Only an Excuse?

Only an Excuse? is an annual Scottish football comedy sketch show that airs each Hogmanay.

Starring actor and comedian Jonathan Watson, the show features 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

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?,^[1] which had aired in Scotland prior to the 1986 World Cup Finals and comprehensively documented the history of Scottish football. The documentary was narrated by Scottish novelist William McIlvanney.^[2] Jonathan Watson expertly mimicked McIlvanney's distinctive voice as narrator of 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 made the switch 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 in the Hogmanay television schedules. A new episode of Only an Excuse? has been shown every New Year's Eve since then.

The increasing popularity of the programme has seen it transferred to 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, and DVDs of the programme are regularly released.

As of 2014, 22 episodes have been aired.^[2]

Spin-offs

Jonathan Watson appeared in a spin-off called Only a Wee Excuse on Tam Cowan's weekly Offside programme. Up until the last series, Watson's slot was a scaled-down version of the full show, but from the last series onward saw Watson appearing in the studio, without costume, to perform his impersonations (as in his theatre performances). Another noticeable difference is that Watson starts each segment in his own voice and sets the context and then ends again in his own voice saying "And that Tam was the week that wisnae".

Watson featured in a sketch in the BBC's Children in Need 2008 telethon as Alex Ferguson being interviewed by Adrian Chiles.

Cast

• Jonathan Watson
• Tony Roper - (1993–1994)
• Alistair McGowan - (1996–1998)
• Greg Hemphill - (1995)
• Lewis MacLeod - (1995)
• Gordon Kennedy - (1996)
• Gerald Kelly
• Grant Smeaton - (from 1997)
• Paul Reid - (2000–2001)
• Geoff Boyz - (2001)
• Julie Austin - (2013)

References

External links

• Only an Excuse? at BBC Online on BBC website
• Only an Excuse? at the Internet Movie Database
• The Comedy Guide