Comedian dies after two-year battle with Alzheimer's

RIKKI Fulton, one of the kings of Scottish comedy, is dead. He was 79.

The comedian and actor, who was an integral part of Scottish life with his Scotch & Wry and Rev IM Jolly Hogmanay television shows, died last night in a Yoker nursing home where he has been cared for since being diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer's disease nearly two years ago.

His wife, Kate, who was with him when he passed away, said: ''It was an incredibly peaceful end. Rikki had not been able to talk for the last couple of days but he was always a great kisser and had not lost that talent when he kissed me goodbye.

''He had developed an infection last year while in hospital and the doctors feared that, as happens with many Alzheimer's sufferers, it would take him away.

''Rikki had a very strong heart and managed to survive but the infection came back and took him this time. He would have been 80 in April.

''He had also suffered from a broken hip as a result of a fall and was not able to go for walks which was one of his favourite pastimes, especially with our West Highland terrier Jake.''

Tony Roper, the comedian who worked with Fulton on many of his TV programmes and who co-wrote two IM Jolly books, had been a regular visitor to the nursing home in recent months.

He said last night: ''Rikki's death will leave a massive hole in people's hearts. It is a huge loss and a great sadness.

''He cheered so many people into a new year with his television programmes. He brought such joy and for fleeting moments lifted our burdens.''

Roper, who was a leading member of the repertory of actors who appeared with Fulton in many series of Scotch & Wry, added: ''I remember taking Rikki and his wife to dinner in the Corinthian in Glasgow. There were a lot of young people there and four or five broke away to shake his hand and thank Rikki for all the pleasure he had given them.

''He was in the early throes of the disease but he was so pleased. It was not an ego thing. He was pleased because he had left something for them.''

Roper recalled that he had met Fulton in a play called Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estates. ''He said he thought I was quite good. He put me in all sorts of things after that. He gave my career a great boost and I owe a huge chunk of my success to him.''

He added: ''We formed a great friendship. I became very close when he asked me to take on the writing of IM Jolly. It's nice to see him at rest at last.''

Jack Webster, the former Herald columnist, said: ''My own particular satisfaction lies in the fact that I discovered Rikki for myself, without ever having heard his name mentioned by anyone. It was back in the early 1950s, before the days of television, when I used to tune the wireless into The BBC Showband Show - introduced by Rikki Fulton.

''From the mid-Atlantic tones which suited this particular programme, I wasn't sure if he was English or American. All I knew was that I reckoned he had the best voice in broadcasting, an attractive mixture of show-business glamour and good interviewing clarity.

''These regular shows, which came from the Paris Cinema in central London, gave him the chance to introduce singing stars from Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney to Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine. It was the kind of programme which appealed to my generation.''

In July 2002, The Herald revealed that Fulton was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which leads to a decline in mental activity in old age.

The first signs that he was suffering from the disease were detected by his wife. She said: ''Rikki was in an episode of Rab C Nesbitt and I noticed he had some trouble remembering his lines. This was unheard of before. He was known as one-take Fulton.

''Suffering from Alzheimer's should be a very private and personal matter and we had hoped we might be left alone to get on with life. But Rikki is so well-known that this proved impossible.''

Fulton was best known as one half of the Francie and Josie partnership, and for his portrayal of the Rev I M Jolly.

His Scotch & Wry programmes became a Hogmanay institution, with characters such as Jolly, the archetypal downbeat Church of Scotland minister, and Supercop, the glaikit motor-cycle policeman.

Scotch & Wry first went out in 1978, and was to run for 15 years, under the masterly direction of Gordon Menzies, with the Rev IM Jolly welcome in every household in the land.

In a previous and equally successful comic incarnation Fulton and his late colleague, Jack Milroy, entertained audiences as Francie and Josie, the terrible Scottish teddy boys.

Francie and Josie became the best loved duo in Scottish entertainment. The first television episodes of The Adventures of Francie and Josie were screened in Scotland and Northern Ireland only, and were rapturously received.

In a varied career, Rikki Fulton, the boy from Glasgow's east end, tried his hand at everything from announcer on Show Band, an early BBC television music programme, to the leading role in A Wee Touch Of Class, a theatre adaptation of Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Typical of his diversity of talent, he co-wrote the script.

Fulton made only a few appearances in films, most notably as a sinister character in the Soviet thriller Gorky Park. He also appeared in Scottish director Bill Forsyth's films, Local Hero and Comfort And Joy. His all-round contribution to Scottish life was marked by honorary degrees from several universities, and in 1993 he received a lifetime achievement award from Bafta Scotland.

A career in spotlight

Born Dennistoun, Glasgow, April 15, 1924.

Got his first taste of theatre as a boy when he was taken to the Alexandra Parade Pavilion in Dennistoun by his mother where he became enchanted by the concert parties, especially the pierrots.

Joined a concert party to raise money for the Red Cross in 1938, playing In Dishonour Among Thieves.

In 1939, he worked as a clerk in a coal company and joined the navy two years later. It was when training at HMS Ganges, near Harwich, that the aspiring artist entered a talent competition and played his own arrangement of the Warsaw Concerto.

After demob from the war, he returned to Glasgow and joined the Pantheon amateur dramatic club and applied for an audition with BBC Scotland.

On January 15, 1947, the nation heard his voice in The Gowrie Conspiracy, a play for schools.

Broke into film in the early 1950s with a small part in Laxdale Hall, a film about a small Hebridean island which refuses to pay its road tax.

In 1959, sought out Jack Milroy and asked if he would be interested in joining the Five Past Eight Show. As Francie and Josie, Rikki and Jack went on to become the best-loved duo in Scottish entertainment.

First appeared in BBC Scotland's Scotch and Wry in 1978, which ran for 15 years and became a traditional Hogmanay institution.

Received Bafta lifetime achievement award in 1993.

Revealed in 2002 that he had Alzheimer's disease.