Fortycoats & Co.


Fortycoats & Co. is an Irish children's television drama series produced by RTÉ and broadcast on RTÉ One during the 1980s. The series was cancelled in the early 1990s.

Plot

The show featured the adventures of the title character Fortycoats - his catchphrase was "Be me forty coats and me fifty pockets" - and his companions Sofar Sogood, a prim goody two shoes character and Slightly Bonkers, a naive schoolgirl. They occupied the Flying Trick Shop and battled against the evil Whilomena, the Whirligig Witch and the equally evil Pickarooney.

Cast

Main cast

Origins of Fortycoats

The name Johnny Fortycoats first appears in Dublin folklore in the 1930s. It may perhaps have been applied to more than one person, including one of a couple of tramps who walked the coast of Dublin at the time of the television series. A wild looking man, well recognized in the city centre and harmless as anyone knew. He was far removed from the world of television. It was his habit to wear several coats, hence the nickname.

''Wanderly Wagon''

The show was a spin-off from Wanderly Wagon, in which Fortycoats was played by Bill Golding, who also played Rory. The in joke of the programme was that Fortycoats only ever visited in his flying sweetshop when Rory had gone off on some errand and Rory seemed to doubt Fortycoats existence because he never met him. When Goulding left the series, Fran Dempsey took over the heavily disguised role of Fortycoats but not that of Rory, who was written out.

Criticisms

described it as "a rehash of our program".

In other media

Books

Kildanore Press published two annuals based on Wanderly Wagon, written by Martin Duffy and illustrated by Don Conroy.