Graeme, Tim and Bill pulling the strings of Thorpe, Thatcher and Wilson marionettes; Jim Franklin pulling the Goodies’ strings!

Postscript: the best part of this special comes after the credits, where director Jim Franklin is shown pulling the Goodies’ strings! It’s an unusual but heartfelt nod, putting on record their acknowledgement of the man who for so many series made their physical antics shine. #Goodies50 #JimFranklin

Bill, Tim and Graeme, on the verge of running from the giant Dougal.

Happy 50th anniversary to ‘The Goodies Rule—O.K.?’, a fan favourite though an episode that, to paraphrase Tim, 'got out of hand.' #Goodies50 #SuperChapsThree #TheGoodiesRuleOK

That’s 50 episodes down in my Goodies retrospective: www.jacobedwards.id.au/50-the-goodi...

Next up: Lips, or Almighty Cod

Bill brawling with four Wombles!

Not a lot goes right in this special, but Bill brawling with fellow novelty pop artists The Wombles is a highlight! #Goodies50 #TheWombles

The government, consisting of three well-dressed shop dummies standing outside No. 10, fall over. Caption: OVERWHELMING VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE, ENTERTAINERS SET TO TAKE THE FIELD. GOVERNMENT TOPPLES.

The toppling of the shop dummies government is a classic Goodies gag (albeit one of few)! #Goodies50

The Goodies, dressed as three Robin Hoods on their trandem, come across a ‘mirth inspector’ beating someone up. They fire an arrow-propelled custard tart at him.

It’s a shame the lads didn’t pursue their Robin Hood personas beyond the firing of one arrow-propelled custard pie! Instead, they abandon the outlaw green and indulge in a generic routine of comedy showmanship mishaps. #Goodies50

The Goodies in formalwear attend their OBE ceremony. Rain leads to flooding, and they are waist-deep in water by the time the Queen arrives. Dialogue from the episode: Bill: I don’t like the rain. Tim: Rain? What rain? I see no rain. This is the sunniest day of my life!

Shades of Winter Olympics as Tim finally receives his OBE... underwater! #Goodies50 #OBE

Tim and Bill playing guitars; Graeme on drums. All are dressed in outrageous rock getup.

Masterful as it is, the playing of Wild Thing in its entirety seems overly extravagant... but not so much as when they played it *again* less than a year later in The Goodies – Almost Live! #Goodies50 #WildThing

Black-and-white shots of ‘George’ (a dummy), ‘Bingo’ (Bill on drums), ‘Don’ (Graeme on guitar), and ‘Saul’ (Tim on bass), aka The Bootles! Sheet music of ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ by Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie. Bill, about to chuck a cabbage.

Before the Beatles stole their act, the Super Chaps were *that* close to making it big as the Bootles! #Goodies50 #TheBootles #TheBeatles

The Goodies as custard pie–wielding gangsters; as Robin Hoods on their trandem; and as Union Jack–vested rock stars.

50 years ago today, the Goodies indulged their rock fantasies (and nightmares), governed the nation (briefly, while bouncing), and were done in by their own puppet government. Tonight I shall revisit this least coherent—though by some, most fondly remembered—of specials. #Goodies50 #SuperChapsThree

Futuristic Graeme (with Spock ears) and Tim; Bill with their skeletal remains.

Happy 50th anniversary to ‘The End’, a masterclass in ingenuity and as fine a vintage of bottle episode as one could hope for! #Goodies50 #SuperChapsThree #TheEnd

That’s 49 episodes down in my Goodies retrospective: www.jacobedwards.id.au/49-the-end/

Next up: The Goodies Rule – O.K.?

Picture: The Goodies’ office is now totally devoid of furniture, save one chair. Graeme and Tim, old and decrepit, stand to either side of this. Dialogue from the episode: Tim: I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with... ‘c’. Graeme: Chair. Tim: Well done. Graeme: I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with ‘c’. Tim: Chair. Graeme: Correct. Tim: I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with, um, oh, beginning with, um, oh! ‘c’. Graeme: Um... Chair? Tim: Ah! Absolutely correct. Graeme: Really? Shot in the dark, you know. Tim: What’s the score? Graeme: The score is— let me take a look here... dead level. Tim: Oh, my word. It is exciting, isn’t it?

In a Goodies bottle episode, less is more! #Goodies50 #ISpy

Pictures: Graeme and Tim, wearing chefs’ hats and aprons, appear to have second thoughts about cooking Bill... Dialogue from the episode: Graeme: Tim. Tim, come here. I mean, how are we going to cook poor little Bill? Tim: Yes, I know. Graeme: Do you want him boiled, roast, fried, stewed...? Tim: Really, Graeme! ... Fried, of course.

