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.
Tag: The Goodies
The Goodies Ep. 1: The Big Ben Theory
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…
One Flew into the Cuckoo’s Egg
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
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…
42 Word Review: Flight of the Conchords, Season 1
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.
42 Word Retrospective: The Goodies – Earthanasia
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.
42 Word Retrospective: The Goodies, Season 1
The Goodies, Season 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.