The Goodies - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Goodies
The Goodies – (left to right) Bill Oddie Bill Oddie William "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies.... , Tim Brooke-Taylor Tim Brooke-Taylor Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964... , Graeme Garden Graeme Garden David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:... a screenshot from the title sequence of the BBC TV series
Status Status Status , is a state, condition, or situation.Status may also refer to:* Social status, in sociology Achieved status Ascribed status Master status Political status Socioeconomic status Sociometric status... : Ended
Nationality Nationality Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity.... : British
Genre Genre Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time... : Sketch comedy Sketch comedy A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting... , Surreal humour Surreal humour Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
Media
Television, Theatre, Audio Recordings Sound recording and reproduction Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
Years active
(1970–1982; 2005)
Members
Tim Brooke-Taylor Tim Brooke-Taylor Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964... Graeme Garden Graeme Garden David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:... Bill Oddie Bill Oddie William "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....
Notable works
The Goodies television series The Goodies (TV series) The Goodies is a British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast by BBC 2 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV company LWT for a year, between 1981 to 1982.The show was... (1970–1982) The Goodies – stage shows (2005–)
Other notable works (starring all three Goodies)
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again was a BBC radio comedy programme which originated from the Cambridge University Footlights revue Cambridge Circus... (1964–1973) (25th anniversary special 1989) Broaden Your Mind Broaden Your Mind Broaden Your Mind is a British television comedy series starring Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, joined by Bill Oddie for the second series... (1968)
Official website
The Official Goodies Rule – OK!

The Goodies are a trio of British comedians (Tim Brooke-Taylor

Tim Brooke-Taylor

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...

, Graeme Garden

Graeme Garden

David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...

and Bill Oddie

Bill Oddie

William "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....

) who created, wrote, and starred in a surreal

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

British television comedy series called The Goodies
The Goodies (TV series)
The Goodies is a British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast by BBC 2 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV company LWT for a year, between 1981 to 1982.The show was...

during the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

and situation comedy.

Honours

All three Goodies now have OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

s. Bill Oddie received his OBE in 2003 for wildlife conservation — while Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden received their OBEs in 2011 for services to light entertainment.

Cambridge University

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

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

. It was as undergraduate students at the University that Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie met John Cleese

John Cleese

John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...

, Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman

Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...

and Eric Idle

Eric Idle

Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....

, who later became founding members of Monty Python

Monty Python

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

. 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. They all became members of the Cambridge University Footlights Club

Footlights

Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University....

, with Brooke-Taylor becoming president in 1963, and Garden succeeding him as president in 1964.

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

Pembroke College, Cambridge

Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...

"smoker

Smoking concert

Smoking concerts were live performances, usually of music, before an audience of men only; popular during the Victorian era. These social occasions were instrumental in introducing new musical forms to the public. At these functions men would smoke and speak of politics while listening to live...

" for Brooke-Taylor and Oddie.

Career before The Goodies

Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie were cast members of the highly successful 1960s BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

radio comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again was a BBC radio comedy programme which originated from the Cambridge University Footlights revue Cambridge Circus...

, which also featured Cleese, David Hatch

David Hatch

Sir David Hatch was involved in production and management at BBC Radio, where he held many executive positions, including Head of Light Entertainment , Controller of BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 and later Managing Director of BBC Radio.- Education :He attended St John's School, Leatherhead and...

and Jo Kendall

Jo Kendall

Jo Kendall is a British actress.She played Desdemona in a production of Othello at the A.D.C. Theatre, Cambridge in 1962.In August 1963 she appeared in the West End in London, New Zealand and Broadway, in the Cambridge University revue Cambridge Circus directed by Humphrey Barclay, alongside Graham...

, and lasted until 1973. I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again resulted from the successful 1963 Cambridge University Footlights Club

Footlights

revue A Clump of Plinths. After having its title changed to Cambridge Circus
Cambridge Footlights Revue
The Cambridge Footlights Revue is an annual revue by the Footlights Club - a group of comic writer-performers at the University of Cambridge. Two of the more notable revues are detailed below.-"A Clump of Plinths" — "Cambridge Circus":...