As dire as their situation is, Graeme and Tim appear to have second thoughts about eating Bill... but only for so long as to set up an expectation gag! #Goodies50

Pictures: Tim starts the gramophone player; Bill smashes his record; Tim points accusingly. Dialogue from the episode: Graeme: Here’s my solution: Tim, you can be a lord... but you’ve got to clean the shoes. Bill: Ahh! Tim: Oh, all right. I suppose we all have to strive together to create a new society. [Starts gramophone for patriotic speech.] We shall build a fine— Bill: [Smashes record] Tim: You! What’d you do that for?! Bill: Silent revolution, m’lord Timbo!

A scene whose failed record-smashing made the BBC bloopers reel... #Goodies50 #SilentRevolution

Pictures: Corbet Woodall as the on-screen newsreader, dressed firstly in his usual suit, then in more shabby clothing. Graeme’s arm reaches across to mute the TV. Dialogue from the episode: Corbet: In the light of the increasing poverty of the nation, the government have decided that work on the new Brighton to Birkenhead Freeway will be suspended indefinitely. Bill: What?! Oh, blimey. Operator! Corbet: News is just coming in— Bill: Operator? Give me the Ministry of Works. Operator, please. Please!

Such attention to detail! Corbet Woodall again plays the on-screen newsreader: originally in suit and tie; in a later broadcast wearing more shabby attire (reflecting the ‘increasing poverty of the nation’!). As Graeme mutes the TV, he breaks off and waits to be unmuted! #Goodies50 #CorbetWoodall

Pictures: Graeme and Bill stand beside Graeme’s scale model of the Kew Gardens redevelopment scheme (lots of blocks of concrete!); Graeme points to his own brain. Dialogue from the episode: Bill: What is that? Graeme: That is a 350-foot high block of offices. Bill: Oh yeah? Looks more like a 350-foot high block of concrete. Graeme: Exactly. Bill: Yes, but Graeme, you see: as an architect, I would have thought you’d have spotted this. Haven’t you noticed? No windows, no doors, eh? Graeme: That’s the whole point, you fool. Look, do you realise the rent on that place is going to be £4,000 pounds per square foot... and that’s per minute. Bill: Nobody can afford that, can they? Graeme: Well of course they can’t! So there’s no point wasting money putting doors and windows in, is there? Dear me. As a matter of fact, there’s no rooms in their either. That’s so the squatters can’t move in. I’ve thought of everything.

Bonkers though it sounds, Graeme’s scheme for Kew Gardens is in fact a dig at Harry Hyams (‘Harry Highrise’) and his infamous Centre Point development. #Goodies50 #HarryHyams #CentrePoint

The Goodies prepare to meet the queen: Bill wears a paper pirate’s hat, Tim a flower-pot, a wet shirt and Union Jack boxer shorts; Graeme a blindfold (expecting to be beheaded!).

50 years ago today, Graeme’s ill-considered redevelopment scheme saw the Goodies’ office encased in a 350-foot high block of concrete. Tonight, I shall chalk tally marks upon the wall and revisit this most aptly named season-ender... #Goodies50 #SuperChapsThree #TheEnd

A wooden sign proclaiming: GOODIES CREAM MINE, KEEP OUT! Tim and Bill, standing beside their tent, confront Graeme on his mule.

Happy 50th anniversary to ‘Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms’, a masterpiece of Goodies-style mishap and mayhem. #Goodies50 #SuperChapsThree

That’s 48 episodes down in my Goodies retrospective: www.jacobedwards.id.au/48-bunfight-...

Next week: The End!

The Goodies playing poker, using toast for cards and gingernuts for chips.

In a winner-takes-all poker game with cream, jam and scones on the line, naturally the Super Chaps use toast for cards and gingernuts for chips! #Goodies50

As described.

Classic silent comedy! To the accompaniment of “Oh! Susanna”, Bill orders two cups of tea. The waitress (Sarah May), mistaking his gesture, responds with one of her own before sliding the two cups to their doom... prompting Bill to give her the ‘v’ in earnest! #Goodies50

The red donkey from ‘Rome Antics’, plus four pictures of the ‘Bunfight’ donkey being enticed, dumped, carried, and fallen off of.

