46. Fleet Street Goodies

Fleet Street Goodies

14 April 1975

Lining up in a series full of great episodes, ‘Fleet Street Goodies’ is conspicuously inconspicuous—a somewhat overlooked, underappreciated mixed bag. Where it is good, it is very good; where it falls down, it falls heavily. It is self-indulgent, sublimely ridiculous, crude and brilliant, with no great cohesion. To take the story as it unfolds:

Opening scene. We’re dropped into the Goodies’ latest venture: the Clarion & Globe, a thriving(?) newspaper operation with multiple telephones (all manned by Tim) but precious little news to report. Bill is mopey and unresponsive. Graeme, when he arrives, proves overly enthusiastic but ineffectual. The humour in this section, such as there is, derives from a lampooning of American go-getter zeal and sordid tabloid sensationalism. None of it is particularly funny.

Bill, roving reporter. The episode’s first musical sequence plays out to the yearning, dirge-like song ‘Front Page News’ and sees Bill wandering the streets, oblivious to a calamitous escalation of headline stories unfolding right under his nose. It’s a good song, and the sequences are both adeptly handled and, for the time, rather pushing of the envelope of what could and couldn’t be gotten away with. London Bridge falling down? Nicely done. Prime Minister Harold Wilson streaking? Prince Charles as a flasher? Even for the Super Chaps at the height of their renown, this was going out on a limb.[1] Respectably—if not respectfully!—humorous.

Bill’s malaise. This little stretch of plot setup certainly has its moments. Graeme’s sandwich reveal and diagnosis are quintessential bits of comic business:

The other element being foreshadowed, however, is Tim and Graeme’s chauvinistic, objectifying attitude towards women—which, regardless, of whether it is a reflection of prevalent contemporary behaviour and attitudes or merely those of the Goodies’ characters (either generally or as newsmen), doesn’t sit comfortably with 21st-century values. There is, of course, purpose to what the lads are doing here… but that doesn’t make it enjoyable.

Transitional interlude. A fifteen-second instrumental as the Goodies ride to Sir Joshua Makepeace’s mansion. Bill is so gooey-eyed, he has to be towed along at back of the trandem!

Tim’s joke. This is a lovely sequence: Tim’s trying to coach Bill in the telling of a lame joke; Graeme’s rote reiterations; Tim’s self-cracking-up; Graeme’s forced hilarity; Bill’s hapless rendition and then Graeme’s coining of a tripart silly noise; the absurd wig, moustache and rabbit teeth, mirrored by Sir Joshua himself… top-notch!

Bill’s dismissal. An all-time classic:

Finding a replacement. Here, the lads sink into indulgence. None of it’s too egregious: Prince Charles again,[2] Roger Moore, the usual Monty Python dig…

Making Sir Joshua laugh. Unlikely but brilliant! When Bill pours out his sob story to Sir Joshua (Roland MacLeod), the pair of them dissolve into uncontrollable hysterics. What should be just plot progression becomes instead a memorable piece of performance:

Mildred Makepeace, Part 1. A section that was extensively cut by Australian censors prior to its broadcast Down Under… and for good reason! Tim’s workplace harassment routine is unusually clumsy, and far more cringeworthy than funny (even for the time, surely?). What’s more, it actually detracts from the comeuppance visited upon him and Graeme later on. Without the cuts, Mildred’s harassment of Tim becomes merely tit for tat. With them, Tim and Graeme are being punished not for their sexist chauvinism but rather for the callous abandoning of a friend. This is far more in keeping with Bill’s dismissal and their subsequent attempts to save him from himself at the Eurovision Raving Looney Contest.

Bill’s suicide attempt. A standard but effective musical interlude (again to ‘Front Page News’), as Bill summons up the courage to throw himself into the river… only for an intervening policeman to accidentally take the plunge in his stead.

Mildred Makepeace, Part 2. The first (and almost only) time the lads ever got it right vis-à-vis female guest stars. Tessa Wyatt would gain lasting fame in ITV sitcom Robin’s Nest, and at the time was married to Tony Blackburn—butt of many a Goodies joke. In ‘Fleet Street Goodies’ she is given a proper character to play, and makes the most of it. Mildred’s ‘female chauvinist’ treatment of Tim, and her toying with and dismissal of Graeme, are glorious in both scripting and performance. Over the course of their decade-long run, the Goodies were undoubtedly guilty of eye-candy casting. Here, they show they can do better![3]

Raving loonies. The episode culminates in a 4-minute outdoor sequence to the low-key, stripped-down, hookless jazz/soul rumble of ‘Crazy Man’, wherein Bill throws himself with determined nihilism through the deathtrap obstacle course of the Eurovision Raving Looney Contest, and Tim and Graeme come more seriously a cropper in their efforts to keep him from killing himself! Bill’s falling down; the banana-peel slipping about; pratfalls with the sawmill blade: it’s all consummately handled. As with ‘The Race’, the Super Chaps face a fitting and very final end while Graeme initiates the obligatory rather-too-slow countdown!

Upon reflection, it’s probably fair to say that the critique on friendship/loyalty comes off better than the sexism/harassment commentary, albeit that the former was old-hat for the Goodies,[4] and the latter was both more striking and more readily apparent through dint of Tessa Wyatt’s contribution. Comparing ‘Fleet Street Goodies’ to Series 2’s ‘Women’s Lib’, we can see that the Super Chaps have become both more economical in making a point, and more adept at doing so while leaving space for outright comedy. In this instance the mixture isn’t quite right…

…but just wait until next week!

Jacob Edwards, 14 April 2025

Tweets:

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[1] The Goodies had always poked fun at Charles. As far back as ‘Tower of London’—their debut episode—they had him apparently stealing the Crown Jewels! Still, indecent exposure took their irreverence to a new level.

[2] His in-story ambition to become a Goodie reflecting, according to Tim, Bill and Graeme, a real-life willingness to appear on the show—though in neither case was he able to ‘square it with mum’!

[3] Perhaps it’s not coincidence that ‘Fleet Street Goodies’ is followed by ‘South Africa’, where analogous shortcomings in race representation are given a much-needed correction.

[4] And would receive a similar treatment two episodes later in ‘Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms’.

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