Johnny Beattie

SCOTCH AND DIE


Glasgow comic Johnny Beattie has died after a short time in a local hospice. He worked on the Govan shipyards before moving into comedy after the Second World War. His 1960s sketch show, Johnny Beattie’s Saturday Night Show, was a trailblazer for Scottish comedy, and directly led to the creation of Rikki Fulton’s Scotch and Wry, in which Beattie frequently appeared. He gave a young Billy Connolly his first break in comedy by getting him to work for Beattie as a writer, and his mantra that jokes should be laughing “with the audience, not at them” inspired countless comedians in his wake. He moved into acting, with an appearance in Taggart in the 1990s, and finished up in recent years with a recurring role in Glasgow soap River City. He was also often called on to pay tribute to people who had predeceased him, mostly recently in January after the eath of Tom Alexander.
He was picked by three teams, including Banana’s B-team, and 2 DDP veterans: Windsor the Troll, who hasn’t complained about anything in a while, and Dave’s Dead, Aye Dead Drunk, who have been around so long a previous DDP 2020 pun was based around their team name. Well done to all three.


Johnny Beattie
9 November 1926 – 9 July 2020
3 teams