The Goodies

Has anyone else been basking in the sheer fun and warm nostalgia of the Beeb's reruns of the boys classic misadventures over the holiday period?

Elliott had his first exposure to the show with last night's story and he absolutely loved it. we laughed our way through the entire half hour - and dear old Patrick Troughton was just a sheer delight as the Richard the Thirdesque evil mad scientist.

I'd honestly forgotten how much I'd loved The Goodies back in the day.

It was a great show really funny with an appearance of the 2nd doctor

Yep, seeing Pat Troughton having fun was just an extra added bonus. I'll see if I can hunt down more Goodies episodes for you when I have the chance.

I saw most of one episode and the last five minutes of another. The Goodies always make me first wonder why such nonsense might be found funny and then notice that I am quite incapacitated with laughter...

Exactly. It's laughter via stealth. You really do set out convinced that it's just too ridiculous to actually make you laugh.

And then...

The Goodies are a trio of British comedians (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie), who created, wrote, and starred in a surreal British television comedy series called The Goodies during the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy.

The three actors in The Goodies met as students at the University of Cambridge, where Brooke-Taylor was studying law, Garden was studying medicine, and Oddie was studying English. It was as undergraduate students at the University that Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie met John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, who would later become founding members of Monty Python. This group of students became close friends and Brooke-Taylor and Cleese, who were both law students, but at different colleges within the university, studied together, swapping lecture notes.[1] They all became members of the Cambridge University Footlights Club, with Brooke-Taylor becoming president in 1963, and Garden succeeding him as president in 1964.[1][2]

Garden himself was succeeded as Footlights Club president in 1965 by Idle, who had initially become aware of the Footlights Club when he auditioned for a Pembroke College "smoker" for Brooke-Taylor and Oddie.

ooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie were cast members of the highly successful 1960s BBC radio comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which also featured Cleese, David Hatch and Jo Kendall, and lasted until 1973. I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again resulted from the successful 1963 Cambridge University Footlights Club revue A Clump of Plinths. After having its title changed to Cambridge Circus, the revue went on to play at West End in London, England, followed by a tour of New Zealand and Broadway in New York, United States of America (including an appearance on the top-rated Ed Sullivan Show).

They also took part in various TV shows with other people, including Brooke-Taylor in At Last the 1948 Show (with Cleese, Chapman and Marty Feldman), and Brooke-Taylor taking part in Marty (with Marty Feldman, John Junkin and Roland MacLeod). Garden and Oddie took part in Twice a Fortnight (with Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Jonathan Lynn), before Brooke-Taylor, Garden, and Oddie worked on the late 1960s TV show Broaden Your Mind (of which only about ten minutes survives).

The Goodies television series was created by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie.

The episodes for the series were originally co-written by all three Goodies (Tim, Graeme and Bill). Later, the episodes were co-written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie.

The music for the show was written by Bill Oddie, and The Goodies' theme music was co-written by Bill Oddie and Michael Gibbs. The show also benefited greatly from the input of director Bob Spiers.

The television series ran from November 1970 to February 1982 on BBC 2, with 70 episodes, mostly thirty minutes in length except for two forty-five minute Christmas specials (The Goodies and the Beanstalk and The Goodies Rule – O.K.?). The costume designer for this episode was BBC costume designer Dee Robson.

It was one of the first shows in the UK to use chroma key and one of the first to use stop-motion techniques in a live action format. Other effects include hand editing for repeated movement, mainly used to make animals "talk" or "sing", and play speed effects as used in the episode "Kitten Kong".

The threesome travelled around on, and frequently fell off, a three-seater bicycle called the trandem.[3][4] One of these trandems was later cycled across Africa, a trip immortalised in the resultant book Three Men on a Bike.

Although The Goodies are well known for performing spectacular but comedic stunts, it was Tim Brooke-Taylor who performed most of them.