, the revue went on to play at West End in London, England, followed by a tour of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

and Broadway in New York, US (including an appearance on the top-rated Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....

).

They also took part in various TV shows with other people, including Brooke-Taylor in At Last the 1948 Show
At Last the 1948 Show
At Last the 1948 Show is a satirical TV show made by David Frost's company, Paradine Productions , in association with Rediffusion London...

(with Cleese, Chapman and Marty Feldman

Marty Feldman

Martin Alan "Marty" Feldman was an English comedy writer, comedian and actor who starred in a series of British television comedy shows, including At Last the 1948 Show, and Marty, which won two BAFTA awards and was the first Saturn Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Young...

), and Brooke-Taylor taking part in Marty
Marty (TV series)
Marty is a British television sketch comedy series, with Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin, Roland MacLeod, Mary Miller and Peter Pocock which was made in 1968...

(with Marty Feldman

Marty Feldman

, John Junkin

John Junkin

John Francis Junkin was an English radio, television and film performer and scriptwriter.In 1960 Junkin joined Joan Littlewood's Stratford East Theatre Workshop, and played the lead in the original production of Sparrows Can't Sing...

and Roland MacLeod

Roland MacLeod

Roland MacLeod was an English actor of film and television.He appeared as a vicar in John Cleese's film A Fish Called Wanda and The Last Remake of Beau Geste....

). Garden and Oddie took part in Twice a Fortnight
Twice a Fortnight
Twice a Fortnight, which was made in 1967, was a British sketch comedy television series with Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Jonathan Lynn and Tony Buffery....

(with Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Jonathan Lynn

Jonathan Lynn

Jonathan Lynn is an English actor, comedy writer and director. He is best known for being the co-writer of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.-Personal life:...

), before Brooke-Taylor, Garden, and Oddie worked on the late 1960s TV show Broaden Your Mind
Broaden Your Mind
Broaden Your Mind is a British television comedy series starring Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, joined by Bill Oddie for the second series...

(of which only about ten minutes survives).

The Goodies television series

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 Jim Franklin.

The original BBC television series ran from November 1970 to February 1980 on BBC 2

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

, with 69 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 Goodies Rule – O.K.?

The Goodies Rule – OK.? is a special episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.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

Chroma key

Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...

and one of the first to use stop-motion techniques in a live action format. Other effects include hand editing

Film editing

Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...

for repeated movement, mainly used to make animals "talk" or "sing", and play speed effects as used in the episode "Kitten Kong

Kitten Kong

"Kitten Kong" is the first BAFTA nominated episode for Best Light Entertainment Programme of the British comedy television series The Goodies.As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.-Award:...

".

The threesome travelled around on, and frequently fell off, a three-seater bicycle called the trandem. 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
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...

who performed most of them.

They also presented the Christmas 1976 edition of Disney Time

Disney Time

Disney Time was a television series that ran in the UK on the BBC, and also ITV at one point. It was a regular holiday schedule filler. Clips of Disney films were introduced by celebrity hosts, which over the years included Paul and Linda McCartney, Noel Edmonds, Sarah Greene, Doctor Whos Tom...

from the toy department of Selfridges store in London, broadcast on BBC1 on Boxing Day at 5.50 pm.

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

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a BBC television adaptation of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy broadcast in January and February 1981 on BBC Two...

TV series, they signed a contract with London Weekend Television

London Weekend Television

London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...

for ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

. However, after one half-hour Christmas special ("Snow White 2

Snow White 2 (Goodies episode)

Snow White 2 is a special episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Pantomime".This episode was made by LWT for ITV....

") 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.

Awards and nominations

A special episode, which was based on the original 1971 Goodies' "Kitten Kong

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

Rose d'Or

The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...

, held in Montreux

Montreux

Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...

, 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
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...

award in 1975, as the Best Light Entertainment Programme, but lost out to Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...

.

The Goodies were also nominated for an EMMY award.

