Don Groves on his Tim Brooke-Taylor interview for ABC's listing magazine TV Times August 14, 1976.

Martin Dunne
Don, My friends and I are still quoting your work, 45 years on ... ! Was this an interview or did he just give you the quotes?

Don Groves
Wow, I didn't know my ancient work was still being referenced Martin. As I recall I interviewed him.

Martin Dunne
Awesome Don! As per the link from the forum, he came to Australia to promote the new 5.30pm Goodies slot, following Flashez. Bizarre now he would plead "Please watch The Goodies" considering what a success it was to become! It was on at 10pm on BBC2 in the UK, but had become increasingly popular with children, 1975 saw them peak out with music and books as well as the TV show. Remember anything else -- where it was conducted, what he was like? He appears to have had a holiday here after the promotion.

Don Groves
No, sadly Martin my memories of that era are very hazy. I think it was in-person and he was a delight to talk to....

Martin Dunne
Cheers dude - That's still going to make some Goodies fans very happy. So was this Adelaide/did you cover other capitals? How did you send copy in, fax?

Don Groves
I spent four years in Adelaide for TV Times, transferred to their Sydney head office for a year in 1976 and then joined the Sun-Herald. Yes, faxed copy in that era.

Martin Dunne
Thanks, Don!

Thanks Lisa; I'd asked John about it but hadn't seen the Memento write up or your account.

Andrew has a lot of information about the Australian cuts in the episode entries of Super Chaps Three. At a guess they are from the Film Censorship Board assessments, as per this example from Give Police a Chance or episode 1.3.

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7937371

The Memento #39 article uses a publicity image from series four supplied to the ABC and now held at the NAA, and refers to "fan lore" on ABC cuts. This would probably be Matthew's site (online since at least 1996), derived by watching edited and unedited episodes side by side. Notably this was done years before the NAA files were opened; the Give Police a Chance file linked was only made available in 2005.

There's a wealth of Goodies information in these files, unfortunately held physically in Sydney (I'm in Adelaide). The 2010 Archives Act changes mentioned on the same pages of Memento #39 are a double edged sword as they reduced the waiting time from 30 to 20 years, but was associated with massive budget cuts and had the unfortunate result in creating a backlog.

Andrew also refers to some of the ABC schedule, which I have replicated with my listings research. There are certain gaps in the published listings which may be easily resolved in Sydney or Melbourne, if I am unable to finish the project here I will ask for help to resolve this. He has a write up of Tim's 1976 appearance on The Norman Gunston Show, has anyone seen that?

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MartinAgain : ' Lots of acknowledgements for people associated with this site in Super Chaps Three, anyone know who got the source for the Australian censor cuts? Was it Matthew K Sharp's Goodies Censored site?

Do you mean the source of information for the censor cuts?  I can provide some info about the recovered footage.

In brief, and going partly from memory, about 10  years ago I'd read that ABC researcher John Williams had found some missing Goodies-related footage (possibly from "At Last the 1948 Show" - I'd have to dig through old emails to refresh my memory).  I contacted John and asked if he was aware of the missing footage from "The Goodies", in particular the "sex test" scene from "The Commonwealth Games" episode.  John did some digging around and found that clip (and later the mock ad "Dreaded Wheat", from the "Lost Tribe" episode) in the archives.

The "Commonwealth Games" footage was part of a reel of cuts from various programs, many of the clips only a second or so long (for example, someone saying "bloody").  I'm sure we have multiple articles about the recovery of the censored footage in the forums (such as http://goodiesruleok.com/forum.php?forum=1&topic=3748&page=1&msg=37349&msgref=37349#anch37349) and probably in at least one issue of our newsletter (all the back issues can be found at http://goodiesruleok.com/articles.php)

That's OK; same interview cited in The Goodies: Super Chaps Three and presumably common across the country.

Lots of acknowledgements for people associated with this site in Super Chaps Three, anyone know who got the source for the Australian censor cuts? Was it Matthew K Sharp's Goodies Censored site?

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MartinAgain : ' This is coming together very well! Any idea of the TV Times region that article was in?

I'm afraid not.  I should have the original magazine around somewhere, but I've got a lot of stuff in storage.  If I find it I'll let you know.

This is coming together very well!

Any idea of the TV Times region that article was in? Most content was in common across the country. TV Times was ABC's own listings magazine, their equivalent of the TV Radio Times. They supplied the content and Australian Consolidated Press printed it. However, where the BBC's Genome project has made the TV Radio Times available online back to the 1920s, TV Times was discontinued in 1980 when ACP stopped printing it in favour of placing the TV guide in their own Woman's Weekly. On the upside, ABC Legal say they don't care about the content and regard it as public domain.

"The Goodies'll Get You" is the animated strobing cards in the "Unknown Goodies credits" thread. I have added an angry letter to the editor complaining about this ad campaign, Alvin Purple and Norman Gunston. It seems this was an ongoing push for ABC's evening line up, unfortunate we've just got a couple of seconds of it.

http://www.goodiesruleok.com/forum.php?forum=1&fpage=1&msg=40402&topic=4375

The poster was kind enough to drop me a line on the origin of the ad, this suggests ABC may still have the entire thing.