Having debuted as an extra in ‘Rome Antics’, the donkey is invited back as a genuine guest star... even duetting with Graeme on one of his pratfalls! #Goodies50

Pictures: Tim and Bill converse with a dummy of Graeme—consisting of a pillow, coat, gold-panning tin, mop head, two cups and a banana. Dialogue from the episode: Bill: What a rotten night, eh? Didn’t sleep a wink, you know. Tim: Neither did I. Still, it was worth it, eh, Graeme? Yeah, not surprised you’ve got nothing to say for yourself. You ought to be ashamed, you. Bill: Yeah, should be ashamed of yourself, Graeme, you should. Tim: You see, he’s never at his best first thing. Bill: Well, he’s got to wake up, hasn’t he, ‘cause we’ve all got to go into town and file the claim, make the money, and— oi, Graeme. Come on, wake up. Why have you got a mop on your— Graeme? Oi! That’s not Graeme! Tim: Who is it, then? Bill: Don’t know. Who are you? Tim: Hey, we’ve been duped!

This isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last time the Goodies’ casual disregard for each other allows for an unlikely substitution! #Goodies50

Bill and Tim hard at work mining cream; Graeme in rocking chair, powering the Old West Rube Goldberg Machine; a lettuce-induced tortoise pulling cups of cream!

Graeme’s rocking chair–powered Old West Rube Goldberg machine takes cream mining to new, farcical heights! #Goodies50 #RubeGoldberg

Picture: Graeme empties a bag full of old tins over Tim. Dialogue from the episode: Tim: Oh, you’re not still looking, are you? You’re loony. There’s no gold here. Graeme: No gold? Out here? In the wild and woolly west? Bill: Graeme, we are in Cornwall. Graeme: Yeah, well, I know we’re in Cornwall. But I’ve been out looking around, and you’ll never guess what I’ve just found in an old tin mine. Tim: Gold? Graeme: No. Old tins... and this. Tim: What? Graeme: Gold ore. Tim: Ore? Graeme: Or something else.

As ever, the lads segue deftly from the plausible to the absurd... #Goodies50 #OldTinMine

Pictures: Graeme, laden with prospecting gear. Dialogue from the episode: Graeme: Never mind your tooth. By the time we’ve finished, you can have a mouthful of these. You can have gold arms and legs if you want to. Come on, all the gear’s outside on the mule. Bill: Oi! Oi, wait a minute. What do you mean, mules, mine detectors, all that stuff? That must have cost you a fortune. Graeme: Yeah, of course it did. Why do you think we’re broke?

Unsurprisingly, the only reason the lads are broke is that Graeme has spent all their money on buying prospecting gear with which to get rich! Either presciently or in befuddlement, Bill refers to the metal detector as a ‘mine detector’. #Goodies50 #MineDetector

Tim and Bill (in frontier, prospecting garb) face off against Graeme (the dandified gambler).

50 years ago today, the Goodies carried their mule to Cornwall, made a fortune in cream and strawberry jam (plus scönes/scônes), then staked it all in a bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms. Tonight, I shall break out a stack of gingernuts and watch history unfold... #Goodies50 #SuperChapsThree #Bunfight

Philip Madoc as the tourist agent, wearing white-lensed glasses, then threatening Graeme, then bending a poker around Tim’s neck while Bill watches on.

Happy 50th anniversary to ‘South Africa’, an incisive political statement all the more powerful for being couched in comedy. #Goodies50 #SuperChapsThree #SouthAfrica

That’s 47 episodes down in my Goodies retrospective: www.jacobedwards.id.au/47-south-afr...

Next up: Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms!

Bill in safari suit, smoking a cigar, contrasted with Che Guevara.

As leader of the little-uns’ rebellion, Bill isn’t a million miles removed from Che Guevara... #Goodies50

Pictures: jockeys perform a war dance in a circle around Bill, who is seated on a throne; a jockey punches Graeme in the knee, then climbs a ladder to punch him higher up! Lyrics: I’m small, I’m small, I’m irretrievably small Oh, look at me: I’m so wee I’m hardly here at all I’m cute, minute, and very tiny to boot Oh, please don’t hurt me: I’m small, I’m small, I’m small

The jockey uprising plays out to “I’m Small”—a ditty so lyrically apt, one boggles to think that its gibbon kazoo-scratch arrangement is actually a reworking of Bill's music-hall novelty song from ‘Distinctly Oddie’ (1967), and, before that, ISIRTA 4.2 (1966). #Goodies50 #ISIRTA

Tim shining his torch; Bill playing a drum kit in the jungle; Graeme shaking maracas while Tim plays the double bass.

Exquisite. Bill is revealed as the source of the ‘jungle drums’, whereupon Tim and Graeme hurry back inside... to retrieve their own instruments! When the scene reaches its faux-dread conclusion, they pre-empt a musical sting: dun-dun-dun (shake-shake-shake). #Goodies50

Four shots of Tim, and one of Graeme, slapping themselves on the face to ward off mosquitos.

Peppering the dialogue with mosquito slaps proves a stroke of genius! #Goodies50