Norton Folgate
Norton Folgate was a member of Torchwood One in the 1950s. He spied on his teammates on behalf of the Committee, and later worked with his lover Jeremiah Bash Henderson to restore them to life after their defeat by the Enemy.
Biography
Early life
Norton's father was a vicar, which meant that he grew up in a church in London. His mother would sew hassocks for the church, spending most of her time during World War II doing so, but the church was bombed and her hard work was destroyed. She had been snobbish and not fond of the Cockneys and the couple moved to a parish in the Cotswolds. Norton often felt the spare child as his parents preferred his elder brother, Gerald. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)
He did national service at the Joint Services School for Linguists. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm) He did not visit his parents, as they disapproved of his being gay. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)
He had an aunt named Faye. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
Career at Torchwood One
Early career
Whilst doing National Service, (AUDIO: Parasite) Norton joined Torchwood One, (AUDIO: Outbreak) a choice that his parents disagreed with. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission) He worked in Alien Acquisitions under Reginald Rigsby. (AUDIO: Parasite)
In the wake of the war, Norton and his team had to deal with a large amount of black market trading in alien artefacts as a result of the number of spacecraft shot down. However, they were mostly called out to the sites of unexploded bombs. At some point, he began working for the Committee. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)
Norton met Lizbeth Hayhoe in 1951 as she prepared the Skylon for the Festival of Britain when Rigsby sent him to supply her with a list of additional requirements with which he disagreed. She described him as one of Rigsby's "bright boys" and was able to tell from his posture that he was the son of a pastor. (AUDIO: Parasite)
In June 1953, Folgate was at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation at Westminster Abbey with the Vicar and Rigsby. (AUDIO: Parasite)
Visiting the future
Norton was reprimanded for using a soft-light projection device to visit the future. (AUDIO: Outbreak) He used it in 1953 to visit 2016 in order to find Object 1, under the Committee's orders. He approached Andy Davidson in 2016 claiming to be an assessor for Torchwood. Norton and Andy investigated a spillage of a green liquid which killed a man, and found a clone factory in an abandoned set of flats. Norton found Object 1, which gave him a body whilst he wore it. He took Andy along with him to meet the Committee in Bide-a-Wee Care Home. There they congratulated him and told him to take it back to 1953. He left a note for Jane, telling her to say hello to Andy. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)
On the Committee’s orders, Norton passed Object 1 on to a gangster, Mandrake. Mandrake confronted him about why he came to his place and was very homophobic towards him. After being kicked out by Mandrake, Norton conversed with Mitford about the Committee's plans. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
The Good Thinking virus
In the 1950s, Norton gave an alien pathogen to the United States government for the development of the Good Thinking virus, which was tested on death row inmates but spread out of control. Norton was brought in to control it, but discovered there was no cure except containing and burning the infected. He watched a number of other men who were infected burn and Jack Harkness rush into try to save them, burning in the process. Norton later visited Jack in the hospital. He found the tests had been abhorrent and helped destroyed all trace of the virus, although some survived and were kept by Heights Pharmaceuticals. He entered into a sexual relationship with Jack and devised a protocol with him if the virus returned. By the mid-'50s, Norton had killed somebody that he loved, something that he never wished to do again.
Via soft light projection, Norton was brought from 1955 to 2009 by Ianto Jones to provide answers about Good Thinking. Ianto eventually threatened him for information he’d kept as a backup, claiming he would track down his future self as there was no record of his death. Norton placed the documents in a timed sealed container in the Hub vaults, exploiting the protocol he’d devised with Jack. and also programmed the cell doors to open to unleash the infected Jack on Ianto. After appearing to encourage Jack in hunting Ianto, he told Ianto how to initiate the emergency sterilisation system. Just before going into Stage 4, Jack broke the projector, sending Norton back to 1955. (AUDIO: Outbreak)
Bringing down the Vicar
Torchwood One’s leader, the Vicar, started to suspect that Norton was a double agent and dealing alien weaponry with gangsters but allowed to bring a Torchwood assessor to help clear his name. Norton brought Andy back in time to Soho in the 1950s to assist him, however they were attacked by a gangster loyal to Fat Kim and the pair woke up naked in a bed chained to a bedstead. He took Andy to his boyfriend's where he had stored an alien painting, which he used to implant the key to an alien war machine in Andy’s mind. Andy insisted on them finding a way to remove it however as they were seeking a psychic they were pursued by Fat Kim’s men and encountered the Vicar, who chastised him for apparently selling alien arms on the black market. Norton took Andy to a public toilet to retrieve some hidden alien weaponry in a Soho toilet but it was raided by the police before they could leave and he was charged for gross indecency. The police hosed them down after Andy irritated them by criticising their procedure and left them to be interrogated by Fat Kim.