Britain

Unlike most long-running BBC comedy series, The Goodies has not enjoyed extensive repeat

Rerun

A rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...

s on terrestrial television in the UK, the BBC

BBC

refusing to allow them since 1986 because the controller of the BBC during the 1980s did not personally like the series (John Howard Davies

John Howard Davies

John Howard Davies was an English television director and producer and former child actor.Davies was born in Paddington, London, the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies...

has stated, on the 'Return of The Goodies' reunion programme, transmitted on BBC2 in 2006, that at that time, he did not want to broadcast any Goodies repeats.) 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

Peter Cook

Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...

and the Monty Python

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 1986 BBC2 broadcast the episode "Kitten Kong

Kitten Kong

" during a week of programmes screened under the banner TV-50, when the BBC celebrated 50 years of Broadcasting.

In the late 1980s, the pan-European satellite-channel Super Channel broadcast a couple of episodes and the short-lived Comedy Channel

The Comedy Channel (UK)

The Comedy Channel was a United Kingdom subscription television channel during the early 1990s.The channel launched soon after the merger of Sky Television plc and British Satellite Broadcasting...

broadcast some of the later Goodies episodes in the early 1990s. Later UK Gold
UKTV Gold
GOLD is the original channel of the UKTV network, broadcasting to the United Kingdom and Ireland. It launched on 1 November 1992 as UK Gold, and is currently available on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV and terrestrial subscription via Top Up TV. It shows repeats of classic programming from the BBC...

screened many of the earlier episodes, often with commercial timing cuts. The same episodes subsequently aired on UK Arena
UKTV Drama
Alibi is a digital television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as part of the UKTV network of channels. The channel launched on 1 November 1997 and relaunched in it's current format on 7 October 2008...

, 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 with Network Video 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 (including the Xmas special) was released on Region 2 as The Goodies – The Complete LWT Series on 26 March 2007 and a fourth volume The Goodies ... At Last Back for More, Again was released on region 2 in 2010 as well as a DVD box set containing all four volumes to celebrated 40 years of The Goodies.

In 2004, an episode of the BBC documentary series Comedy Connections

Comedy Connections

Comedy Connections was a BBC One documentary series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 2003 to 2008. The show looked at the stories behind the production of some of Britain's comedy television programmes, showing how they tied in with the production of other comedy shows...

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
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

. However, only clips of the series were shown, rather than any full episodes. This special was repeated on BBC Two on 13 November 2010.

Early on in 2006 a single episode Winter Olympics

Winter Olympics (Goodies episode)

Winter Olympics is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.-Plot:...

was broadcast on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

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 showed selected late night repeats of the BBC series, which ran nightly from 23–30 December. This apparent gesture followed years of campaigning by The Goodies that the shows had not been repeated like other BBC shows such as Dad's Army

Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...

and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was a BBC situation comedy, written by Raymond Allen and starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice.The series followed the accident-prone Frank Spencer and his tolerant wife Betty through Frank's various attempts to hold down a job, which frequently end in...

. The episodes actually shown were: "Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms" / "Earthanasia

Earthanasia (Goodies episode)

"Earthanasia" is the suspected finale of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "The End of the World Show"....

" / "The Goodies and the Beanstalk" / "Kitten Kong

Kitten Kong

" / "Lighthouse Keeping Loonies

Lighthouse Keeping Loonies

Lighthouse Keeping Loonies is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "The Lighthouse Men"....

" / "Saturday Night Grease" / "The Baddies" (a.k.a. "Double Trouble") and "The Stone Age

The Stone Age (Goodies episode)

The Stone Age is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme....

", although "Scoutrageous

Scoutrageous

Scoutrageous is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Scouting Adventures"....

", "Kung Fu Kapers

Kung Fu Kapers

Kung Fu Kapers is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Ecky-Thump"....

" and "Scotland

Scotland (Goodies episode)

"Scotland" is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "The Loch Ness Monster"....

