Fortycoats & Co.

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Fortycoats & Co. was 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.

The show featured the adventures of the title character Fortycoats (Fran Dempsey) - his catchphrase was "Be me forty coats and me fifty pockets" - and his companions Sofar Sogood (played by Conal Kearney), a prim goody two shoes character and Slightly Bonkers (played by Virginia Cole), a naive schoolgirl. They occupied the Flying Trick Shop (also known as the Flying Tuck Shop) and battled against the evil Whilomena, the Whirligig Witch (and her cat) and the equally evil Pickarooney (who lived in a rubbish tip and kidnapped children).

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, universally recognized (Dublin is a large village), harmless as anyone knew. He was far removed from the world of television. It was his habit to wear several coats, hence the nickname.

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 Bill Golding left the series, Fram Dempsey took over the heavily-disguised role of Fortycoats but not that of Rory, who was written out.

Eugene Lambert (creator of Wanderly Wagon) appears not to hold the show in very high regard - describing it as "a rehash of our program" and pointing out that the Lambert family had nothing at all do do with the production.^[1]

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