Scotch and Wry

Scotch and Wry was a Scottish comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC One Scotland and starred Rikki Fulton. After two series, in 1978 and 1979, the programme continued as a regular part of the channel's Hogmanay celebrations between 1980 and 1992, pull in millions of viewers. The show gave early exposure to actors like Gregor Fisher, Tony Roper, Gerard Kelly and Miriam Margolyes.

History
Scotch And Wry was developed from The Scotched Earth Show, a one-off made show for New Year's Day 1977, which took a humorous trawl though Scottish Books, play quotations etc, and started Rikki Fulton, Russel hunter, Eilenn Mcallum and McCalmans.

The focus of Scotch and Wry was on predominantly Scottish (and in particular Glaswegian) humor, although the series did acquire some materail from London-based writers plus unused material from The Two Ronnies, by the contributions of John Byrne and oduring the late 70s. Overall viewer had to be familiar with the Glasgow Patter in order to understand many of the jokes. As a result, much of the humour was constructed around distinctly Glaswegian themes; such as the city's suburbs, its football clubs, and even its famous sectarian divide was also played for laughs. In later episodes, less of an emphasis was placed on this, and the writers began to draw on major news events that had happened during the previous year as their basis.

In many sketches, characters poked fun at Sydney Devine. He even appeared in a sketch once, a parody of Phantom of the Opera. In later years it became customary of Scotch and Wry to include a post-closing credits sketch which was usually a dig at The Hogmanay Show which followed immediately afterwards. This usually involved Rikki Fulton interrupting a party to throw the television out the window before The Hogmanay Show started.

Scotch and Wry has only been broadcast across the UK the once, on New year's Day 1983 at 23.10 the day after it was screened in Scotland, No other epsodies were broadcast. After the series ended in 1993, it was replaced by Jonathan Watson's football-themed sketch comedy show, Only an Excuse?, Reverend I.M. Jolly Spin off, Chewin' the Fat and Still Game in BBC Scotland's Hogmanay television lineup.

'Last Call' Spin-offs
After Scotch and wry finished in 1992, the Sketch Last Call was given its own Hogmanny special, The most Famous character of the parades Rev I.M. Jolly, was used for all four specials.


 * Tis' the Season to be Jolly (1993),
 * Rev. I.M. Jolly a Man for All Seasons (1994),
 * Rev. I.M. Jolly: A Life (1995) and
 * It's a Jolly Life (1999)

Reprisals and Specials
In 2008 for Children in Need, Alex Salmond reprised Last Call and gave a message in the style of Rev I.M. Jolly's

Principal and Recurring Characters

 * "Last Call", a parody of Scottish Television's late-night "God slot" programme Late Call. The show ended each time with a monologues, by a fictional ministers played by Fulton.  First and most famous character was The perennially depressed Reverend I.M. Jolly, who, with his catchphrase "Ah've had a helluva year", proved to be the most popular of several.  When the parody first appeared in 1978 the character were controversial, and deemed blasphemy, by the church. Rikki defended "Last Call" stating it was a dig at Television rather then the Kirk After the series finished, Jolly's "Last Call" continued to be part of the Hogmanay programming.  The Jolly  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 series.
 * Supercop, an incompetent traffic policeman with the catchphrase "OK, Stirling, oot the car!", only to find himself dealing with Batman, an extraterrestrial, DCI Jim Taggart, Dr Crippen or any other unlikely traffic offender. In one sketch, it is revealed that Supercop's real name is Andy Ross.
 * Dirty Dickie Dandruff, Gallowgate Gourmet, the unbelievably unhygienic television chef who would always say, "Hullo and welcome to Dirty Dick's". (billed as "Dickie Dandruff's Delicatmessen")
 * Aloycious {AKA Tam} McGlinchey, a colourful Rab C Nesbitt type character.
 * Alky Broon, similar to the Dickie Dandruff character, who first appeared as a terminally unhygienic barber (in the 1983 show), then in 1993 as a cack-handed dentist.
 * Ticket Clerk, an unnamed 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

 * Rev. David Goodchild, from one of the most memorable Scotch and Wry sketches. He un-knowingly gets drunk during his "Last Call" after his water decanter is accidentally spiked with gin.
 * Rev. W.E Free, a hypocritical Free Presbyterian minister who uses his "Last Call" to go into a diatribe about the "sins" of his parishioners - only to reveal he wished he could be as sinful as them.
 * Rangers F.C. was parodied in one well-known sketch, in which the team's manager (played by Fulton) discovers a phenomenal talent, only to sour on him immediately when he finds out the player is Roman Catholic, immediately after having signed the contract. The humor from the sketch derives from 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 a Red Indian to get out of getting a job.
 * Mrs Ida Closeshave, a woman who talked about the events of her missionary work on "Last Call"
 * S.W Duff, a Funeral Director.

Parodies

 * Bonnie Prince Charlie
 * Robert the Bruce
 * The Curries, a parody of the Scottish singing duo, The Corries.
 * Beechgrove Garden Presenters, a parody of the BBC Scotland gardening show which shows the two presenters (Fulton playing George Barron, and Gregor Fisher as Jim McColl) "growing" whisky.
 * The Phantom of the Opera, in which Rikki plays The Phantom. He takes off his white mask to reveal there's nothing wrong with his face but his love interest runs off screaming.  Then, he reveals his son, played by Sydney Devine.

Guest stars
Scotch and Wry also attracted many celebrity guests like Barry McGuigan, Jim Watt, Mark McManus, Gavin Hastings, Dougie Donnelly, and Archie Macpherson.

Series

 * Series one 30 September - 28 October 1978: 4 Episode
 * Series one 24 November - 22 December 1979: 5 Episode
 * Hogmanay special: 1980 - 1992

Highlights
The Very Best of Scotch and Wry: Shortly after Rikki Fulton's death, 6 Episodes.
 * A taste of Scotch and Wry: 5 December 1980
 * Best of Scotch and Wry: 20 January 1984
 * Another Taste of Scotch and Wry: 9 - 30 January 1988: 4 Episodes
 * Rikki Fulton's Scotch & Wry Hogmanay: 31 December 1996

The Series was repeated on UK Gold from June 1994 until December 1995

Home Release
The Full series has never been released, but BBC Scotland did released four 90 minutes completion video, which contain most of the sketches broadcast.


 * Scotch and Wry: 1986
 * Double Scotch and Wry: 1987
 * Triple Scotch and Wry: 1989
 * Scotch & Wry 4,Rikki Fulton, Prince of Pochlers: 1992
 * Scotch & Wry Collection Set (4 Pack): 1996

In 2006 all the VHS's were re-released on DVD, including the Complete Collection.

In the mid 90's two home videos were released of Rev Im Jolly, In 2006 all 4 episodes along with the sketched from Scotch and Wry was released on DVD.

Links

 * http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244927/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1