Yes Minister, Series 2
by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn (BBC 2, 1981)
Series Two offers more of the same, still without entirely hitting its straps (the minister tending to stumble into, not yet earn, his rare victories). Paul Eddington’s tongue-tied floundering remains sublime beyond script. Graeme Garden makes a cameo in ‘The Death List’.
Doctor Who: The Book of Kells
by Barnaby Edwards (Big Finish, 2010)
A solid historical adventure, commendably underplayed (albeit mostly a veiled character set-up). Paul McGann is excellent as ever, his delivery a sublime and mercurial mix of conceit, solemnity, flippancy and suppressed wrath. Goodies fans will appreciate a well-pitched appearance by Graeme Garden.
The Seventh Man: My Part in the Defection Scandal
by Geoffrey T. Alsop, as told to Graeme Garden (Eyre Methuen, 1981)
Judging from this clever satire on official deniability, in which a senior MI6 operative misinterprets and overlooks at every hapless turn (and even unwittingly participates in) the now-infamous defection of British diplomats Burgess and Maclean, Graeme Garden should have written more novels.
The Goodies, Series 1
by Graeme Garden & Bill Oddie (with Tim Brooke-Taylor) (BBC 1970)
In 1970 comedy trio the Goodies arrived under their own names, riding a trandem bicycle and pioneering a freeform sitcom where they claimed to do anything, anytime. Exuberant, irreverent, chaotic: Tim, Bill and Graeme soon found themselves (to quote their song) needed.