There was a gap between Rikki the performer and Fulton the man that precious few managed to bridge.
“He didn’t come into a room and light it up,” said one contributor; another called him a “cold character”. His reserve was traced to the war. Fulton, who volunteered to join the Navy at 17, was on HMS Ibis when it was torpedoed in 1942 in the Bay of Algiers. Two-thirds of the crew were lost. For such a defining moment in his life it deserved more time than it was afforded here.
Given the Hogmanay scheduling the film was keen to move on to the comedy, with performers of today paying tribute to Fulton’s talents. It was here that matters became a tad trickier. As narrator Ashley Jensen said, some of the sketches were a “wee bit outdated”, which was putting it mildly.
Like the sketch where he played a hotelier refusing to give a room to an English visitor because he was “foreign” and a “smelly, scummy sassenach”. Or when a character fired a cannon at a “nagging” wife. They did not have non-crime hate incidents in those days, but if they did Supercop might have dropped round to have a word.
Yet in other ways Fulton was ahead of his time, tackling subjects that others would not dare, sectarianism included.
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A visionary but a man of his time, someone who loved to delight people but people didn’t always delight him. Like all the best sorts, Fulton was a mass of contradictions.
On the plus side he adored his wife, Kate Matheson, they both loved dogs, leaving a million to the SSPCA in their wills, and he had funny bones, whether playing Supercop and the Rev IM Jolly or one-half of Francie and Josie. When he died traffic cops led the cortege past crowds pavement-deep.
Don’t know about you, but I have always felt Scottish baronial architecture fails to get the appreciation it deserves. So I was delighted when contestants on The Traitors (BBC1, Wednesday-Friday), whooped with delight at first sight of Ardross Castle, home to the BBC’s ratings juggernaut.
Even Ardross had to take second place to the next vision to shimmer before contestants. “It’s Claudia!” the crowd cried. Such is the power of this reality TV show, and its host, to pull in younger viewers. If Strictly ever fell (and for a moment back there it came close), Traitors would be the front line in the battle to preserve the licence fee – high stakes.
Well, not that high. A prize of £120,000 for the winner is hardly Who Wants to Be a Millionaire territory, but it’s not chump change. More important for the contestants seems to be the chance to be in the real-life “Traitors Castle” with the real-life Claudia (below) and her real-life fringe.
The producers continue to hone the format, with less emphasis on the team-building games and more plotting. With the show now in its third series, players think they know enough to shift the odds in their favour. Mad fools. Amid the silliness, there are some sharp assessments of human nature to be found. One contestant was dumped early doors for being too clever. “She was reading the books in the library,” someone complained.
The Split (BBC1, Sunday-Monday) was a nice surprise, a long, refreshing blast of sunshine from Catalonia where a dream wedding was taking place. Odd that, since Abi Morgan’s drama set in the world of divorce lawyers is not usually much of an advertisement for matrimony.
But divorced parents Nathan and Hannah (Stephen Mangan and Nicola Walker) had reached that happy place of being friends again. All they had to do was advise their daughter Liv (Elizabeth Roberts) on the prenup her prospective mother-in-law had insisted upon, and everyone would live happily ever after.
The Traitors is back (Image: Euan Cherry)
Mercifully it was more complicated and much soapier, than that. If Santa could sort it, perhaps Morgan would grant viewers an annual festive catch-up with Hannah, her sisters, and their mother.
Susan Calman must have some very forgiving cats, such is the amount of time she spends on her travels. I know felines are independent sorts but Calman doesn’t half put in the miles.
Susan Calman’s Cruise of a Lifetime (Channel 5, Friday) was, she said, “my most epic journey yet”. I’ll say. She spent the first hour travelling across India before just to board the ship.
Seasoned traveller though she is, India proved more than a tad overwhelming as she dived into the traffic in New Delhi. Realising that her cycling proficiency test at the Brownies had not prepared her adequately for this day, she took to laughing hysterically, always a good option.
Maybe it was the traffic horns, the heat, the jet lag, but this was Calman unleashed and very interesting it was too. “India is changing cautious Calman into spontaneous Susan,” she observed. It ended in tears of course, albeit the happy kind.