" (a.k.a. "Loch Ness Monster") were originally billed as episodes 1, 2 and 7 of the repeat run. They were shown late at night where they were unlikely to gain many new fans, although they did garner good ratings given their time slot, and the first six episodes were taken from the BBC's own master tapes, rather than the digital remasters, the rights to which are currently owned by Network Video, "The Baddies" and "The Stone Age" have never been digitally remastered.

Australia

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

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

– although, as the show was typically broadcast in the 25-minute 6:00 pm 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 to allow time for commercials 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 Goodies DVDs

World of the Goodies

World of the Goodies is about The Goodies' releases on DVD and VHS.-Series One:-Series Two:BBC title "The Goodies B"-Series Three:BBC title "The Goodies Series Three A"-Series Four:BBC title "The Goodies Series Three B"...

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

Come Dancing (Goodies episode)

Come Dancing is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Wicked Waltzing"....

, which was originally thought to only have survived as a black and white film recording, is presented in colour from a 625 line low-band broadcast standard PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...

VT recording, made for training purposes, which has had the low level colour boosted. (The original Australian DVD release The Goodies – A Tasty Second Helping (2 disc set) and The Goodies – A Second Helping: 4 tasty serves (1 Disc) featured the b/w telerecording of this episode.)

On Monday, 26 July 2010 the ABC2 Digital Channel commenced re-runs of the series, commencing with the Kitten Kong

Kitten Kong

episode. The programme aired at 8 pm.

Canada

In Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the series was shown in on the CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

national broadcast network during the late 1970s and early 1980s, 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

CTV television network

CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

and on TVOntario

TVOntario

TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...

Germany

In Germany in 1972, German TV screened the 13 part variety show Engelbert and the Young Generation a co-production between the BBC and German station ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

in which The Goodies appeared in short 3 to 4 minute film sequences. The first six films were culled from the first and second series of The Goodies, "Pets" (from "Kitten Kong"), "Pop Festival" (from "The Music Lovers"), "Keep Fit" (from "Commonwealth Games"), "Post Office" (from "Radio Goodies"), "Sleepwalking" (from "Snooze") and "Factory Farm" (from "Fresh Farm Foods") and seven new film sequences, "Good Deed Day", "The Gym", "The Country Code", "Street Entertainers", "Plum Pudding", "Bodyguards" and "Pan's Grannies", these also featured intro sequences with host Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...

visiting the Goodies at their office. The shows were dubbed into German and because the Goodies part of the shows were more visual than dialogue

Dialogue

Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....

based, it translated very well.

Five of these new films were also cut together, with a new story involving The Goodies filling out their "Tax Evasion" form, as a special 25 minute Goodies compilation episode, "A Collection of Goodies" was first broadcast on BBC1 at 8.15 pm on 24 September 1972, and was produced by Jim Franklin, "The Country Code" and "Bodyguards" were not used.

Spain
In Spain, a couple of episodes of The Goodies were shown as part of a season of television-award winning programmes (the Goodies were Montreux Festival winners) on TVE 2
TVE 2
La 2 , is Spain's second state-owned television channel for the public broadcasting service. Its first broadcast was on 15 November 1966...

entitled Festival TV in 1981.

United States
In the US, 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

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

.

New Zealand
In New Zealand, the series was originally shown in full by the NZBC (later TV One) during the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, it has been re-run on SKY Network Television
SKY Network Television
Sky Network Television Limited , , is a New Zealand pay television service. On 30 June 2011, Sky had 829,421 subscribers, which comprises:*808,617 digital subscribers*20,840 other subscribers...

's Comedy Central. http://www.comedycentral.co.nz/shows/the-goodies

Goodies books
In their heyday The Goodies also produced successful books:

The Goodies File

The Goodies Book of Criminal Records

The Making of The Goodies Disaster Movie

There has also been a book released about The Goodies entitled The Goodies Superchaps Three which was written by Andrew Pixley. When Tim, Bill and Graeme were originally coming up with names for the program, "Superchaps Three" was suggested, hence the title of the book.

Goodies songs

The Goodies also had a string of successful chart singles penned by Bill Oddie.

