Scatty Safari
17 March 1975
As with Frankenfido the previous week, Scatty Safari spurns preamble and launches directly into its premise: the Goodies, in a zebra-painted Kombi van, are conducting a safari tour where, instead of wild animals, the park’s inhabitants consist of British celebrities. It’s a bit of a one-joke episode; still, that joke is delivered in numerous iterations and the lads milk it for plenty of laughs.
Fifty years on, the parade of ‘star attractions’ (pun!) has admittedly lost some of its comedic heft. The who’s who of light entertainment are household names no longer (though many remain fondly remembered, if only through previous and subsequent mentions on The Goodies). Thus, the tour is nowadays not as riotous as it must have been upon first broadcast.[1]
Where Scatty Safari cannot help but stick in the collective memory is through its escalation of concept: seeking a new star exhibit after Tony Blackburn is released (and killed), the Goodies journey to Australia to track down Rolf Harris.[2] Australians will continue to rejoice at this expedition Down Under, which if nothing else produced a toe-tapping, ivory-tickling, wobbleboard-bending instrumental version of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ (preserved, blessedly, on The Cricklewood Tapes). Mirroring real-world examples undertaken with endangered animals, they proceed to breed him in captivity with the Russian Rolf Harris! A baby Rolf is born, only for all three to escape, plunging England into a Rolf Harris–plagued reworking of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
For some reason, I associate the image of the Super Chaps in their Pied Piper outfits with Australian alternative rock band Spiderbait, who in 1993 released a cover version of ‘Run’.[3] In my head, Spiderbait also donned the piper’s garb, but it seems I’ve foisted this memory upon them. (There’s a lot of Series 5 influences running through the music video, and even a re-enactment of Rolf sideswiping the Goodies’ jeep, but no hose or digeridoos!)
By hitching themselves to the Piper legend, the Goodies craft one of their better endings—a genuine denouement rather than the usual let-down or afterthought: the Rolfs are led away (all except the original with his Jake-the-Peg extra leg slowing him down!), Tim marries Prince Charles (a hero’s reward from an ‘Anonymous Queen’), and Bill and Graeme share a thousand OBEs!
And all is right in the world!
Jacob Edwards, 17 March 2025
Tweets:
![Picture: Graeme prepares a gun. Tim takes it from him then strides off. Bill and Graeme wait, fingers in ears.
Dialogue from the episode:
Graeme: The vet can’t help, not anymore. He’s fading fast.
Bill: Don’t worry. He was a bit past it really, wasn’t he?
Tim: Tony? Past it?
Bill: Yeah, yeah. He’s getting on a bit, you know. I mean, you count his teeth: to be honest, he’s got hundreds.
Graeme: True, but Tim’s right. We can’t let him slip away. [prepares gun]
Tim: No!
Graeme: It’s kinder in the long run.
Tim: It may be kinder, but he trusts me. He knows me... I must be the one to do it....
Tim: I couldn’t! I couldn’t do it. Those big brown eyes looking up at me. I swear he could understand every word I said! I couldn’t— I just couldn’t do it.
Bill: Yeah. You know, Tim, I understand... Can I have a go?](https://www.jacobedwards.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/42-Tony.png)
[1] Plus, sensibilities change. Not all the jokes were in good taste, and the monkeying antics of the Black and White Minstrels (in particular) seem likely to elicit cringes from modern viewers.
[2] An inspired choice at the time, though Harris’s subsequent prosecution for sexual offences has leant an uneasy note to the comedy. Yes, Harris was the butt of the joke, but it’s hard not to think of a lampooning by the Goodies as something of an honour.
[3] Not a patch on the original; but as the music video shows, Spiderbait must have been Goodies fans to the core!
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