The Goodies. A considered dismissal.
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
I think I probably picked up this VHS of 3 episodes of the Goodies in a charity shop and I’m pretty sure I bought it because one of the episodes was Goodies and the Beanstalk. I remember seeing that episode as a kid, and it being the talk of the playground the next day.
Watching all 3 episodes now and I’m not sure how well the Goodies comedy stands up. Some of it definitely does not. One “gag” has Bill Oddie blacked up with boot polish pretending to be a radical American Muslim (with the surname Watermelon). But there was some bits of it that satisfied my inner nostalgia junky, especially a rather brilliant poster of David Essex on the wall of the Goodies’ Bunker.
As for the other Goodies, I like Graeme Gardner because he comes from the same Seventies TV archetype as Bamber Gascoigne. Tim Brooke Taylor is also difficult not to like, and I think the pair of them went on to do much funnier stuff together. Tim Brooke Taylor also worked a lot with John Cleese in the Sixties, in fact I think he may have been one of the co writers of the “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch with Cleese.
This Cleese connection may explain the strangest bit of Goodies and the Beanstalk. It’s at the end when someone rubs a tin can and out pops John Cleese as a Genie. “And now for something completely different” he says and then, as he is shoved back into the can he shouts “Children’s show”. He’s right, that’s what the Goodies was and as such I cannot think of any reason to keep this tape.
In the bin.
(Of course this is just my opinion and the reviews at Amazon tell a different story)
