Only an Excuse? resonated with a generation of Celtic and Scottish football fans.
The BBC Scotland sketch show poked fun at a huge variety of figures, from Sir Alex Ferguson to Tommy Burns to Brendan Rodgers.
It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but was a staple of Scottish television for 27 years from 1993 to 2020, being broadcast once a year on Hogmanay.
There was barely a Scottish football figure it didn’t impersonate over that time, but perhaps the most famous recurring character was Frank McAvennie.
And the ex-Celtic man has discussed his character five years on from the show being discontinued – and one thing he regrets not doing.
Former Celtic favourite Frank McAvennie on his Only an Excuse catchphrase
Everyone who saw the OAE? version of McAvennie will remember that it painted him in an… interesting light.
But it helped give him celebrity status in Scotland, even among non-football fans.
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Speaking with Chick Young – another man notoriously portrayed on the show – on the Let Me Be Frank Podcast, McAvennie discussed the interactions he had with the show’s creator Jonathan Watson, and one thing he wishes he did about his character.
He said: “We were having a laugh with Jonny [Watson] that we should’ve patented that, ‘Where’s the birds?’ So that every time someone said it we would’ve got a penny. We would’ve been wealthy people.
“He didn’t initially do me, he did the wig and that but it was Tony Roper that done me, because he did my voice and got me down to a tee. It was Tony that started it, and then Jonny that took it to another level.
“I used to go to the Hilton every year for the ball at Hogmanay, and people said ‘you were brilliant earlier.’ I’m like that, ‘do you know it’s not me!?’ It’s two completely different people; they can’t get it.”
For the record, Young made it clear on the podcast that he is definitely not a Rangers fan.
Frank McAvennie, the footballer
Beginning his career at junior side Johnstone Burgh, McAvennie went on to hit the 100 appearance mark at three different clubs.
Joining St Mirren at the age of 20, he won the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year in 1982 before moving to West Ham three years later.
He scored 26 goals in his first season in the English top-flight, bettered only by Gary Lineker. He became Celtic’s record signing in the Hoops’ iconic Centenary season.
Despite only ever receiving five caps for Scotland, he was clearly a fantastic player in his own right – he came back for a second spell at Celtic Park which didn’t come at a great time for him or the club.
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