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FROM THE HULL DAILY MAIL:

GOODIES STILL RULE OK

09:10 - 31 March 2007

Forget the psychopathic black pudding and the psychedelic chase sequences.
Beneath the day-glo madness of The Goodies - as much a part of the 70s cultural scene as dungarees, joss sticks and beards - something far more profound was happening.

At least, that's what Tim Brooke-Taylor would like us to believe.

"It was never a children's programme - it was written for adults but younger people have a perception of all this silly running around," said Tim.

"The Goodies was a satirical show. The nearest parallel is the Simpsons, parents watch that with their kids without the children necessarily understanding the other levels built into it."

The programme - which ran from 1970 to 1982 - was almost a Warner Brothers cartoon made flesh.

And while viewers of a certain age will recall the stop-motion film trickery, the stunts and explosions, the trio of Tim, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden aimed to tackle deeper issues.

In the episode titled South Africa, apartheid - which had stripped black South Africans of their political rights - was re-imagined as "Apart Height"
and saw Bill discriminated against for being too short.

And in Gender Education, The Goodies satirised the self-appointed TV censor Mary Whitehouse with the film, How to Make Babies By Doing Dirty Things.

Though these aspects have been largely forgotten in Britain - partly because the programmes have not been rebroadcast for 20 years - the anarchic spirit lives on through a new stage show, The Goodies Rule OK!

"You have to be about 40 to remember The Goodies the first time round," said Tim.

"But it seems to be one of those programmes that gets handed down and now people are coming along to the shows with their kids."

The new show features Tim and Graeme live on stage, with Bill appearing in a series of video clips because of other filming commitments.

"It means we can switch him off," said Tim.

Alongside the sketches and buffoonery, the trio share reminiscences about their time in the show.

The Goodies' story begins at Cambridge University in the early 60s, where the trio were members of the Footlights theatrical society.

With contemporaries including founding members of Monty Python John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, rebellion was in the air.

"Things were changing so quickly, with the music and atmosphere of the times," said Tim. "There was a sense that there were certain establishment things that you couldn't mock, but our feeling was, we will say what we think."

The trio appeared in the BBC sketch show Broaden Your Mind, before approaching producers with the idea of "an agency of three blokes, who do anything, any time".

And each week, The Goodies would peddle their three-seater bike towards a new adventure.

By the middle of the 70s, the trio had attracted worldwide attention, not least when a viewer laughed himself to death at their antics.

The show in question, Kung Fu Capers, saw Tim, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, using a set of bagpipes to fend off a psychopathic black pudding.

Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, was watching the programme at home. After 25 minutes of "continuous laughter" at Tim's demonstration of the ancient Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye", he died of a heart attack.

His widow later sent the trio a letter of appreciation.

"This very nice lady wrote to us to say thank you for making his last moments happy ones," said Tim. "It is a quite a difficult thing to react to.
The press badgered me about how I felt, but the only answer was, 'It's the way I'd want to go.' We thought about doing a horror movie type thing, 'We dare you to watch The Goodies', but it was too soon after it happened, it would have been a bit sick."

After a decade of giant kittens and walking toothpaste, The Goodies'
involvement with the BBC ended in 1981.

With the corporation's visual effects department working on the sci-fi comedy show The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, endless postponements for the new series saw the trio defect to the "other side".

"ITV came along with bags of gold, but had no idea where to put us," said Tim. "They did not want us on in the middle of the evening, as that was the prime time for the Coronation Street-type shows, so they stuck us at 5.30pm when no one was watching. Considering we used to get an audience of 12 million on the BBC, it was all a bit silly and we just drifted away.

"In many ways it is a regret that we did not go on. There would have been so many things to cover - Margaret Thatcher was just arriving on the scene."

So maybe it's apt that the Iron Lady makes an appearance in the new show, even if she has been filtered through the kaleidoscope of Goodies logic.

"I appear as a cross between Margaret Thatcher and Evita - basically Thatcher's personality with singing thrown in," said Tim. "It's not for kids and it might be a bit frightening for adults as well."

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FROM THE ESSEX CHRONICLE GAZETTE:

"IT MAKES ME LAUGH THAT WE'RE STILL GETTING AWAY WITH IT"


08:00 - 28 March 2007

How did the Goodies Still Rule OK come about?We first tried it out in Australia where there's more of an audience for us because it's been on television there non-stop for years. We've got a real following there so when we toured we got very enthusiastic audiences, there seems to be a real affection for the show. I think a lot of people had seen it as kids then carried on watching it when they grew up and saw the satirical side of it more. It's like a social history of the 70s.

After the success of the Australian tour, we were persuaded to do the Edinburgh Festival last year and we ended up doing a three-week run. Then we put the feelers out about doing a UK tour and the reaction was very positive.

Why don't we ever see The Goodies on the television anymore?

We're often asked why repeats aren't ever shown and we've never really got a cogent answer. The BBC didn't really release anything on video and it's another company who've put them out on DVD. There's another series out now by the way.

How did The Goodies first get together?

We were all at Cambridge University at the same time, we were all in Footlights, along with John Cleese and Eric Idle. It was an extraordinary time with all the Pythons about and people like Trevor Nunn and Richard Eyre producing Footlights plays. It was like a golden generation, we were all undergraduates together. I think we all did so well because we didn't take it terribly seriously."

What is the live show like?

I've worked a lot with Tim in the intervening years, and we just wanted to make the stage show fun. Having worked on radio together, we knew how to handle the loose format which is handy when the other person is trying to stitch you up all the time.

The show is scripted, we've got a structure, and we'll be answering questions about the show and showing clips. We'll tell some stories about the show and the clips, and also talk about Footlights and other TV and radio shows we've done. It makes me laugh that we're still getting away with it.

So where's Bill?

He did the Australian show with us, we all put that together, but his filming commitments meant he couldn't do this. He's kindly filmed his bits for the show so we'll be using video links for Bill which is good because we can turn him off when we get bored. We can't turn him off in real life unfortunately - we've been waiting for that technology for 30 years.

The Goodies Still Rule OK! is at the Southend Palace Theatre on Sunday, April 1 at 8pm. Tickets are £15.50, £18 and £19.50 on 01702 351135 or go to www.palacetheatresouthend.co.uk

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FROM THE BROMSGROVE ADVERTISER:

Goodies are back in business

ONCE they were regulars on our television screens and they even had a hit record, but apart from occasional flashback reminders and specials little has really been seen of them for some time.

However, they're back, or at least two of them will be on stage and the other will star' in a slightly different way.

They'll be in a new stage show - The Goodies Still Rule OK! - which will be at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham this Friday (7.30pm).

Starring Tim Brooke Taylor and Graeme Garden the show is a celebration of one of the most popular TV comedy series of the 1970's. It received rave reviews at The Edinburgh Festival last summer and sold out two tours in Australia.

Due to filming commitments the third member of the trio, Bill Oddie, will beam his performance to the Alex via the wonders of digital technology.

For younger theatre-goers they'll be delighted to know Scooby Doo is coming to Birmingham's Hippodrome from Wednesday, April 18 to Sunday, April 22.

The Mystery Inc gang have taken to the road in their trusty Mystery Machine and are bringing the live experience of this cartoon classic to the stage in Scooby Doo! in Stagefright.