Written by Matthew K. Sharp,
kirseval@werple.mira.net.au
Version 1.1
Revised 1 August 1995
Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden had written and performed a sketch comedy series, "Broaden Your Mind", for two series, with Bill Oddie joining for the second. With the advent of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in 1969, it was felt that continuing with a sketch format would bring unfavourable comparisons between the two shows.
With this in mind, Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie set about devising a new show for the following year, with the initial working title of "Narrow Your Mind". They settled on the format of an agency of three chaps who would do anything, anytime. The title was changed to "Super-Chaps Three" and finally to "The Goodies", which first appeared on the 8th of November, 1970. (Bill Oddie has since suggested that the title is still rather childish sounding, which, along with the large amount of slapstick visual humour, has meant that many people see "The Goodies" as a children's show, when of course it is no such thing, despite its appeal to children.)
Remarkably for a first series, it contains two episodes which can rightly be considered classics; one of which is only the second episode (the other, of course, being "Radio Goodies" which brought the series to a brilliant conclusion). The remaining episodes are also of a high quality, and viewed as a series, can be seen as one of the brightest offerings of 1970.
Note: "Broaden Your Mind" ran for two series: 6 episodes from 28 October 1968, and 7 episodes from 17 November 1969. Soundtracks for all 13 episodes exist complete; and it is believed that at least one episode exists in vision (in colour?).
#1 The Tower Of London
Series One, Programme One
1st BBC Transmission: 8 November 1970
The Goodies' first assignment is to find out who is stealing the Beefeaters' beef - and more importantly, why? To steal the crown jewels is the answer, but when the Goodies set a trap, the burglar turns out to be the last person they'd suspect.
(Although this last does not seem to be in the programme and may imply a mock advert has been cut out of the currently available copy.)
#2 Snooze
Series One, Programme Two
1st BBC Transmission: 15 November 1970
The Goodies help with the marketing of the bedtime drink Venom. First they change the name to Snooze, and then improve the formula with disasterous results.
#3 Love The Police
AKA Police Public Image (g)
Series One, Programme Three
1st BBC Transmission: 22 November 1970
The police need an image revamp, and the Goodies suggest that they should try being nice. The police, however, are not happy with a hippy force and take action.
#4 Caught In The Act
AKA Compromising Photos (g)
Series One, Programme Four
1st BBC Transmission: 29 November 1970
"The Goodies are involved with the government and a set
of compromising photographs when the Minister for Trade
and Domestic Affairs (Mollie Sugden) asks them to
recover the pictures. In the course of their
investigations, they come across guest star Liz Frazer,
who runs the Playgirl Club. And Wolves, the male
equivalent of Bunnies."
- From BBC Enterprises publicity material.
Note: This episode only exists as a 16mm monochrome kinescope telerecording, and is one of only two episodes unavailable to me for viewing. Although listed as existing in the BBC's Film And Video Tape Library, it has not been shown on Britain's UK Gold satellite TV service (unlike the other two B/W episodes).
There are unconfirmed rumours that an edited 20 minute print exists in Australia, but I have yet to hear from anyone who actually has a copy of this.
#5 The Greenies
AKA Army Games (g)
Series One, Programme Five
1st BBC Transmission: 6 December 1970
A holiday in Cornwall is threatened to be spoilt when the Army want to set up a research establishment, so the Goodies prepare to take arms against them by redesigning the military equipment.
Note: This episode was unavailable for many years due to a glitch in the master video tape at around the 22 minute mark. This glitch is also present in the B/W kinescope made at the time.
#6 Cecily
AKA Servants (g)
Series One, Programme Six
1st BBC Transmission: 13 December 1970
The Goodies are employed as housekeepers in a house where the nannies continually disappear. They decide to get to the bottom of the mystery and discover the haunted house contains something very mysterious indeed.
#7 Radio Goodies
AKA Pirate Radio Goodies (g)
Series One, Number Seven
1st BBC Transmission: 20 December 1970
The Goodies' application to start a radio station is rejected because it was delayed in the post. So they start a pirate radio station, and a pirate post office with it. But then Graeme is overcome with the power this scheme could offer...
