Goody, Goody, Yum, Yum! By Keith Topping

The Goodies: Series 6-9

During 1976, The Goodies got involved in the cod war by breeding the worlds largest fish, started a 50s revival (William and Grayfunkle reaching the 60s as Tim turns into a Mike Mansfield-inspired mad- director and begins plans to 'direct' World War III), became advertising men and sold the world string and, in another genre-hop, saw their sons revive cricket in 2001...And a Bit ("and so it came to pass that the MCC inherited the world and so retained the ashes!") The season ended with an almost live performance of some of the teams best known musical numbers; check out the (unintentionally) hilarious audience participation in Please Let Us Play.

However, by 1977, The Goodies were known to be upset by the treatment of the series by the BBC. Whilst the six-episode 1977 season saw an erratic mix of brilliance (Dodonuts where Graeme finds a dodo in a pet shop: 'Was it going cheap?' asks Bill, 'No, it was going SQUAWK!' is the reply) and ineptitude, many episodes veering radically from the sublime to the ridiculous (notably the trio's blinkered and suspiciously jealous pastiche of the new-wave scene), The Goodies had problems getting script approval from various parts of the BBC. This was notably evident in Royal Command Performance, another sustained attack on the royal family which was scheduled for broadcast on the day that Princess Anne was due to give birth. In the event, the BBC stopped the episodes broadcast, replacing it with a repeat and moving the order of the season back by a week. Garden:

 

'To show how "in touch" the BBC were, our administrator said "I've got a solution - instead of putting this one out, why don't you put out the one you recorded last Friday?" We said, "This is the one we recorded last Friday!"'

As Oddie notes

 

'Tim, quite rightly, claims that he is hardly ever seen in a shirt and tie (but somehow he feels he should be). There's no question that he's patriotic in so much as he's pro-Royalty and I'm not.'

 

Brooke-Taylor added,

 

'We've taken little sides of ourselves... I am a coward. Once, I was doing my Land of Hope and Glory speech - "We must fight them etcetera" - that originally was all it was, but I said "I'd never do that, I might say it all, but at the end I'd run away". Which is, in fact, how it finished. The other two went out and I went and hid in the cupboard.'

The 1977 Christmas special Earthanasia is one of the finest half- hours of TV comedy ever made, recorded live, in 'real time', in one room with just the three characters (this is also what marks out episodes like The Lighthousemen and The End for greatness). The world is to end in half and hour and The Goodies attempt to spend their final moments coming to terms with their 'worthless existence' (Bill, typically, wants to go out with a bang, skateboarding to Wembley to 'bang in a hat-trick' before sitting in on a reunion concert of the Beatles and still leaving time to 'pleasure' the whole of New Edition, Jane Fonda and 'hold hands with Doris Newbold'. 'You've never held hands with Doris Newbold?' asks an astonished Graeme. 'No' replies Bill, 'I've done everything else but I never held hands!') the episode highlights all that is, genuinely, GREAT about The Goodies, a dark, claustrophobic, apocalyptic and wickedly funny world-view. In Earthanasia sacrifices were made, Bill even shaving his trademark beard off to fit in with the story. Interestingly, it would be over two years before their next season appeared, and it was to be their last for the BBC.