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Thomas "Tam" Mullen is the main antagonist of the BBC comedy series Still Game. He is one of the series staple characters and is renowned amongst his peers for being a tight-fisted, egotistical con-artist who shows rare moments of generosity and goodness.
He was portrayed by Mark Cox.
Appearance[]
Tam is a man of short stature with short light blonde hair that is neatly kept. He usually wears a blue jacket, with various jumpers, shirts and ties and trousers. He also occasionally wears a tartan flat cap. He is also seen in a tartan scarf sometimes.
Role[]
Mullen is a cheap, gambling man who is always looking for a scheme to con anyone out of their money including his friends, these can include from forcing them into giving him free belongings or buying a drink for them.
He shows his more villainous side in episodes such as Cairds when he wins the mobility scooter of disabled acquaintance Joe Douglas, in a game of poker and refuses to give it back, giving technicalities as excuses and generally behaving in a callous manner about the situation. In the end he was arrested for making fun of and hassling two police officers he mistook for prankster actors. In Hyper, when he already went through a short period of time with a huge personality shift after a shock caused by a toaster he reverts back to his old self after spilling a can of lager down a massage chair while locked in the Hyperdales superstore after hours. Tam begins a rampage of thievery to the point where Jack, Victor, Winston and Navid have to restrain and confine him to a stock cage until they manage to escape thanks to Winston accidentally setting fire to the shop. In series seven finale Down and Out, he Winston to die in the Osprey Heights apartment block, which was about to be demolished after Winston was pinned under a wooden board with his false leg popping off. Winston gets him back, however, when the demolition fails, and he manages to escape and catch up to Tam, Winston whacks him over the head with his prosthetic, knocking Tam unconscious.
Tam has also been shown to have a caring side, however, like when Jack was hospitalized in series six's One In One Out, after he suffered a heart attack while babysitting Tam's baby son, Tam. Jr. Tam feels very guilty about this and when he, Winston and Isa visit the hospital he apologizes and Jack forgives him. In series five's Drama he also helps Winston expose "Frankie" the Bookie as Stevie posing as his own older brother in order to get back money Winston rightfully won that Stevie was withholding from him. Later in the episode he also uncharacteristically offers to buy a shaken and disheveled Winston a pint when the latter has almost blown all of his money on a poor bet. Another example of Tam being good appears in the episode Pie, where it is revealed that despite being married, he has befriended an old widow with a lot of money. At the episode's climax, it is revealed that the woman (who has by now passed away) was the mother of an old school acquaintance of Tam's. The daughter ran over and killed Tam's boyhood pet cat with her bicycle when he was ten; he explains that he has been with the woman to convince her to change her will to leave her money to the Cat's Protection Lottery charity, and not to her daughter. However, this does not stop Tam passing the late woman's pet cat to a new owner and haggling about the price.
In the final series, Tam redeemed himself in the episode Dead Leg - Part Two when he faked his death in order to give Winston his life insurance money, so he could have an operation to fix his gangrene-infested leg and prevent him from losing it like he already lost his other leg.
Along with the other elderly characters, Tam eventually passes away during a time skip montage, last appearing running down the street to pick up a ten pence coin.
Trivia[]
- He is the youngest out of the main cast in Still Game, with him being 70 years old at the start of the series.
- Tam seems to have an infrequent connection with cats, with Jack and Victor comparing his behaviour and actions to one ("bastard! He moves like a cat!"), when trying to remind him of his old personality during "Hyper" Winston brings up the story of how Tam gave his new cat the same name of "Missy" after his previous one died just because he didn't want to buy a new collar and finally as mentioned above in "Pie" where he befriends an old, rich widow who he convinces leaving her riches behind to the Cat Protection League, in return being left her own cat for himself in the will.