The Goodies never had a formal contract with the BBC, and when the BBC Light Entertainment budget for 1980 was exhausted by the production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series, they signed a contract with London Weekend Television for ITV. However, after one half-hour Christmas special ("Snow White 2") in 1981, and a six-part series in early 1982, the series was cancelled. In recent interviews the cast suggest the reasons were mainly economic — a typical Goodies sketch was more expensive than it appeared.

A special episode, which was based on the original 1971 Goodies' "Kitten Kong" episode, was called "Kitten Kong: Montreux '72 Edition", and was first broadcast in 1972. The Goodies won the Silver Rose in 1972 for this special episode at the Festival Rose d'Or, held in Montreux, Switzerland. The Goodies also won the Silver Rose in 1975 at the Festival Rose d'Or for their episode The Movies.

The Goodies was nominated for a BAFTA award in 1976, as the Best Light Entertainment Programme, but lost out to Fawlty Towers.

Unlike most long-running BBC comedy series, The Goodies has not enjoyed extensive repeats on terrestrial television in the UK, the BBC refusing to allow them since 1986 because the controller of the BBC during the 1980s did not personally like the series[citation needed]. Because the series appeals to children for its visual humour, in Britain it is often incorrectly described as a children's programme. Therefore, the series has never enjoyed the same artistic respect as contemporaries such as Peter Cook and the Monty Python team. Also, when the BBC released two videos of the series in the 1990s, the BBC did not seem enthusiastic about promoting them.

In the late 1980s, the pan-European satellite-channel Super Channel broadcast a couple of episodes and the short-lived Comedy Channel broadcast some of the later Goodies episodes in the early 1990s. Later UK Gold screened many of the earlier episodes, often with commercial timing cuts. The same episodes subsequently aired on UK Arena, also cut. When UK Arena became UK Drama, later UKTV Drama, The Goodies was dropped along with its other comedy and documentary shows.

The cast finally took matters into their own hands and arranged for the release of a digitally-remastered "best of" selection entitled The Goodies ... At Last on VHS and Region 0 DVD in April, 2003. A second volume, The Goodies ... At Last a Second Helping was released on Region 2 in February, 2005. Series 9 was released on Region 2 as The Goodies - The Complete LWT Series on 26 March 2007.

They also presented the Christmas 1976 Disney Time from the toy department of Selfridges store in London. It was broadcast on Boxing Day at 5.50 pm.

In 2004, an episode of the BBC documentary series Comedy Connections was devoted to the Goodies.

Christmas 2005 saw a 90-minute Goodies special, including a documentary about the series, Return of the Goodies, broadcast on BBC Two. However, only clips of the series were shown, rather than any full episodes. This special was repeated on BBC Two on 13 November 2010.[5]

Early on in 2006 a single episode about the Winter Olympics was broadcast on BBC Two but was not followed by any more.

In February 2007, the 1982 LWT series was repeated on pay-TV channel Paramount 2. In December 2010 BBC Two decided to show some repeats which ran from 23- 31 December that year after Bill Oddie had been complaining for many years about The Goodies never being repeated.

In Australia, the series has had continued popularity and many Australians are surprised to learn of its absence from British screens. It was repeated through the 1970s and 1980s by the ABC — although, as the show was typically broadcast in the 25-minute 6:00 p.m. children's timeslot, portions often had to be cut. The LWT series was played once on Seven in the early eighties, and the BBC episodes were heavily edited when repeated on Ten in the 1990s. The unedited episodes were repeated frequently on the pay television channel UK.TV during the 1990s and early 2000s. The DVDs are available in Australia under different titles to the UK releases: The Goodies: 8 Delicious Episodes, The Goodies: A Tasty Second Helping and The Goodies: The Final Episodes, respectively. The Goodies' DVDs are also available in a box set with a commemorative booklet (The Goodies: The Tasty Box). This collection contains the same 16 episodes as the original two DVD releases but with additional material such as commentaries on several episodes and the original scripts of some episodes in PDF format. Picture quality has been greatly improved using digital restoration techniques and the episode Come Dancing, which was originally thought to only have survived in black and white, is presented in low-band colour from a chroma-keyed video recording.

