All Goodie things...
At last, there’s another chance to enjoy the wacky comedy of Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor as the BBC episodes arrive on DVD, says MArion McMullen
THEY saved London from being destroyed by a giant kitty called Twinkles, and gave us novelty songs like The Funky Gibbon, Black Pudding Bertha and Make A Daft Noise For Christmas.
Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor made The Goodies one of the biggest cult comedy hits of the 1970s and all 69 episodes from the Beeb have now been released for the first time on The Goodies: The Complete BBC Collection. The TV trio, who ran an agency which offered to do “anything, any place, anytime” made their debut on November 8, 1970, with their first assignment coming from the royal family, who hired them to protect the crown jewels in the Tower Of London.
The Radio Times described The Goodies as a sitcom, but it was also full of cartoonish, slapstick visuals, spoof adverts and surreal diversions.
The tone was set by their favoured mode of transport, a bicycle made for three – called Buttercup.
Tim, Graeme and Bill had previously worked together on a TV sketch show called Broaden Your Mind and the characters they played were exaggerated versions of themselves.
Bill once explained: “Tim is the respectable front-man, representative of the Establishment, Graeme plays the back-room boy who produces all the clever stuff and me, I’m the aggressive one”. Their television HQ – The Goodies, No Fixed Abode, Cricklewood – included portraits of both the Queen and Chairman Mao hanging on the wall.
Celebrity guest stars over the years included Dad’s Army actor John Le Mesurier, Patrick Moore, and John Cleese. Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter also made an appearance as the Loch Ness Monster.
And, of course, the Goodies also introduced us to the northern martial art of Ecky Thump – the first time black puddings had been used as lethal weapons.