There are several things I should be writing now.
Instead, I made this.
This is Graeme Garden (recently the voice of the demonic Mr Bibby in Bromwell High) being a film director, in "The Making of The Goodies' Disaster Movie", published in 1977. For Christmas, my sister got me my very own copy.
When I was a kid, a significant amount of my interest in (my uncle's copy of) this large but slim volume stemmed from the fact that it has some boobies in it. But it actually still stands up perfectly well today. The more dated a joke in it is, the more historically interesting it's likely to be. (Take, for instance, the running gag about Keith Moon's boundless destructive power; Moon died the year after the book came out. There's also a lot of jokes about surgical supports; improved hernia treatment techniques mean almost nobody has to wear a truss any more.)
Back in the Seventies, The Goodies was overshadowed by Monty Python's Flying Circus almost everywhere (various Pythons and Goodies have collaborated in other projects), but here in Australia the show developed a huge following. This was because although The Goodies is immensely silly, it is also actually a show for grown-ups. But the Australian Broadcasting Corporation put it to air, almost completely uncensored, in an after-school time slot. There were endless re-runs of the show on the ABC in the Eighties, surprising and delighting the young audience, who got to see risqué jokes and lots of violence. (For much the same reason, the Monkey TV series is also tremendously popular among Australians approaching middle age.)
You can now get some Goodies on DVD, too. They're not necessarily going to be exactly your cup of tea if you weren't raised on them (see also: Vegemite), but there are a few episodes that really are just brilliant. Like, for instance, "It Might As Well Be String":
(There's more info about the surprisingly large number of Goodies books here.)
27 March 2009 at 5:42 pm
Funny you should say that. I was just listening to "A Walk in the Black Forest." Part 2, of course.
27 March 2009 at 8:21 pm
Eeee ah doo lark a bit t'L'ncashire ecky-thump!
By gum!
'ere she come!
yum! yum!
shake yer bum!
Black Pudding Bertha, she's the queen of Northern soul!
And of course...
the nature of Monkey was... irrepressible!
27 March 2009 at 8:28 pm
*Ecky-Thumps hubris*
Those were the days, all right. What happened? Did the world lose its sense of humour?
27 March 2009 at 11:46 pm
In my car I'm currently on about CD five of seven of mp3s of I'm Sorry I Don't Have A Clue, a BBC radio show featuring Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor (and others).
Prior to that I worked my way through the I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again history as well (Graeme, Tim and Bill + others, including John Cleese).
Both are well worth searching out if you're a Goodies fan and want to see what they got up to before and after the TV show. We're talking radio from the 1960s through 2008, so you have to dedicate some time: I get through roughly one episode per daily commute, and I've been listening to this stuff for over a year now and I'm only in 2001.
27 March 2009 at 11:50 pm
It's all fun and games until someone laughs himself to death.
28 March 2009 at 5:47 am
I was a big fan, back in the day. The BBC didn't know what to do with them and they ended up being picked up by commercial telly for a bit. Probably one of the reasons why the Beeb has never shown the series again, in any sustained manner.
The boys from the Mighty Boosh are close in spirit to the Goodies, check them out :)
28 March 2009 at 2:17 pm
Aah, the Bunfight at the OK Tearoom. How Do you pronounce "Scones" ?
28 March 2009 at 7:19 pm
Have you watched the Blackadder Rides Again special?
28 March 2009 at 8:35 pm
"Aah, the Bunfight at the OK Tearoom. How Do you pronounce "Scones"" Easy. As in 'stones'.
Was that the episode with the Cornish Clotted Cream Mines?
29 March 2009 at 8:40 am
Heather, The Mighty Boosh is a great link. Thanks.
29 March 2009 at 8:41 am
Okay, it wasn't a link. Sorry. Beer.
29 March 2009 at 10:06 am
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue is a staple for my iPod as I spend a lot of time driving.
Humphrey Littleton was such a talent, both with his wit and his brass instrument.
31 March 2009 at 10:57 am
I've got a copy of this book somewhere, although it's been years since I read it (and, by pure coincidence, I'm currently wearing a Goodies "(Still A)LIVE ON TOUR" t-shirt from their Australian tour a couple of years ago). I remember that the start of the book had a list of things the Goodies wanted to do (including "Have a Number 1 hit single" which had been crossed out and a "handwritten" note next to it saying something like "#3 - close enough" ("Funky Gibbon", I assume)). There was something about the "Many Faces of Charles Bronson" ("Happy", "Tormented", "Gleeful", "Thoughtful", "Dead", etc), all with the same photo of Bronson with a neutral expression. I also remember the British Board of Film Censors classified the movie something like "D-, must try harder".
I must try and dig the book up and reread it - it was lots of fun.
1 April 2009 at 7:49 am
Ah HA! Mighty Boosh is now on Adult Swim (Comedy Channel) in my neck of the woods! Talk about... well... pure coincidence actually. Cool beans though. Set DVR to record, Data.