On Monday, 26 July 2010 the ABC2 Digital Channel commenced re-runs of the series, commencing with the Kitten Kong episode. The programme aired at 8pm.

In the United States, the series was shown widely in syndication during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but has been little seen since. It was shown also on PBS stations, sometimes in tandem with Monty Python's Flying Circus. The series was also shown in Canada on the CBC national broadcast network during those same years, in the traditional "after school" time slot, later a Friday night 10 pm slot, and occasionally in a midnight slot. Several episodes were also shown on the CTV Television Network and on TVOntario

In Germany, The Goodies was shown in the late seventies as part of the variety show Engelbert and the Young Generation. The show was dubbed into German, and, because the jokes were more visual than dialogue based, it translated very well.

In Spain, a couple of episodes of The Goodies were shown as part of a season of television-award winning programmes (the Goodies being Montreux Festival winners) on TVE 2 entitled Festival TV in 1981.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was a writer/performer on the television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show (which also included John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman in the cast), in which Eric Idle and Bill Oddie guest starred in some of the episodes. The famous "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was co-written by the four writers/performers of the series — Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman. The sketch was one of the few that survived the destruction of the series (by the tapes being wiped), by David Frost's Paradine Productions (which produced the series). The sketch appears on the DVD of At Last the 1948 Show. It is fortunate that any episodes remain after their wholesale destruction — and these were only saved because John Cleese discovered to his horror that the tapes for "At Last the 1948 Show" were being destroyed and fought to save the remaining five episodes from suffering the same fate. There were originally thirteen episodes of the series altogether — so more than half of the series have been lost to posterity (all the surviving material was released on DVD in 2005). Lost episodes are still being sought by BBC Archive Treasure Hunt.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was a cast member of the television comedy series Marty with Marty Feldman and John Junkin — a compilation of the two series of Marty has been released on a DVD with the title of It's Marty.

Brooke-Taylor was also a cast member of John Cleese's special How to Irritate People.

Along with John Junkin and Barry Cryer, Brooke-Taylor was a regular cast member of the long running Radio 2 comedy sketch show Hello, Cheeky!, which ran from 1973 to 1979. The series also transferred to Yorkshire Television for two series in 1975 and 1976.

Tim Brooke-Taylor also appeared on BBC's hospital comedy TLC, as well as the sitcoms You Must Be The Husband (with Diane Keen and Sheila Steafel), and Me and My Girl (with Richard O'Sullivan and Joan Sanderson). He also played in a televised pro-celebrity golf match opposite Bruce Forsyth.

Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie were writers/performers on the television comedy series Twice a Fortnight (which also included Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Jonathan Lynn in the cast).

Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden were writers/performers on the television comedy series Broaden Your Mind, with Bill Oddie joining them for the second series.

The three writers and performers also collaborated on the 1983 animated children's programme Bananaman, where they played various (voice) roles.

Bill Oddie has occasionally appeared on the BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, on which Garden and Brooke-Taylor are regular panellists.

Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie worked on the television comedy Doctor in the House: they co-wrote most of the first series and all of the second. Garden also appeared as a television interviewer in the series, in the episode titled "On the Box".

In 1982 Garden and Oddie wrote, but did not perform in, a six-part science fiction sitcom called Astronauts for Central and ITV. The show was set in an international space station in the near future.

Garden was a regular team captain on the political satire game show If I Ruled the World. Brooke-Taylor appeared as a guest in one episode, and during the game "I Couldn't Disagree More" he proposed that it was high time The Goodies episodes were repeated. Garden was obliged by the rules of the game to refute this statement, and replied "I couldn't disagree more...it was time to repeat them ten, fifteen years ago." This was followed by uproarious applause from the studio audience.

In 2004, Garden and Brooke-Taylor were co-presenters of Channel 4's daytime game show Beat the Nation, in which they indulged in usual game show "banter", but took the quiz itself seriously. Oddie hosts a very successful series of nature programmes for the BBC.

