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The Goodies and the Beanstalk - 1973

• Director(s)
  
  Writer(s)
  Tim Brooke-Taylor 
  Graeme Garden 
  Bill Oddie 
  
  Producer(s)
  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