In 1975, they chalked up five hit singles in twelve months including "The Inbetweenies" and "Funky Gibbon" (both songs are performed during the episode "The Goodies – Almost Live

The Goodies – Almost Live

The Goodies – Almost Live is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "The Goodies in Concert"....

").

"Funky Gibbon" reached number 4 in the charts in Britain, and The Goodies made an appearance on Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

with the song. They also performed it during the Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

show A Poke in the Eye (with a Sharp Stick)

A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)

A Poke In The Eye is the title of the first show in what became the iconic Secret Policeman's Ball series of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International...

. "Funky Gibbon" has also been a favourite in America on a few of Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen , better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present....

's radio shows.

Other collaborations
Tim Brooke-Taylor was a writer/performer on the television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show

At Last the 1948 Show

At Last the 1948 Show is a satirical TV show made by David Frost's company, Paradine Productions , in association with Rediffusion London...

(which also included John Cleese

John Cleese

John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...

, Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman

Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...

and Marty Feldman

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.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was a cast member of the television comedy series Marty

Marty (TV series)

Marty is a British television sketch comedy series, with Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin, Roland MacLeod, Mary Miller and Peter Pocock which was made in 1968...

with Marty Feldman and John Junkin
John Junkin
John Francis Junkin was an English radio, television and film performer and scriptwriter.In 1960 Junkin joined Joan Littlewood's Stratford East Theatre Workshop, and played the lead in the original production of Sparrows Can't Sing...

– 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

How to Irritate People

How to Irritate People is a 1968 television broadcast written by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Cleese, Chapman, and Brooke-Taylor also feature in it, along with future Monty Python collaborators Michael Palin and Connie Booth.In various sketches, Cleese...

.

Along with John Junkin
John Junkin
John Francis Junkin was an English radio, television and film performer and scriptwriter.In 1960 Junkin joined Joan Littlewood's Stratford East Theatre Workshop, and played the lead in the original production of Sparrows Can't Sing...

and Barry Cryer
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...

, Brooke-Taylor was a regular cast member of the long running Radio 2 comedy sketch show Hello, Cheeky!

Hello, Cheeky!

Hello Cheeky was a series broadcast on BBC Radio 2 between 1973 and 1979. It was written and performed by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, and John Junkin, with music by the Denis King Trio, and produced by David Hatch, Richard Willcox, and Bob Oliver Rogers.There were also three Christmas...

, which ran from 1973 to 1979. The series also transferred to Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...

for two series in 1975 and 1976.

Tim Brooke-Taylor also appeared on BBC's hospital comedy TLC

TLC (TV series)

TLC was a darkly surreal farce-like sitcom set in a fictional NHS hospital called South Middlesex where coffee is traded like drugs and pretty much everyone has a personality problem. It was first broadcast on the BBC on 11 November 2002 and ran over six episodes until 16 December...

, as well as the sitcoms You Must Be The Husband

You Must Be The Husband

You Must Be the Husband is a British comedy television series starring Tim Brooke-Taylor in the title role of Tom Hammond, and Diane Keen as his wife, Alice Hammond, with Sheila Steafel as Alice's literary agent, Miranda Shaw....

(with Diane Keen
Diane Keen
Diane Keen is an English actress.Keen is possibly best known for her starring roles in the British TV drama Doctors which she has been in since 2003 , and in the 1970s comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz and Rings on Their Fingers.-Personal life:Keen has one daughter, actress Melissa Greenwood, from...

and Sheila Steafel
Sheila Steafel
Sheila Steafel is a South African-born actress who has lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom.Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, appeared in many classic television series, including: The Frost Report, Z-Cars, Sykes, The Kenny Everett Television Show, Minder, The Ghosts of Motley Hall,...

), and Me and My Girl

Me and My Girl (TV series)

Me and My Girl was a 1980s British television situation comedy starring Richard O'Sullivanwhich centred on the challenges faced by a widower raising his adolescent daughter. It was broadcast on ITV between 1984 and 1988.-Plot:...

(with Richard O'Sullivan and Joan Sanderson
Joan Sanderson
Joan Sanderson was an English television and stage actress. During a long career she invariably played dragonish dowagers, stuck-up spinsters and suburban matrons.-Theatre:...

