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F r o m W i k i p e d i a , t h e f r e e e n c y c l o p e d i a
( R e d i r e c t e d f r o m O n l y a n E x c u s e )
Scottish comedy television show
Only an Excuse? Genre Sketch Created by Philip Differ Starring Jonathan Watson Country of origin Scotland Original language English/Scottish No. of episodes34 Producer Philip Differ Production location Scotland Running time 30 minutes Network BBC One Scotland Release 31 December 1993 (1993-12-31 ) – (2020-12-31 ) Scotch and Wry
Only an Excuse? sketch show that was broadcast on BBC One Scotland on Hogmanay from 1993 to 2020.[1]
It starred the actor and comedian Jonathan Watson and featured impressions of some of Scottish football's great characters such as Denis Law , Tommy Burns , Barry Ferguson , Sir Alex Ferguson , Frank McAvennie , Walter Smith and Graeme Souness , as well as caricatures of the "stereotypical" Old Firm fan.
History [ edit ]
Only an Excuse? was first broadcast as a one-off special on BBC Radio Scotland , prior to the 1987 Scottish Cup Final . It was a parody of the five-part BBC Scotland television documentary Only a Game? ,[2] 1986 World Cup Finals and comprehensively documented the history of Scottish football . The documentary was narrated by Scottish novelist William McIlvanney ,[3] Jonathan Watson for the radio spoof .
After further occasional radio specials including Only Another Excuse? , A Tale of Two Seasons and Only a World Cup Excuse , all of which were released on cassette by BBC Scotland , the show switched to television in 1993, retaining its original double act of Rangers fan Watson and Celtic fan Tony Roper . The first episode replaced Rikki Fulton 's long-running annual comedy sketch show Scotch and Wry Hogmanay television schedules.
The show has also been performed at the theatre, with the most recent performance of Only An Excuse? taking place at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in September 2004. The scripts of the early theatre shows, written by Philip Differ, were published in the book Only an Excuse?: The Scripts by Mainstream Publishing in 1995.
In December 2020, it was confirmed that the 2020 episode would be an hour long programme and that Watson and Differ would not be making any further episodes.[4]
Spin-offs [ edit ]
Jonathan Watson appeared in a spin-off called Only a Wee Excuse on Tam Cowan 's weekly Offside
Watson appeared in a sketch in the BBC's Children in Need 2008 telethon as Alex Ferguson being interviewed by Adrian Chiles .
Regular cast [ edit ]
Jonathan Watson (1993–2020)
Tony Roper (1993–1994)
Ross Stenhouse (1993)
Grant Smeaton (1993-1994, 1997, 1999-2010)
Juliette Gilmour (1993-1994)
Alistair McGowan (1995–1998)
Greg Hemphill (1995-1996)
Lewis MacLeod (1995)
Gordon Kennedy (1995-1996)
Susan Nisbet (1997-1998)
Laurie Ventry (1998)
Geoff Boyz (1999)
Iain Davidson (1999-2000)
June Brogan (1999)
Fiona Henderson (1999)
Paul Reid (2000–2001)
Gabriel Quigley (2001)
Tom Urie (2002–2005)
Elaine M. Ellis (2003–2005)
Marj Hogarth (2005)
Matt Costello (2006-2010)
Jordan Young (2006)
Julie Austin (2006-2010, 2012-2013)
Gerard Kelly (2006)
Clare Waugh (2007, 2011, 2015)
Paul-James Corrigan (2007, 2009-2010)
Johnny Austin (2008)
Heather Reid (2009)
Adam Smith (2011)
Scott Fletcher (2011)
Gerry McLaughlin (2011–2014)
Amanda Marment (2011–2014)
Chris Forbes (2012, 2014, 2018)
Robert Yates (2012)
Josh York (2013)
Sally Reid (2014, 2016)
Charlene Boyd (2014)
Ryan Fletcher (2015–2018)
Louise McCarthy (2015–2019)
James Young (2015)
Moyo Akandé (2017)
Fiona Wood (2018)
Mark Cox (2019)
Joy McAvoy (2019-2020)
Alex Norton (2019)
Figures from Scottish entertainment regularly appeared, as themselves. These included Hazel Irvine , Kelly Dalglish , Gordon Brewer , Catriona Shearer , Reevel Alderson, Jackie Bird , Cathy MacDonald , Chris Hoy , Kirsty Wark , Judy Murray , Muriel Gray , Michelle McManus and Judith Ralston .
References [ edit ]
^ "22 not out: Only An Excuse is the perfect Hogmanay parody" . The Herald Archived from the original on 31 December 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2016 .
^ "Only An Excuse had 'a good kick of the ball' . BBC News . 31 December 2020. Archived from the original on 31 December 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020 .
External links [ edit ]
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