Tim Brooke-Taylor
THEY were the anarchic comedy trio who introduced us to a giant cat which toppled London’s Post Office Tower, the Lancashire martial art of Ecky Thump and a terrorising overgrown Dougal from the Magic Roundabout. These and countless other wacky capers came courtesy of The Goodies, alias Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and the late Tim Brooke-Taylor, whose special style of madcap humour attracted audiences of 15 million at the sitcom’s peak.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the show remains a firm favourite among the viewing public, not just here but around the world, especially Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s flattering when people stop you in the street and say how they grew up watching The Goodies,” says Bill, 79.
“I often feel like replying, ‘No one watching The Goodies!’ Childishness was a key thing in the whole series, but often misconstrued. We didn’t make the show for kids, although there were lots of youngsters who enjoyed it.”
The humour did, however, appeal to all ages. One fan literally died laughing at a sketch in the episode, Kung Fu Kapers. A 50-year-old bricklayer from Norfolk suffered heart failure in 1975 after laughing uncontrollably for 25 minutes. Later, his widow thanked The Goodies for ensuring her husband’s final moments were happy ones.
Two years later, a 32-year-old woman from Leicester went into labour after watching the episode, Alternative Roots. But she wouldn’t leave for the hospital until the show had finished.
It ran between 1970-82 and 76 episodes were aired but Graeme, 77, fears such a programme wouldn’t be commissioned today due to health and safety.
“The risk assessment forms you have to complete now before filming would be too onerous for a show like ours,” he says. “They’d be longer than the scripts!
“I did a voiceover for an animated cartoon recently and was sent a risk assessment form for the studio, stating things like there might be wire on the floor, take care going up the stairs. So, it would be difficult making The Goodies today.”
Often, the team executed the stunts themselves, occasionally enduring pain in the process.
“One scene involved us being suspended in the air on wires,” he adds. “We were astride the ‘trandem’ – the famous threeseater bike we used – when the wires broke. It fell five feet on to the studio floor – which was not terribly comfortable.”
Tim, who died in April aged 79 after contracting coronavirus, met Bill and Graeme at Cambridge University. After graduating, they worked together on various shows, including the radio series, I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again and Broaden Your Mind for TV. When the BBC asked for a third series of Broaden Your Mind, the trio suggested a new show.
“We decided on a sitcom format incorporating all the silly jokes we’d have done in sketches but stretched into an implausible 30-minute storyline – that’s how The
Goodies was born,” recalls Graeme. The name was dreamt up by Bill Oddie.
Graeme says: “It’s probably a slightly childish name and we may have been better off calling ourselves something different. But it stuck and provided us with a good song for the opening and closing credits.”
One thing which mystified some fans was how the characters got together initially.
“We never delved into their back stories so perhaps they were old school pals,” says Graeme. “They were certainly a strange bunch and very different socially.Tim played the posh, high-falutin’ one, Bill the scruffy little oik and I was the mad scientist.”
Eight series were screened on the BBC before the show was snapped up by ITV.
Graeme explains: “We never had a longterm
REUNITED: In one of the last pictures, taken in 2018, all three Goodies clown around together
deal with the BBC, we were contracted series by series. When they couldn’t offer another series because of budget commitments elsewhere, London Weekend Television was soon knocking on our door.”
Bill adds: “We made a series and a special but the programmes were terribly expensive. The decision-makers took one look at the figures and said, ‘That’s enough of that, we’re not doing any more’.”
Unlike many of its contemporaries, The Goodies’ episodes gather dust in the BBC archives, rarely seeing the light of day.
“The BBC was always very supportive of the show – until we left for ITV,” smiles Graeme, who studied medicine before turning to entertainment.
Sadly, no anniversary celebrations are being organised by either BBC or ITV and the lack of repeats mystifies Graeme and
‘After the first series we got a telegram of congratulations from Mary Whitehouse’
Bill. “OK, there are some elements in the sitcom which, today, might be regarded as nonPC – but very few,” admits Graeme.
Bill continues: “After the first series was screened, we even got a telegram from Mary Whitehouse congratulating us on a wonderful show.We got a lot of stick about that from our friends on Monty Python.
“Mind you, we eventually offended Mrs Whitehouse with our send-up of the film Grease, which we called Saturday Night Grease!”
Although no anniversary show is planned for television, there have been discussions about spotlighting the programme on radio.
“Yes, we were discussing an event, organised jointly by Radio Times and the British Film Institute, but it was cancelled due to Covid-19,” says Graeme.
Regarding the BBC’s reluctance to revisit The Goodies, Graeme recalls the time a fan wrote to the Beeb regarding the show’s 40th anniversary. “He asked if there were plans to make a celebration show and was told ‘no’.