TV Comic Annual 1968
(TV Publications, 1967)
An abysmally written Adam Adamant short story, plus 90 pages of lame comics. Two simplistic, murkily illustrated four-page Doctor Who strips feature an overly tall Second Doctor defeating (with mammoths) Trods and (with rocks) Daleks, having first pre-invented the Goodies’ flying trandem!
The Goodies: Pods and Monsters
by Kenton Hall (Chinbeard Books, 2023)
The second novella in Chinbeard’s Target-styled Goodies range, featuring nostalgic cover art and the first slightly unfortunate example of what no doubt will become intentional font-ambiguity jokes. The humour within is off-the-cuff and heavily pun-based, aimed squarely at those in the know.
The Goodies: Avengers Dissemble
by Barnaby Eaton-Jones (Chinbeard Books, 2022)
A pun-filled nostalgic riot of a novella based on scripts for the curtailed Audible series. Though Eaton-Jones captures a brand of Goodies mayhem more in keeping with the Cor!! comics or ISIHAC than the TV show, the outcome is nonetheless very welcome.
The Goodies Ep. 1: The Big Ben Theory
by Gareth Gwynn & John-Luke Roberts; dir. Dirk Maggs (Audible, 10 October 2019)
The Goodies are dusted off in audio form to tackle some of today’s social and political crises. Though occasionally breaking the fourth wall into ISIHAC territory, the script is largely faithful in reproducing that zany spirit of old. Guest villain: Joanna Lumley.
One Flew into the Cuckoo’s Egg
by Bill Oddie (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008)
Bill Oddie’s autobiography largely omits both birdwatching and The Goodies, preferring instead Oddie’s rather bleak childhood and pre-celebrity years (an engaging reminiscence by someone who’s come to terms with his demons), then his post-celebrity battles with depression (detailed honestly and without self-pity).
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.
Flight of the Conchords, Season 1
(HBO, 2007)
Centred around the eponymous New Zealand comedy duo’s fictionalised (non-)attempts to crack New York’s music scene, Flight of the Conchords evoked The Goodies (but with deadpan drollery), or Spinal Tap (with real musicians), quickly earning cult status… if only in real life.
The Goodies – Earthanasia
(Series 7, Episode 6; first broadcast 22 December 1977)
Surely the darkest, funniest Christmas special ever made. Set at half an hour to midnight and playing out in real time, the Goodies must observe the requisite festivities yet make peace with each other and within themselves before the Earth is destroyed.
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.