Who remembers this classic sketch show?
Scotch And Wry
Loved Reverend I.M. Jolly - used to look forward to this show at Hogmanay - all the family got round the TV to watch it.
I must be gettin' old!
Andy
Supercop was my favourite. God I miss sitting up waiting on it at hogmannay.
Modern sketch shows should have more writers like they had on Scotch and Wry, and Rikki Fulton is without a doubt the best character actor Scotland has ever given the world.
In Scotland, this was an absolute annual institution for a period in the mid-late 1980s. It actually attained the 1950s Hancock[c
-like status of 'pub-clearing' ability, with many staff in pubs - who were working on Hogmanay/New Year's Eve - making it abundantly clear that the pub(s) were closing, so that staff could get home to see this show. I think it was scheduled so it finished not long before the New Year countdown.
Yes, video-recorders were commonplace then, but that wasn't the point: like getting the Oor Wullie/Broons annual at Christmas, this simply had to be savoured just before 'the bells', though the show was widely recorded by many fans and re-run endlessly. (Many of the sketches did indeed stand up to repeated viewing, it must be said.)
Needless to say, many in Scotland had began their liquid festivities a couple of hours or more before the show started, so laughing at any gag thrown up was usually the accepted state of affairs, but the laughter was genuine, for in Mc Kay's depiction of the dour-faced I M Jolly there was true comedy gold, as witnessed when the shows were rerun in the cold light of day.
Hogmanay was celebrated with some gusto in the 80s in Scotland, with many visitors bringing round a bottle to celebrate: today, the tradition is almost dead apart for the diehards, but at one time, New Year was almost as big as, and as keenly anticipated as, Christmas Day itself.
I think this came from the same stable as A Kick Up The Eighties and the formidable Laurie Rowley was a major contributor to both. I can remember one sketch where the dour Supercop pulled over a motorist who happened to be the even dourer Taggart, played by Mark McManus.
Quote: Rico El Vista @ January 21 2011, 7:25 PM GMTHogmanay was celebrated with some gusto in the 80s in Scotland, with many visitors bringing round a bottle to celebrate: today, the tradition is almost dead apart for the diehards, but at one time, New Year was almost as big as, and as keenly anticipated as, Christmas Day itself.
Indeed it was! I'm old enough to remember the 70s, when it seemed the whole country was up and about after the bells. Mr. Fulton is greatly missed.
Rikki Fulton was a LEGEND!!!!
Hogmanay Culture will never be the same without him.
All the best,
Cal 