Series One Technical Crew
The undoubted success of the first series lead to the BBC commissioning a second, this time with 13 episodes. It is unfortunate, then, that in only a few cases does the second series match the heights of the first. The earlier shows are enjoyable, without being brilliant; but the second half of the series falls off dramatically. The added pressure of doubling the episode count seems to have caught up with the writers, and the last two episodes in particular are downright awful.
The series also became stuck in a format rut during this run, with nearly every episode based on the "this weeks' guest star is the enemy" format. This leaves little space for the kind of character interaction that made, for example, "Radio Goodies" so superior.
#8 The Loch Ness Monster
Series Two, Programme One
1st BBC Transmission: 1 October 1971
BBC Project Number 67324
The Snowdon Monster House needs a monster for its grand opening, and the Goodies are going to find one - the Loch Ness Monster.
#9 Sporting Goodies
AKA The Commonwealth Games (g)
Series Two, Programme Two
1st BBC Transmission: 8 October 1971
BBC Project Number 67496
The Goodies are the entire British team in the Commonwealth Games against August Bank Holiday Island - the only country left in the Commonwealth - vying for leadership of the Commonwealth itself.
Note: This episode only exists as a 16mm monochrome kinescope telerecording recovered from Australia, and has been slightly edited.
#10 Pollution
Series Two, Programme Three
1st BBC Transmission: 15 October 1971
BBC Project Number 67520
Pollution levels are such that the world will end next Tuesday. The Goodies confront the Minister of Pollution, but he is far too busy polluting, so they decide to clean up Britain themselves.
#11 The Lost Tribe Of The Orinoco
Series Two, Programme Four
1st BBC Transmission: 22 October 1971
BBC Project Number 67757
The Goodies set out to find the missing Professor Nuts, last heard of searching for the lost Bu-Boom tribe in deepest darkest Kent.
#12 The Stolen Musicians
AKA The Music Master (g)
Series Two, Programme Five
1st BBC Transmission: 29 October 1971
BBC Project Number 67782
The Goodies stage a rock concert so they will be stolen and thus find out who is stealing all the other musicians.
#13 Culture For The Masses
AKA Art For Art's Sake (g)
Series Two, Programme Six
1st BBC Transmission: 5 November 1971
BBC Project Number 67844
The Goodies try and save the National Gallery from closure and higher entrance fees by turning it into a funfair.
#14 Kitten Kong
Series Two, Programme Seven
1st BBC Transmission: 12 November 1971
BBC Project Number 67897
"When the Goodies turn to matters veterinary, Graeme invents a new super pet food. Promotes rapid growth, he claims... right up to the ceiling?" - Radio Times.
Note: This episode is listed as no longer existing in the BBC Film And Video Tape Library. It was, however remade as the BBC's entry in the 1972 Montreux Light Entertainment Festival. Or was it? It appears that this version was used as the basis for the festival entry, with extra film (location) scenes being shot and inserted to make it more visual for an international audience. It was at first thought that the original master tape was edited for this purpose, and hence no longer existed in its original format. However, it also appears that although the festival entry was shown in place of this episode when the series was repeated in 1972, the original was shown, in Wales only, on 31 May 1972, after any editing would have occured. This episode was also offered for sale overseas, in which case if it does still survive, it would only be on a 16mm kinescope. The version currently seen on Australian TV, and that offered for sale to the USA in 1976 as part of a 26 episode syndication package, is the remake.
#15 Wicked Waltzing
AKA Come Dancing (g)
Series Two, Programme Eight
1st BBC Transmission: 19 November 1971
BBC Project Number 69760
Ballroom dancing turns out to be much more competitive and indeed violent than the Goodies expected when they are asked to make up a team to help save the competition.
Note: This episode only exists as a 16mm monochrome kinescope telerecording recovered from Australia. The picture quality is not very good, but it's better than nothing. There are two tiny colour clips in later title montages.
#16 Farm Fresh Food
AKA Health Farm (g)
Series Two, Programme Nine
1st BBC Transmission: 10 December 1971
BBC Project Number 69799
Fed up with health food, the Goodies visit Tim's uncle, but find his farm is too computerized for their liking and decide to liberate the animals by getting rid of his buyer - Ye Olde Shepherds Cottage.
