Forty Coats

Sizzler

Never could work out WTF was going on with his 40 Coats and 50 pockets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-KnZVseNnY

Don't remember him speaking in rhymes like this I have to say but then again I was a nipper!

I remember slightly bonkers though and The Whirlygig?

Ann22

Slightly Bonkers' granny and my granny were first cousins:o.

themadchef

For some odd reason the smell of oranges always reminds me of Fortycoats. I think it came out in the Autum and as kids we used to eat buckets of mandarin oranges...

I remember Sofarsogood and slightly bonkers had mad pigtails i think

What year did it come out? Im 35, trying to remember how old i was

Queen-Mise

and his copy of a tardis. It had to have been early eighties, 83 or 84 maybe.

I loved it, was very strange to me as a child.

Queen-Mise

the other thing that always confused me as a kid. Forty coats would have more than fifty pockets.
If it was just a name, why was he wearing so many coats then.
And finally wouldnt wearing forty coats be really hot.

I thought about this too much as a kid didnt i :-):-)

mikom

Slightly Bonkers............. Georgie burgess's wife in the snapper........... Slightly Bonkers is right.

Firetrap

Yes, I noticed how old she was when they showed it on TV3 a while back. She must have been about 40 when she was kitted out in that ridiculous school uniform. Gawd, no wonder it drove her on to become a barrister http://www.barcouncil.ie/barristers/Ms_Virginia_Cole_McColgan/921/

padd b1975

As far as i know slightly bonkers was the first woman in Ireland to get a divorce here!!

steveone

padd b1975 wrote: »

As far as i know slightly bonkers was the first woman in Ireland to get a divorce here!!

From Georgie Bleedin' Burgess??:D:D
ah that sharon curley wan whah

Hangdogroad

Can anyone confirm was there a radio series of Fortycoats & Co as well as the TV series? I'm almost certain there was. Can't find any info online.

branie2

mikom wrote: »

Slightly Bonkers............. Georgie burgess's wife in the snapper........... Slightly Bonkers is right.

She died in real life, sadly

Hangdogroad

Firetrap wrote: »

Yes, I noticed how old she was when they showed it on TV3 a while back. She must have been about 40 when she was kitted out in that ridiculous school uniform. Gawd, no wonder it drove her on to become a barrister http://www.barcouncil.ie/barristers/Ms_Virginia_Cole_McColgan/921/

Granted it's an 11 year old post, I'd no idea TV3 showed it, does anyone know was it just on some clips show or did they repeat it proper?

whisky_galore

It's a bit odd looking back on it now.
The real Fortycoats was a homeless guy and the Wanderlys, I guess they'd be classed as travellers.

Hangdogroad

What was the story with Sofar, the posh guy? Was he supposed to be a schoolboy?

Pawwed Rig

Hangdogroad wrote: »

What was the story with Sofar? Was he supposed to be a schoolboy?

He was a butler No?

Hangdogroad

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

He was a butler No?

Not sure. He had a uniform that looked vaguely like what an Edwardian English public schoolboy would wear. I remember he would do this odd affected thing with his hands.

whisky_galore

Hangdogroad wrote: »

What was the story with Sofar, the posh guy? Was he supposed to be a schoolboy?

I think the two of them were supposed to be schoolchildren. What were they, 20 or 25 years old at that time?

Hangdogroad

whisky_galore wrote: »

I think the two of them were supposed to be schoolchildren. What were they, 20 or 25 years old at that time?

Well as another poster pointed out Virginia Cole aka Slightly Bonkers must have been at least 40. Guy playing Sofar was no spring chicken either. Looks at least mid 30s in pictures.

Hangdogroad

Clip turned up on Youtube in the last couple of days. The intro is included here. One thing I can never remember is what Sofar and Slightly were doing flying about in that tuckshop with Fortycoats. Slightly has a line of dialogue here about trying to get back to the real world, were they trapped in an alternate dimension or what?

https://youtu.be/aWKlBd9zEaw

Worztron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118880315#Comment_118880315

Thanks for linking the video. That brings back some sweet memories. Happy days! :)

Hangdogroad

One of the few plotlines I can remember had Fortycoats lose one of his coats, maybe the Whirlygig Witch got hold of it, and I think it was indicated if he didn't get it back he'd die as he had to have forty coats on the whole time.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118927154#Comment_118927154

Think I remember that one. Didn't he keep saying how cold he was?

