetually depressed minister who delivered the majority of the Last Call epilogues. The Jolly monologues usually contained references to his mysterious wife "Ephesia", and the antics of church organist "Mr. Bampot" – neither of which are seen (but are referred to) in the spin-off specials. After featuring in both series, Jolly went on to feature in every Hogmanay special and a number of spin-off specials during the 1990s.
  • Reverend David Goodchild: in a variant of a popular American vaudeville sketch from Red Skelton's repertoire,^[6] Goodchild's water decanter is accidentally spiked with gin by a floor manager, and as a result, he slowly gets more and more drunk as his monologue progresses. This sketch is regarded as one of the most memorable and popular in the show, and can also be regarded as one of Fulton's finest comic performances.
  • Reverend W.E Free, a hypocritical Free Presbyterian minister who uses his epilogue to go into an angry diatribe about the "sins" of his parishioners—only to reveal he envied their ability to partake in such sins.
  • Mrs Ida Closeshave, a woman who talked about the events surrounding her
    missionary work
    .
  • Father Kevin Dulally, a Roman Catholic priest who must hold his bladder through the entire epilogue, due to not being able to use the bathroom before recording.
  • The Very Rev. A. King Bones, an elderly and befuddled minister with thick eyeglasses, who misses his cues and ends up overrunning his timeslot.
  • Rev. Justin Thyme, a retiring minister who recounted his contentious departure from his congregation in a series of hymn titles.
• Andrew (Andy) Ross the Supercop, an incompetent traffic policeman with the
  Dr Crippen
  or any other unlikely traffic offender (including, in one sketch, the Reverend I.M. Jolly).
• Dirty Dickie Dandruff, an extremely unhygienic television chef billed as the Gallowgate Gourmet, based at "Dick's Delicatmessen".
• Aloycious {AKA Tam} McGlinchey, a colourful
  Rab C Nesbitt
  -esque character.
• Alky Broon, similar to the Dickie Dandruff character, who first appeared in 1983 as a terminally unhygienic barber, and later, as a cack-handed dentist.
• Are Ye Dancin?, a spoof of dancing shows featuring effeminate hosts Francie (Fulton) and Josie (Jack Milroy); a revival of a double act Fulton and Milroy had done since the 1960s.^[7]
• Ticket Clerk, an unsympathetic ticket clerk, intended to poke fun at British Rail. He regularly would pull the shutter down in front of an unfortunate passenger with the line the last train left five minutes ago.

Notable one-offs

• Rangers F.C. were regularly parodied (as were its Old Firm rival, Celtic F.C.). The best known football sketch from the series saw the Rangers manager (Fulton) being convinced by a new scout (Fisher) to sign a stand-out player (Gerard Kelly), only to discover, immediately after having signed the contract, that the young prospect is a Roman Catholic. The humour from the sketch derives from the sectarian rivalry between the traditionally Protestant Rangers and traditionally Catholic Celtic, and the manager's failed attempts to, as subtly as possible, find an excuse to get out of the contract and prevent him from playing.
• Big Chief Swift Half, an unemployed Glaswegian who dresses up as an American Indian to get out of getting a job.
• Michael Jackson from Jordanhill, Fulton again plays an unemployed Glaswegian trying to be hired by a nightclub manager, but dressed in a bizarre disguise as Michael Jackson (parodying Jackson's famous costume from the album Bad). When the ruse fails, he tries again, this time as "Shirley Bassey from Bearsden".
• S.W Duff, a funeral director.

Key one-off parodies included

All four compilations were subsequently re-released on DVD in 2006, and again as part of The Ultimate Rikki Fulton Collection DVD box set in 2007. However, a full release of the first two full series and all 12 subsequent Hogmanay specials remains unlikely.

References