oddlight

The Goodies Reunite for Sydney Show!


At last, The Goodies will get together for a Sydney show, writes Richard Jinman.

The Goodies won't be riding their famous tandem bicycle when they reunite on stage in Sydney next year.

The comedy trio saddled up in London recently, but the "Trandem" proved as uncomfortable and unstable as it was 30 years ago. Back then, the sight of Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden pedalling off to combat a plague of Rolf Harrises or a giant kitten, was as familiar to television audiences as the theme song refrain, "Goodies! Goody goody yum yum".

"We always hated the bicycle," says 62-year old Brooke-Taylor, who played the group's Union Jack waistcoat-wearing royalist. "The first one didn't have brakes and we were always falling off it. But as an image we knew it was right."

The reformation of The Goodies for a series of live shows as part of Sydney's Big Laugh Comedy Festival in March won't mean much to anyone under 30. But it's a source of real excitement for fans. The show screened Mondays to Fridays on the ABC and is still remembered fondly here, as evidenced by 50,000-plus sales of a Goodies DVD released last year.

"There's a phenomenon of thirtysomethings who just love them," says Big Laugh director John Pinder, who persuaded the trio to reunite. "I know there are people talking about flying out from the UK to see them."

Brooke-Taylor, who began performing with Oddie, 63, and Garden, 61 when they were students at Cambridge University, says they had not previously contemplated a reunion. They aren't sure if they'll perform the show - which tells The Goodies story through performances, anecdotes, songs, film clips and (possibly) a few explosions - in Britain

"We don't want to be like an ageing pop group that gets back together to pay the mortgage," says Brooke-Taylor. "We want it to be fun and good. If we feel the show is enjoyable we might go on with it."

The Goodies have met several times to script the new show. It isn't easy translating a television program that made heavy use of costumes and camera tricks to the stage, but the trio's enduring friendship has made it a smooth reunion. "It'll never be quite the same, but we were one of the few groups that never fell out," says Brooke-Taylor, who has worked regularly with Garden on the BBC radio quiz I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

Watching old episodes like The Goodies and the Beanstalk and The Bunfight at the OK Tearooms, Brooke-Taylor admits some gags have aged. But he's intensely proud of the show.

"To be honest, I don't think The Goodies would be made now," he says. "I didn't think the first two series were very good, but once you get a bit of confidence and people get to know the characters, you can take more risks. Nowadays, if the ratings aren't right you're taken off overnight."

And The Goodies did take risks, despite the popular perception of the show as a more slapstick, kid-friendly version of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Goodies was written for adults and initially aired at 10.30pm in Britain. Brooke-Taylor says he has a "huge list" of moments - everything from rude words like "pissed" to sexual innuendo and parodies of religion - that were excised from the ABC's early evening broadcasts.

He says the show's edge was sharpened after they received a letter praising the first series from British morals campaigner, Mary Whitehouse. It was a call to arms for comedians who had learned their craft at university revues alongside future Monty Python alumni such as John Cleese and Graham Chapman.

"It made us go out of our way to make sure she didn't like any of our shows" says Brooke-Taylor, who got his wish when Whitehouse complained about a scene in which he wore underpants emblazoned with a large carrot.

The show was political, too. Brooke-Taylor was the arch conservative, Garden the middleman and Oddie the scruffy socialist.

"In reality, we were all anti-establishment," says Brooke-Taylor. "But I had the double-barrelled name so I was always going to play the Tory."

The Goodies perform at The Riverside Theatres , Parramatta, on March 3 and at the State Theatre on March 4, 5. Tickets $59-$72, bookings 9266 4800.