The Goodies on ZANI

On the evening of 8th November 1970, BBC 2, three maverick characters were unleashed to the British viewing public, The Goodies.

Tim Brooke Taylor (17th July 1940 – 12th April 2020) posh and a Royalist, often donning a Union Jack waistcoat. Graeme Garden (18th February 1943) a bespectacled man with fuzzy chops and a scruffy professor's attire. Bill Oddie (7th July 1941), a cheerful and mischievous hippy in far-out clothes, comical parodies of themselves. When not out and about on their legendary Tandem bike, the trio resided in London, where they ran a consultancy with the motto, ‘Anything, Anywhere, Anytime.’ Echoing The Who’s carefree sixties Mod anthem, ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere.’ Like the four different personalities of The Who, Pete, Roger, John, and Keith, The Goodies, Tim, Graeme, and Bill, would often quarrel yet unite when they had to, just like The Who.

The Goodies certainly had echoes of Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes, silent slapstick comedy, The Beatles’ film Help, The Fab Four’s animated Yellow Submarine, and The Monkees’ TV series. A group of creative and crazy young men living together and getting involved in madcap adventures and confrontations with figures of authority and crime syndicates. The Beatles and Monkees’ skirmishes would entail a song by the respected band in a knockabout scenario. The Goodies used this principle to perfection. A good example is the opening credits, featuring all three in zany situations from the show with their iconic theme song. Throughout the show, whether Bill going mad in Gender Education (1971) or Graeme sword fighting with Bill and Ben the flowerpot men in The Goodies Rule – O.K.? (1975), music, all written by Bill, would feature to enhance the humour.

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