Norton managed to grab one of his confiscated alien devices to transport them away and took Andy to meet a psychic at a brothel posing as a life drawing class. They were directed to a strip club to get an alien to try and remove the alien key in Andy's head, but they were unable to. They were ambushed by Fat Kim just as the Vicar arrived with Torchwood forces, with Norton insisting he wasn’t dealing with Kim. In the ensuing skirmish, Kim used Andy to activate a tripod under Leicester square, which the Vicar wanted to destroy with Andy inside, however Norton insisted on getting Andy out. He climbed into the tripod and helped Andy confront Kim, killing her by moving the key to her head, and the disabled tripod collapsed, killing the Vicar. With the Vicar and Fat Kim killed, the only two people aware of Norton’s criminal dealings were gone leading to Andy speculating that Norton had set him up. Rather than explain his complicated loyalties, Norton sent Andy back to the 21st century. (AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly)
Work at Room 13
Whilst working in Room 13, Norton was tricked into allowing Adam Smith into Torchwood after he promised to use his memory manipulation abilities to make Norton leader of Torchwood. With his memory falling under Adam’s influence, Norton managed to contact the Kernaz for aid as they were hunting for Adam. Norton and Lizbeth Hayhoe struggled to realise something was wrong as Adam took over Torchwood and rallied them to fight against the approaching Kernaz, however eventually deduced what was going on, despite numerous setbacks in their investigation when Adam kept altering their memories. On the day of war with the Kernaz, Norton and Lizbeth managed to disable Torchwood’s weaponry, enabling the Kernaz to send Adam into the Void. (AUDIO: Madam, I’m)
Flight 405 and Torchwood Three
Norton boarded Flight 405 in order to obtain the Lens for the Committee. However, he found himself caught in a time loop for which he blamed Jack Harkness, believing that he had put the plane in a time loop to stop the lens from falling into the wrong hands. After sixty years aboard the plane, he managed to hijack Yvonne Hartman's attempted summoning of Ianto as a hard-light hologram by using the lens. As a hologram, he assisted Yvonne and Andy in saving himself. He and Yvonne later gave the lens to Roy per their instructions. (AUDIO: Flight 405, Eye of the Storm)
Thanks to God, Norton switched bodies with Tyler Steele, with whom he had sex. He also had sex with Jay and proposed to him, causing him to flee. They were later restored. (AUDIO: Another Man's Shoes)
Norton continued to work with Yvonne to further the Committee's plans to utilise the power of the Rift, during which time he attacked both Jack and St John Colchester. Eventually, he realised that the Committee had double-crossed him and were planning on wiping out the Earth. He attempted to ruin their plans by diverting energy using the Lens, resulting in him trapping himself aboard Flight 405. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)
Fate
When Ianto Jones looked up Norton in 2009, there was no record of his death. Ianto believed that an elderly Norton might be out there. (AUDIO: Outbreak) However, Norton found his own skeleton on Flight 405. (AUDIO: Parasite)
Undated events
In the far future, Norton and his lover Jeremiah Bash Henderson planned to revive the Committee after their defeat by the Enemy, in part because they wanted their money. Jeremiah visited the Torchwood Archive and learnt about Object 1 and how they could use it to revive them. The two subsequently left, after blowing up the archive using a fake object. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
Alternate timeline
As a member of the Torchwood Institute, Norton Folgate answered directly to John Hart in an alternate timeline in which he took control of Torchwood and became King of the British Empire. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
Personality
Norton was camp, flamboyant and sarcastic. Andy remarked that he very rarely said anything helpful, preferring to make flippant comments. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission) He was very afraid of heights (AUDIO: Parasite) and was sensitive about his age. (AUDIO: Outbreak, Parasite)
Norton liked ham sandwiches, scrambled eggs and tea, which, after the end of rationing, he realised that he did not enjoy with too many sugars. (AUDIO: Parasite)
Behind the scenes
Norton Folgate was named after a street in London. (BFX: Parasite)
