“WE DO ANYTHING ANYTIME!”

‘The Goodies’ follows the exploits of Tim, Bill and Graeme – three men whose business remit is to be good to people whenever and wherever needed, under the slogan “We do anything, anytime”. This invariably means doing something completely bonkers for some extremely strange and eccentric clients, which leads to our hapless heroes getting into big trouble and having to clear up the mess they have invariably created. It’s a work of comedy genius: a mix of slapstick, sight-gags, satire and spoof, fantasy and science fiction, song and dance – in fact, pretty much every genre going …

Originally called ‘Superchaps Three’, the show was created by Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor, all Cambridge alumni and veterans of the infamous ‘Footlights’ revues. After graduation in the 1960s, they worked on the radio show ‘I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again’ (with future ‘Monty Python’ John Cleese), then on television in such ground-breaking shows such as ‘The Frost Programme’ (with David Frost), ‘At Last The 1948 Show’, ‘Marty’ (with Marty Feldman) and ‘Broaden Your Mind’. Written by Bill and Graeme (with contributions from Tim), and with music and songs written and performed by Bill, the show was originally shown on BBC2 post- watershed; however, it soon proved to be so popular that it was repeated in an earlier timeslot, and quickly became avidly watched by adults and children alike.

A second season was commissioned, and one of its most memorable episodes, ‘Kitten Kong’ was nominated for ‘Best Light Entertainment Programme’ at that year’s BAFTAS; a special version of the episode was then made, which won the ‘Silver Rose’ award at the 1972 ‘Montreux Festival’.

Whilst the early seasons of ‘The Goodies’ followed the format of Tim, Bill and Graeme taking on all sorts of jobs resulting in all sorts of mayhem, later stories would see them create their own problems that needed fixing, either from one of Graeme’s inventions or money-making schemes going wrong, or Bill and / or Tim succumbing / objecting to a new fad: the trio would split, and then compete against each other until things went too far; then they would either team up again to sort things out, or, in some cases, they would be ‘killed’ in a cartoon-like fashion, only to come back the following week for more.

The show attracted some big comedy names, with appearances from guest stars such as Jon Pertwee, Beryl Reid, Roy Kinnear, Mollie Sugden, Bernard Bresslaw, Henry McGee, Bill Fraser, Alfie Bass, Harry H. Corbett, John Cleese, Patrick Moore and even Tony Blackburn. Such was Tim, Bill and Graeme’s success that they even released several singles, including ‘The Funky Gibbon’, ‘Black Pudding Bertha’, ‘The Inbetweenies’, ‘Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me’ and ‘Nappy Love’, which actually did quite well in the charts!

‘The Goodies’ ran on the BBC for eight seasons and three specials before Tim, Bill and Graeme were lured across to London Weekend Television on the offer of more money. A Christmas Special and a ninth, final series of six episodes was shown, and then, sadly, the show ended, and Tim, Bill and Graeme moved on to other programmes and projects.

The commercial release of ‘The Goodies’ has proved problematical, mainly due to the difficulties in getting clearance rights to a lot of the music; however, three volumes of DVDs have been released, and are well worth watching.

For me ‘The Goodies’ is a show that perfectly sums up the 70s, with its (lack of) fashion sense; pop-culture references to the television programmes, films, music and even adverts of the day; its irreverent satire of the politics of the day; and, above all, its total silliness!

(Note: very few of these episodes have on-screen titles, and many are known by several different names; for my guide, I have listed each episode under the title it is most-popularly known as, but have also included the alternative titles for reference)

The Goodies - Season 1
The Goodies - Season 2
The Goodies - Season 3
The Goodies - Season 4
The Goodies - Season 5
The Goodies - Season 6
The Goodies - Season 7
The Goodies - Season 8
The Goodies - Season 9

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Legal Bit: 'The Goodies' is a registered trademark of BBC Worldwide / Carlton International Media Ltd. The 'Goodies' logo and all images from the BBC television series are copyright BBC Worldwide, and the ITV series Carlton International Media Ltd., unless otherwise stated; no copyright infringement is intended. All specially created images and text are copyright © Clive Banks; please do not use these without my permission. All rights reserved. No profit is made from this website, and any revenue made from using the banner-links featured goes straight back into the costs of maintaining it, which comes out of my own pocket in the first place. No profit advertising is accepted. This website was created purely to entertain and amuse, and any references to persons living, dead, comatose, in suspended animation, not born yet, or a figment of someone's imagination is purely coincidental. All opinions expressed are my own, so there...

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