The trio reunited in Australia for The Goodies (Still A) Live on Stage as part of Sydney's Big Laugh Comedy Festival in March 2005. The show toured the country, visiting Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra and selling out most of the 13 performances.[6]

A further Australian tour by the Goodies, sans Bill, took place during November and December 2005.[7]

Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden took their Goodies Live show to the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe festival. The show was similar to the second leg of the Goodies Australian tour, with Bill Oddie participating via video (due to his many filming commitments).[8] The show was also performed at the Paramount Comedy Festival in Brighton in October 2006[9].

Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden performed the show at 22 further UK venues in 2007.[10]

im Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden appeared at Sydney's Riverside Theatre (Parramatta) on 15 October 2009 and the World's Funniest Island comedy festival on Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour on 17-18 October 2009. The show was hosted by Andrew Hansen of Australian comedy team The Chaser.[1

It may be argued that The Goodies' antics brought the traditions of The Goon Show to the television screen without diverting into areas of coarseness or topical satire to the same extent as other British television series like Till Death Us Do Part, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Not Only But Also, Not the Nine O'Clock News or, much later, The Young Ones. There were satirical episodes of The Goodies including: "South Africa" (apartheid) — "Punky Business" (punk) — and "Gender Education" (satirising Mary Whitehouse's influence on television).

The Goodies appealed to adults on an intellectual level, and also had a level of appeal to children as a consequence of its visual humour and slapstick. Although there are similarities to the television series The Monkees, with the group members employing music, slapstick comedy, bad puns and camera tricks; and all living in the same house together and working together — a tradition also borne out of the films of The Beatles — The Goodies owes nothing to either. Instead, the comedy of The Goodies originated with the Cambridge University Footlights Club's revues.[1][2]

The Official Goodies fan club's (Goodies Rule-OK!) newsletter, is called the Clarion & Globe. It was named after the newspaper in The Goodies' episode "Fleet Street Goodies" (a.k.a. "Cunning Stunts").

During the 1970s Cor!! comic, released by Fleetway publications, had a Goodies comics strip. When the comic later merged with Buster, the Goodies did not move across, although the TV show was still running.

Stella, an American trio, has a show on Comedy Central that is very similar to The Goodies in terms of basic plot line — with the trio even riding a trandem. The television series premiered in the United States on June 28, 2005.

Australian rock band Spiderbait released an album and EP that had a rocked up fast cover version of the Goodies song "Run".

U.S. rappers Goodie Mob named themselves as a direct reference to the comedy show, citing "(Do The) Funky Gibbon" as an influence on some members when young.[dubious – discuss]

Australian theatre company Shaolin Punk produced a short play titled "A Record or an OBE", written by Melbourne comedian and actor Ben McKenzie, and featuring Tim and Graeme as characters. Set in 1975, the two remaining Goodies struggle to carry on after Bill leaves the group to pursue a music career. The play premiered in the 2007 Melbourne Fringe Festival, where it was highly commended in the Comedy category. Later seasons were also performed for the Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2008.[12]

U.S. rock band The White Stripes named their 6th album Icky Thump in reference to The Goodies sketch "The Battle of Ecky Thump". The name was changed from "Ecky Thump" to "Icky Thump" to make the title more palatable to an American teenage audience.[13]

On 24 March 1975 Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, literally died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies. According to his wife, who was a witness, Mitchell was unable to stop laughing whilst watching a sketch in the episode "Kung Fu Kapers" in which Tim Brooke-Taylor, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a black pudding-wielding Bill Oddie (master of the ancient Lancastrian martial art "Ecky-Thump") in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye." After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the settee and died from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant.

On 1 November 1977 Seema Bakewell, a 32-year old housewife from Leicester, went into labour whilst laughing at a sketch in The Goodies' episode "Alternative Roots". She refused to leave for the hospital until the episode had finished. 30 years later, she visited the 2007 UK reunion tour with "her baby, Ayesha, and the baby's husband" and recounted the story to Graeme Garden.[

Thanks mate. That should certainly fill in the information gaps for those amongst us who don't know who The Goodies are.