"The Goodies" Cunning Stunts (1975)

User Rating:

(awaiting 5 votes)

Director:

Jim Franklin

Writers:

Tim Brooke-Taylor (creator)
Tim Brooke-Taylor (writer)

TV Series:

"The Goodies" (1970)

Original Air Date:

14 April 1975 (Season 5, Episode 10)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Slapstick | Surrealism | British | Sitcom | Trio

Cast

Tim Brooke-Taylor	...	Tim Brooke-Taylor
Graeme Garden	...	Graeme Garden
Karin MacCarthy
Roland MacLeod	...	Mr. Makepeace
Bill Oddie	...	Bill Oddie
Tessa Wyatt	...	Mildred Makepeace

Quotes:

[Bill has disappeared in a fit of depression]
Graeme: Oh, if only he'd left a note!
Tim: He did.
Graeme: How do you know?
Tim: It's in my pocket.
[awkward pause]
Tim: I'd better get it out and read it, shouldn't I?
Graeme: Oh, I just hope he hasn't gone off to do something silly.
Tim: [reading] "Dear Tim and Graeme: I have gone off to do something silly."

For Mildred, phphphphrrt!

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a remarkable Goodies episode in many ways. Its suicidal theme makes the humor a bit hard to swallow sometimes, but it also has some very, very funny sequences, especially the ending which is unusually close to Monty Python, and does a very good shot at gender role humor.

The Goodies run a newspaper, but since Bill is in love with Mildred, whom he can not get, he is performing badly. Her father promises her hand to whoever makes him laugh, which Bill fails miserably to do (but the audience definitely laughs at his attempt). He gets sacked, and is replaced by - Mildred! Finally, he enters the "Eurovision Raving Loony Contest" with the ambition to kill himself, and Tim and Graeme have to enter, too, to save him.

The humor is on many levels. Bill being in a dream world, unaware of what happens around him, Graeme and Tim trying to help him to be funny, Mildred as yuppie switching gender roles (much more successfully here than in "Caught in the act") and the madness in the "Raving Loony Contest".

The episode seems to be one of the most censored. A number of verbal puns of sexual nature have been removed (documented on the web). We are not losing much though, since most of these puns were rather cheap and we are better off without them. All the funny jokes are still there.

Overall, the episode ranks as one of the better ones, despite the many suicidal scenes with a depressed Bill. Tessa Wyatt does a terrific job as Mildred, as a pretty girl bossing with the men. Having a pretty girl making a funny role is uncommon, too often pretty girls in comedies are just pretty (as in Benny Hill Show) or sexist, but here it works.

So the contest and Mildred add stars, while a bit too much of depressed Bill takes it down a little bit. Can't be a 10, but at the very least an 8. A good episode!