). He also played in a televised pro-celebrity golf match opposite Bruce Forsyth
Bruce Forsyth
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, CBE , commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality...

.

Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie were writers/performers on the television comedy series Twice a Fortnight

Twice a Fortnight

Twice a Fortnight, which was made in 1967, was a British sketch comedy television series with Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Jonathan Lynn and Tony Buffery....

(which also included Terry Jones
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....

, Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....

and Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Lynn is an English actor, comedy writer and director. He is best known for being the co-writer of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.-Personal life:...

in the cast).

Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden were writers/performers on the television comedy series Broaden Your Mind

Broaden Your Mind

Broaden Your Mind is a British television comedy series starring Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, joined by Bill Oddie for the second series...

, with Bill Oddie joining them for the second series.

The three writers and performers also collaborated on the 1983 animated children's programme Bananaman

Bananaman

Bananaman is a British comic book fictional character. He originally appeared in Nutty as the backpage strip in Issue 1, dated 16 February 1980 drawn by John Geering.-Original strip:...

, 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

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...

, on which Garden and Brooke-Taylor are regular panellists.

Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie worked on the television comedy Doctor in the House

Doctor in the House (TV series)

Doctor in the House is the syndicated title given, by the United States, to a British television comedy series , based on a set of books and a movie of the same name by Richard Gordon about the misadventures of a group of medical students — and their later misadventures as doctors.The first...

: 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
Central Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...

and ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

. The show was set in an international space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...

in the near future.

Garden was a regular team captain on the political satire game show If I Ruled the World

If I Ruled the World (game show)

If I Ruled the World is a television show aired in the United Kingdom in 1998 and 1999. It was a comedy panel game show, similar to Have I Got News For You but focused on parodying the behaviour of politicians...

. 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
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

's daytime game show Beat the Nation

Beat the Nation

Beat The Nation was a quiz show on the UK commercial channel Channel 4 that ran for just one series and 120 episodes from 5 January to 2 July 2004...

, 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.

2005 Australian reunion shows
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

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

and Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

and selling out most of the 13 performances.

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

2006 & 2007 UK reunion shows

Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden took their Goodies Live show to the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe

Edinburgh Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

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). The show was also performed at the Paramount Comedy Festival in Brighton

Brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

in October 2006.

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

2009 World's Funniest Island and Riverside

Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden appeared at Sydney's Riverside Theatre (Parramatta) on 15 October 2009 and the World's Funniest Island

World's Funniest Island

World’s Funniest Island was an Australian comedy event held on the third weekend in October on Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour. The first World’s Funniest Island event took place 17–18 October 2009...

comedy festival on Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island, New South Wales

Cockatoo Island is the largest island in Sydney Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, Cockatoo Island is a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol. It was also the site of one of Australia's biggest...

, Sydney Harbour on 17–18 October 2009. The show was hosted by Andrew Hansen

Andrew Hansen

Andrew John Hansen is an Australian comedian and musician, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...

of Australian comedy team The Chaser

The Chaser

The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedian group, known for their television programmes on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel. The group take their name from their production of satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste...

2010 The One Show

The Goodies were once again reunited when the BBC one show, entitled "The One Show", brought them back. It concluded with Tim riding a tandem alone while the others stared / watched.

Cultural influence

'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.

It may be argued that The Goodies' antics brought the traditions of The Goon Show

The Goon Show

The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...

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

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

, Not Only But Also, Not the Nine O'Clock News

Not the Nine O'Clock News

Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...

or, much later, The Young Ones

The Young Ones (TV series)

The Young Ones is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers...

. There were satirical episodes of The Goodies

The Goodies (TV series)

The Goodies is a British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast by BBC 2 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV company LWT for a year, between 1981 to 1982.The show was...

including: "South Africa
South Africa (Goodies episode)
South Africa is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Apartheight" and as "A South African Adventure"....

" (apartheid) – "Punky Business
Punky Business
Punky Business is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Punkerella" and as "Rock Goodies"....

