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The Goodies... at last... back for more, again!
I've had a bad day and
without getting into semantics, I needed something to cheer me up. And
there it was... staring me right in the eyes, The Goodies... at
last... back for more, again!, it was a DVD sent from comedy heaven.
And that's where our good friends at the BBC have collected eight of the
best episodes as The Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill
Oddie) get involved in a variety of whacky and sometimes out of this
world antics.
I'm not sure what age I
was when I first discovered The Goodies but their comedy series
encompassed ten years of entertainment from 1970 to 1980 with almost
every episode a barrel of laughs. It's still being aired today, rerun
after rerun... which is a feat in itself.
However for those
unaware of this comical phenomenon, the premise behind The Goodies was
that they would help anyone who needed assistance, anytime, anyplace and
anywhere. Yes, The Goodies were helpers but the gag was not just how
they helped these people but rather the clever banter between them which
is still priceless plus a healthy dose of silly slapstick. Some
considered it Monty Python for kids but adults all over the world
enjoyed it equally. From giant kittens to clowns invading Britain and
even space trips, The Goodies could virtually do anything... plus they
had a cool tandem bicycle for three!
The episodes included in
this collection, although not my personal favourites still put a big fat
smile on my face, whether it was Graham getting chased by an almost
Transformer like farm machine or the classic episode that revolves
around The Goodies in 2001... with some parallels to 2001 A Space
Odyssey. The most creepiest aspect of the episode is
that Tim Brooke-Taylor has a son that looks identical to Bill Oddie!
The
humour of this collection is quite strange and at times, plus The Goodies
were quite risqué, thanks to an era without political correctness. But
it's not all Champaign comedy as some of the humour is a little dated
and at times cringe worthy but if you grew up with The Goodies, it's
definitely an enjoyable watch down memory lane. Seeing Brooke-Taylor,
Garden and Oddie in their youthful prime is what it's all about.
For the purists, The
Goodies... at last... back for more, again! contains the following
episodes;
Video, Audio &
Special Features
The video quality of
this release is rather poor and this is due to the age of the original video
footage and limitations of the era. It's still watchable but don't
expect any Blu-ray quality or even decent sound but fortunately the
episodes more than make up for the lack of video and audio quality.
Unfortunately there are no
special features in this release but the DVD comes with a great 36 page booklet by
Andrew Pixley called "Programme Notes" which gives you an in-depth
insiders snapshot of all facets of every episode in the collection.
Whether it was who starred in the episode, how it was shot or where the
ideas came from, it's
quite a read but definitely interesting for a Goodies fan.
In conclusion, The
Goodies... at last... back for more, again! is a thoroughly amusing
DVD which features over 4
hours of laughs that will definitely hold a special place your
collection.
All I can say to the BBC is that they better release the
entire Goodies collection one day!
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