New boxset release gives a rare chance to revisit the 1970s TV mayhem of The Goodies

EVEN in the halcyon days of eccentric British comedy, The Goodies were a bit special.

A bit of Monty Python, and Goons, some good old slapstick, sly references to the big issues of the day, and much downright madness, made them a highlight of the week for kids of all ages in the 1970s and early 80s.

Like the best comedy acts, the chemistry between the three very different main stars also played a huge part.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was the posh public schoolboy in the three-piece suit and tie.

Graeme Garden was the brainy bespectacled boffin in the corduroy suit with leather elbow patches and worn knees.

And Bill Oddie was the long-haired hippie maverick who stole many of the best lines and supplied a lot of the energy and music.

For the first time – incredible as that seems – a box set of all 69 episodes and specials made by the terrific threesome is about to come out, and the hope is that a whole new generation will get to revel in the madness that was The Goodies.

It also features a most revealing hour-long interview done earlier this year with the three stars, who look very chuffed to have all received OBEs over the years.

Especially Bill, who is wearing his around his neck throughout.

They were all pursuing different studies at Cambridge University when they met, Tim doing law, Graeme medicine and Bill English. So yes, just like you’d imagine their characters would do.

People they’d be in regular contact with included the likes of John Cleese, Eric Idle and Graham Chapman, later Python stars, and you wonder how anyone got any studying done with that lot around the place.

Bill, Graeme and Tim had all tried various radio and TV comedy shows before coming together.

With Oddie supplying the music, The Goodies were the first to use some most unusual special effects, along with editing by hand to make animals appear as if they were talking or singing.

Kitten Kong would prove to be one of their most memorable and best-loved sketches.

Everyone of a certain age recalls the gigantic kitten hanging on to London’s Post Office Tower, and crushing Michael Aspel, and the episode even won the prized Silver Rose at 1972’s Rose d’Or Festival in Montreux.

The oversized kitten was Twinkle, and it got to that size because of Graeme’s special growth mixture. Almost as soon as the cat is let out, they regret it, but by the morning Twinkle has demolished St Paul’s Cathedral and is causing mayhem everywhere.

The Goodies then have to disguise themselves as giant mice to try and fix their large problem.

Little wonder, with all this weird and wonderful stuff, that people would ask the three what they were on when making the series.

It’s hard to believe they weren’t on anything at all.

They lost out to Fawlty Towers in 1975 for a Bafta, and many Goodies fans have been frustrated by the relative lack of repeats, compared to other classic British comedy series.

In this PC age, of course, many an episode of many a show would be virtually unscreenable, but that’s not an accusation that could be levelled against many Goodies episodes.

It does seem strange, considering the mass viewing figures the originals got in their day.

One early memorable episode was called Scotland, but also known to fans as The Loch Ness Monster, and featured the great Stanley Baxter.

In a typically wacky storyline, the trio find a man about to throw himself off a bridge and talk him out of it.

He, it transpires, is the zookeeper in charge of London Zoo’s Monster House, depressed because he has no monster exhibit to put in it. The Goodies head to Scotland, naturally, to capture the Loch Ness Monster for him. They also hunt haggis, which you may know requires skills only true Scots are born with.

When Bill and Graeme dive below the water, they find Tim already there, holding his breath and armed with an umbrella and a huge egg.

It all goes surprisingly easily after this, with the monster rising beneath them, and they set about getting it home to England.

Hospital For Hire saw The Goodies become doctors, after falling out with the NHS.

When they criticised the National Health Service, it was angrily suggested that they might try to do better themselves, so they did.

Becoming doctors surprisingly quickly, they then master such doctorish things as beer drinking and nurse chasing, while Graeme – always the mad scientist – comes up with a special tonic which he sells at a medicine show.

If some in this country didn’t know what to make of all this, you might be surprised to find that people overseas loved it.

Australia, for instance, took to The Goodies like ducks to water, and Down Under viewers have enjoyed regular repeats and DVD box sets over the years.

Germany, that nation supposedly lacking a sense of humour, screened a variety show Engelbert And The Young Generation, with The Goodies appearing in short sequences.

A link-up between the Beeb and German station ZDF, they showed Kitten Kong and various other popular Goodies episodes.

Such as Pan’s Grannies, one of countless personas they adopted, and obviously a much older, much uglier version of the popular dancers on Top Of The Pops, Pan’s People. Speaking of which, The Goodies also managed to reach the pop charts, something which must have delighted the music-mad Oddie but which the others reckon was a bit embarrassing.

We all remember dancing, don’t we, to Funky Gibbon?

Well, someone must have, because it sold enough to make No 4 in the UK charts.

The Goodies’ other singles included, believe it or not, All Things Bright And Beautiful, Nappy Love, Black Pudding Bertha and Elizabeth Rules OK.

We’ll never hear, or see, their likes again – The Goodies were unique, that’s for sure.

On September 24, Network Distributing will release The Goodies: The Complete BBC Collection, which runs to 12 discs, 2,040 minutes, for £79.99. Goodie Goodie Yum Yum!