" (punk) – and "Gender Education
Gender Education (Goodies episode)
Gender Education is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Sex and Violence"....

" (satirising Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...

's influence on television).

The Official Goodies fan club's (Goodies Rule-OK!) newsletter
Newsletter
A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in...

, 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!!

Cor!!

Cor!!, a British comic book Was launched in June 1970 by IPC , their sixth new comic in just over a year. Cor!! was edited by Bob Paynter....

comic, released by Fleetway
Fleetway
Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a UK publishing company which mainly produced comic magazines. For a time owned by IPC Media, they are now a division of Egmont Publishing....

publications, had a Goodies comics strip. When the comic later merged with Buster

Buster (comic)

Buster was a long-running British comic which carried a mixture of humour and adventure strips, although the former increasingly replaced the latter...

, the Goodies did not move across, although the TV show was still running.

Stella

Stella (TV series)

Stella was a short-lived television series that originally ran from June 28, 2005 to August 30, 2005 on the American television channel Comedy Central, created by and starring Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain, the three members of the sketch comedy troupe of the same name and...

, 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 28 June 2005.

Australian rock band Spiderbait

Spiderbait

Spiderbait are an Australian alternative rock band formed in Finley in 1989 by bass guitarist Janet English, singer-drummer Mark Maher , and guitarist Damian Whitty. In 2004 the group's cover version of the 1930s Lead Belly song "Black Betty" reached number one on the ARIA Singles Chart...

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

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

Melbourne Fringe Festival

The Melbourne Fringe Festival is an annual independent arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia. The Festival runs for three weeks from late September to early October, usually overlapping with the beginning of the Melbourne International Arts Festival...

, where it was highly commended in the Comedy category. Later seasons were also performed for the Adelaide Fringe

Adelaide Fringe Festival

The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe...

and Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...

in 2008.

U.S. rock band The White Stripes

The White Stripes

The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...

named their 6th album Icky Thump

Icky Thump

Icky Thump is the sixth and final studio album by US alternative rock band The White Stripes. It was released June 15, 2007 in Germany, June 18, 2007 in the rest of Europe, and June 19, 2007 in the rest of the world. It was the band's first album on Warner Bros...

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.

Fatal effect

On 24 March 1975 Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn

King's Lynn

King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....

, 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

Kung Fu Kapers

Kung Fu Kapers is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Ecky-Thump"....

" in which Tim Brooke-Taylor, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes

Bagpipes

Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...

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.

Foetal effect

On 1 November 1977 Seema Bakewell, a 32-year old housewife from Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

, went into labour whilst laughing at a sketch in The Goodies episode "Alternative Roots

Alternative Roots

Alternative Roots is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme....

". She refused to leave home 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.

External links

The Goodies – BBC Guide to Comedy
The Official Goodies Rule – OK! Fan Club Website
Goodies Podcast – features interviews
Goodie nuff
The Goodies – HumourLinks
Goodies! Goodie Goodie Yum Yum!
The Goodies – Cricklewood Office
The Goodies – Trash Fiction website
The Goodies – Nostalgia Central
The Goodies – British TV Comedy
The Goodies – BeebFun
The Goodies DVD – information and review
Tim Brooke-Taylor & Graeme Garden Interview Web Wombat Theatre
ISIHAC interviews – with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, and Barry Cryer –
: (includes a discussion on whether there could be more Goodies episodes)
Radio interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor – includes comments about "The Goodies"
Australian broadcasts – a list of cuts made to the Australian ABC screenings
BBC Treasure Hunt
40 Years of The Goodies
The Goodies Podcast

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Honours

Cambridge University

Career before The Goodies

The Goodies television series

Awards and nominations

Britain

Australia

Canada

Germany

Spain

United States

New Zealand

Goodies books

Goodies songs

Other collaborations

2005 Australian reunion shows

2006 & 2007 UK reunion shows

2009 World's Funniest Island and Riverside

2010 The One Show

Cultural influence

Fatal effect

Foetal effect

See also

Further reading

External links