ABC TV Sydney sent me the master tape DVD copy of a pop music show called Flashez. A small snippet of a Goodies end promo was included at the very start of Flashez. That is all I have of Goodies via Aust TV.

Here's another ABC promo (possibly dating to 1977).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSionOApW6g

In my files I found an article from the Australian TV Times' August 14-20, 1976 edition.  It's just my typed up version (I suspect I did this for an issue of the C&G).  Anyway, that makes it easy to cut & paste here.

The following article appeared in the Australian television listings magazine TV Times’ August 14-20, 1976 edition.


Secrets of being a Goodie
by Don Groves

The Goodies Will Get You, the slogan says, but Tim Brooke-Taylor wonders how many viewers his program *will* get in the 5.30pm weekday slot.

Brooke-Taylor, one of the show’s trio of writers-stars, thinks ABC-TV should screen the program, which began last week, later in the evening, to appeal to both older and younger viewers.

The Goodies went to air in England at 9pm and, according to Brooke-Taylor, was voted top comedy show last year by readers of the mass-circulation London Sun.

The ABC’s answer, from controller of TV programs John Cameron, is that it does not regard 5.30pm as purely children’s viewing time.

Cameron said: “With our new early evening line-up, we are attempting to pull a new audience, and an adult audience.  We believe most people do not finish work at 5pm, but between 3.30 and 4pm.  By 5pm, they are getting home and are ready to look at TV.

“The Goodies’ humor has a high visual element and we believe it will have a wide appeal.”

Tim Brooke-Taylor came to Australia to make this appeal: “Please watch the Goodies.  I’m not telling you it’s the greatest show ever, but we like it, so have a look.  I don’t want it to sink without trace.”

With co-stars Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, he makes up the trio of trouble-shooters.

All three turned to acting after graduating from Cambridge in the mid-1960s.  Brooke-Taylor qualified as a solicitor, Garden as a doctor, and Oddie has a degree in English.

Garden’s training would be particularly useful on the set, for the trio insist on doing their own stunts and believe: “If it doesn’t hurt, it’s not funny.”

This has resulted in a series of decidedly unfunny accidents.  Brooke-Taylor said: “We once had to rid a three-seater bike along wires strung up in the BBC’s London studio.  The man in charge of the operation assured us that in 50 years not once had a wire snapped.  So we went 15 feet up, the cameras started, and twang!  Bill and Graeme slid off gracefully, but I had my wrist caught up between the handlebars and the brake.
“I didn’t scream – I knew that wouldn’t do any good – and fortunately a photographer who was nearby came to help me.  My wrist had a deep gash almost to the bone.


“I went upstairs to the BBC’s nursing department where the nurse, a French girl, demanded to know my staff number (I told her that I was a freelance actor and didn’t have one) and wrote down full details of the accident before she treated me!”

Then there was the time Brooke-Taylor, mounted on a giant can of tomato soup, was to be launched down a boat ramp.  It was a rough, windy day, the can rolled over and crushed his leg.  Luckily nothing was broken but “it hurt like hell.”

His most frightening experience occurred when The Goodies demonstrated a chest-expander for a keep-fit lark.

He said: “Bill and Graeme pulled the expander around me and danced around, much like a maypole.  I said, ‘let go,’ and it suddenly contracted, squeezing my rib cage.

“For a few moments I really thought I was going to die.  My whole lifetime should have passed before my eyes but it didn’t – must have been a pretty boring life – and someone cut me free with wire-cutters.”

It took a long time for The Goodies’ team to discover padding to cushion their falls.  Brooke-Taylor said Graeme Garden, whom he describes as the “best faller in the world,” padded up to protect his spine, elbows and the back of his knees for a stunt in which he was to land on his back.

Garden twisted over in mid-air – and landed on his front!

Brooke-Taylor, 36, and wife, Christine, have two children, Ben, 6, and Edward, 5.  Tim and Christine lived within four miles of each other in Derbyshire, but did not meet until they went on holiday to Switzerland.

They literally fell into each other’s arms – at the time, both were learning to ski!  The family lives in the London suburb of Cricklewood – which happens to be The Goodies’ fictitious address in the program.

To coincide with a sale of colour copies of series to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (the first five series including specials, excluding odd episodes ABC continued to play in B&W), Tim came to Australia and got a fair bit of publicity.

This clipping describes a stunt with a few bowler hats at Sydney Airport. He is reputed to have been dismayed the series was being played at 5.30pm, but so far I'm just finding reporters quoting other reporters on this. I recall him doing a piece to camera for ABC, possibly from c.1981, when according to Matthew K Sharp ABC bought another large number of episodes. Any information on this tour or his ABC promotion would be welcome.

The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, July 28, 1976.