#17 Women's Lib
AKA Sexual Liberation (g)
Series Two, Programme Ten
1st BBC Transmission: 17 December 1971
BBC Project Number 75055
Bill reports the other two to Women's Lib for being sexist, and Tim is forced to dress as a women for a few days to see how the other half lives. Graeme finds true love without sexism, with his computer. A marriage is planned...
#18 Sex And Violence
Series Two, Programme Eleven
1st BBC Transmission: 31 December 1971
BBC Project Number 75090
Mrs. Desiree Carthorse asks the Goodies to produce a "Gender Education Film", but dismisses it as too rude without even watching it (her usual practice). Bill rebels against the sheer niceness of it all and begins producing video nasties for the BBC - until he blows up the BBC Television Centre.
#19 Charity Bounce
Series Two, Programme Twelve
1st BBC TX: 7 January 1972
BBC Project Number 75256
The Goodies are raising money for charity, and convince the penny pinching head of Sparklypegs Toothpaste to sponsor them to bounce from London to Brighton, and onwards around the world at ten pounds per head per mile.
Note: One of the tackiest, padding-filled, racist (see the Yellow Pages mock-advert) episodes of The Goodies ever produced.
#20 The Baddies
Series Two, Programme Thirteen
1st BBC Transmission: 14 January 1972
BBC Project Number 75389
The Goodies are running a popularity contest in order to win it and increase business, but their popularity plummets when evil Dr Petal create robotic Baddie doubles who go around being naughty.
Note: Redeemed only by Patrick (Dr Who) Troughton's magnificent over-the-top portrayal of the mad scientist, this episode is quite hard to come by complete. Unseen in Australia since 1974 until the Ten Network repeated it (cut to 23 minutes) in 1991; and only available fron UK Gold in a 28 1/2 minute version with the mock adverts missing. This is the only Goodies episode to have more than two parts; in fact, it has four.
Series Two Technical Crew
* Listed as Stephan Ray (1-2)
The Goodies were to appear in three further programmes in 1972. The first of these was the revised edition of "Kitten Kong" from Series Two, which was entered in the Montreux Light Entertainment Festival. It won the Silver Rose (and in the first show of Series Three, Tim may be spotted painting it gold).
The second was a compilation of various sketches; there is some debate as to the contents of "A Collection Of Goodies" (see below).
Lastly, they contributed a short filmed sketch to "A Christmas Night With The Stars", an all-star entertainment on Christmas Night that had run, on and off, since 1958. (This was, however, to be the last such programme until revived in 1994.)
#21 Montreux '72
Special
1st BBC Transmission: 9 April 1972
BBC Project Number 77642
The Goodies are running a veterinary clinic, and Graeme develops a super pet food to boost the animals' health - and the size of a hitherto harmless fluffy little kitten.
Note: A revised version of #14. It has, according to Tim Brooke-Taylor in the Radio Times, "50% more Twinkle footage".
"Montreux '72" Technical Crew
#21a A Collection Of Goodies
Special
1st BBC Transmission: 24 September 1972
A compilation show, including clips of "a runaway
vaulting horse, baby care, and ... Pan's Grannies!
These and others are included in a programme of some of
their more outrageous exploits."
- Radio Times, 1974 rpt.
Note: Clips of these items can be seen in the opening title montages from Montreux '72 and Series Three onward, suggesting they were shot during or immediately after Series Two. They do not appear to be from any of the actual episodes (which the synopsis implies).
This 25 minute programme exists in the BBC's Film And Video Tape Library, but appears to be unavailable to collectors and the general public.
"A Collection Of Goodies" Technical Crew
#21b The Goodies' Travelling Instant Five Minute Christmas
Insert for 1972's "A Christmas Night With The Stars"
1st BBC TX: 25 December 1972
The Goodies' travelling Christmas service has problems, including exploding puddings, a swarm of Christmas tree fairies, over-large bells, and Bill getting stuck up the chimney.
Notes: The Goodies appeared in one segment of this 80 minute extravaganza. The programme still exists in colour, and around one minute's worth of clips has been transmitted from this sketch in the last few years. Meanwhile the complete five minute routine remains tantalizingly unavailable.
Contents / Introduction / Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5
Last updated April 6, 1996 by
Melinda Casino.
melinda@badger.idiscover.co.uk