Goodie is coming for you
- Date: June 18, 2013 - 3:13PM
The Goodies back in the day: Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Photo: Supplied
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Sometimes you can play it cool when speaking to a childhood hero.
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Other times you wind up gushing to a Goodie about Cambridge University in the early 1960s being a meeting place of the comedy gods.
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“Oh please, you're going over the top, you really are,” laughed Bill Oddie, who will present his one-man nostalgic show An Oldie but a Goodie on Thursday at The Tivoli.
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Bill Oddie in his music room. Photo: Supplied
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The 71-year-old was a fixed presence in the childhood of many Australians, with The Goodies on near constant repeats on the ABC during the 1970s and '80s.
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The slapstick and surreal adventures of Tim Brooke-Taylor (the posh one), Graeme Garden (the smart one) and Bill (the hippie) enthralled children as dinners were prepared or digested.
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Oddie says this resulted in an enduring affection for The Goodies in Australia that far eclipses their esteem in Britain.
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“Australians are far nicer and more effusive than British audiences, who decided to hate us a long time ago,” he jokes.
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But he says the 6.30pm timeslot for the show in Australia – far earlier than its 9pm slot in the Mother Country – meant a number of “ridiculous” cuts were made to their intended-for-adults program.
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“The raunchiness – which is a nice word, you mean the filthy bits – that was always an integral part of it.”
Oddie says he'll discuss reactions to the show and its content in An Oldie but a Goodie.
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“When we got censored in Britain, it was never to do with a double entrendre or a naughty bit, it was almost political,” he says.
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“By far the best example was the program we did about South Africa, which was quite a hard-hitting anti-apartheid program, and they didn't want that to go out at all.”
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Oddie says BBC management claimed the episode was simply not funny enough, so the Goodies promised to add 10 more jokes.
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“Some of the best material was put in on the re-record, so there was no way they could say it wasn't funny, so they had to put it out.”
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He'll also speak on the controversy surrounding disgraced former DJ Jimmy Savile, who's been revealed as a serial sex offender.
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The Goodies featured on Savile's TV show Top of the Pops when they had music hits in the 1970s, and Oddie says the host had a reputation as a strange character.
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“It's ridiculous for [BBC] bosses to say 'I never knew anything about that'. It's absurd, and it demeans them,” he says.
But he insists that Australian Rolf Harris – often lampooned by the Goodies – is receiving unfair attention from authorities.
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“I find it very hard to believe that there is any real substance to what's gone on so far,” he says.
“Jimmy Savile he ain't.”
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Oddie has spent much of his latter years as a passionate ornithologist, with 15 years of wildlife documentaries under his belt.
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But he says this tour is about Goodies, not birdies.
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Fans can expect more behind-the-scenes insights, including how they merged popular genres with social trends – such as kung-fu, punk and disco – to create satirical fodder.
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“I want to make a few revelations, particularly about Tim and Graeme, because if they're not there they'll never know what I say,” he jokes.
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“Graeme and I wrote the series. Tim was allowed to agree with us and that's all – he had to behave himself. When people ask why is Tim always the one in drag, it's because Graeme and I wrote it.”
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Bill Oddie: An Oldie but a Goodie is on for one night only at The Tivoli on Thursday, June 20. www.brisbanetimes.com.au has four double passes to give away. To enter, send an email to btcomps@brisbanetimes.com.au and answer the following question: What was the name of the Lancashire martial art that the Goodies created? Entries close at noon on Wednesday, June 19.
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/goodie-is-coming-for-you-20130618-2ofwv.html#ixzz2Wbsam2wD 
