The Goodies and the Beanstalk – 1973
Writers
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Graeme Garden
Bill Oddie

Producer
Jim Franklin producer

Cast
Tim Brooke-Taylor – Tim
Graeme Garden – Graeme
Bill Oddie – Bill
Alfie Bass – The giant
Eddie Waring – Himself (host for It’s a Knockout)
John Cleese – The genie
Corbet Woodall – Himself as newsreader
Robert Bridges
Marcelle Samett
Toni Harris
Helli Louise
Marty Swift
Arthur Ellis – Himself (Referee for It’s A Knockout)

Review by Theo Robertson

The Goodies and the Beanstalk (1973) (TV)

Somewhat Dated But Still Amusing,
I had given up on ever seeing an episode of THE GOODIES ever being broadcast on British network TV . Apparently much of their humour would today be classed ” racist ” and I have seen clips where the cast use variations of the N word which would no longer be allowed on British television nowadays so it was something of a shock to see Channel 5 broadcast THE GOODIES AND THE BEANSTALK at Christmas.

I was looking forward to watching this again and could recall seeing it as a child . To be honest though much of the humour has somewhat dated with a fairly long early sequence similar to THE BENNY HILL SHOW where there’s no dialogue, only a muzak soundtrack as the eponymous goodies try and make some money after falling on hard times . As with all the goodies sketches there’s a policeman involved and a scene that will have the PC brigade falling out of their chairs since it might be classed as ” homophobic ” .

There’s a sequence later featuring a competition involving puppies ” And remember if no one wins the puppies they’ll be sold to Indian restaurants ” and a sequence featuring a savage done up as Man Friday , but nothing that will cause great offence to someonewith a sense of humour.

The only criticism I have about the humour of THE GOODIES AND THE BEANSTALK is that it’s maybe a little too cartoonish and surreal for a modern day audience who think THE OFFICE and FRIENDS is the be all and end all of comedy . The goodies might have have been unsophisticated but they still remain amusing.

There is one other thing I noticed while watching this that might be classed as criticism and that’s the laughter track – It’s too intrusive . People complain about the canned laughter in things like I’M ALAN PARTRIDGE , LITTLE Britain but it’s just as bad here which goes to show it’s not a modern phenomena