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118932600#Comment_118932600

Yeah, I think he did.

George White

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/112357187#Comment_112357187

Virginia Cole was I believe 36-37 when it started. Born in 1947.

She was later replaced by 20something Rosemary Fine.

bad2thebone

This thread is so far so good 👍

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/60224507#Comment_60224507

Very young 😂😂

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/112347529#Comment_112347529

It was featured on a TV3 programme around 15 years ago - History of Irish Kids TV - shown in 3 parts. I still have it on my DVD-Recorder's hard drive but the remote isn't working.

thejuggler

Fortycoats aka Fran Dempsey turns up on rte radio 1 each Christmas Eve as another alter ego. I thinks he’s been doing it for 40 years at this stage. Was also a part of Mike Murphy’s hidden camera wind up team in the 70s/80s

igCorcaigh

Classic stuff, but highly strange. Between Forty Coats and Wanderly Wagon, I think RTE were on something stronger than Guinness back in the day.

Hangdogroad

RIP Conal Kearney, who played Sofar. He died in early January but I only saw about it in a FB post now. He'd been working as a drama coach in recent years.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/celebs/tributes-paid-rte-fortycoats--28411444

Worztron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121777133#Comment_121777133

R.I.P.

z80CPU

So far so good. Goon sidekick.

Sneaky snake was boring as hell with the monologues.

Hangdogroad

Odd that RTE didn't give his passing a mention. Granted he wasn't an RTE employee but he did star in an iconic RTE 80s childrens show. Outside of Fortycoats he had an interesting career. Trained as a mime artist under Marcel Marceau and did a lot of roles with the Abbey.

Hangdogroad

I've only the vaguest memory of the Pickarooney, played by Des Nealon. How often did he appear in it? I dont think he was a regular protagonist like the Whirlygig Witch. No memory at all of the puppet thingy, presume that was his sidekick?

Hangdogroad

I meant antagonist.

I do have a vague memory of a male villain on the show kidnapping Slightly in one episode where he grabs her and carries her off over his shoulder while she's kicking and screaming. Maybe that was him?

I've no memory whatsoever of Robert Carrickford as "the Count" , whom I only know of through Wiki and Imdb listings for the show.

branie2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121795844#Comment_121795844

The Pickarooney was on Fortycoats' side.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121797077#Comment_121797077

Thought he was a villain?

branie2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121797315#Comment_121797315

From the episodes I saw, he was good

Hangdogroad

Because I have way too much time on my hands of a Saturday morning, I did a search on the Pickarooney on Irish News Archive from January 1983 to December 1987, the length of Fortycoats & Co run. He seemingly only appeared in the storyline titled "the Xeruak Mystery" which was shown in early December 1987, think it might have been the penultimate Fortycoats outing, certainly one of the last. So the Pickarooney wasn't a recurring character but more a "baddie of the week". Queen Roola Boola makes her only appearance in this story too.

Edit: turns out I was wrong. See below post.

Hangdogroad

Seems I was wrong about the Pickarooney not being a recurring character, "Enter The Pickaroony" was an early Fortycoats story from late January 1983, so he was there from the beginning. His name is spelt slightly differently here so this wasn't coming up in my earlier search.

Edit: a bit more exposition here on that storyline.

Hangdogroad

A few articles that add some exposition. November 83.

October 84

November 85.

Hangdogroad

I think the mime artist in the video for Minor Details 1983 single Canvas Of Life is Conal Kearney aka Sofar. I remember this being shown on RTE at the time. It looks very like him at just past the 3:00 minute mark, when he's shown without makeup.

https://youtu.be/HvGi1x1gapg?si=lttbrPhu1cKRsvx7

Hangdogroad

Its definitely him all right. From the same year as the episode of Fortycoats where the SoFar image comes from. Hair a bit shorter.

NewbridgeIR

Definitely him. I wrote that brief Minor Detail piece for Where's Grandad?

NewbridgeIR

Virginia Cole looking well in A Week In The Life Of Martin Cluxton, 1971

Hangdogroad

..

Hangdogroad

Also from November 1985.