Many thanks, good Wiki folk, for the pic. When I borrowed the schmaltzy and undeserved-Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire on dvd from my favourite local library a few weeks ago, I also picked up a best-of disc of The Goodies.
With infinitely more interesting story lines and infinitely more endearing characters than the nationalistic twaddle that is Chariots of Fire, The Goodies dvd led to hours of discussion (which Goodie did you grow up wanting to be?) and many thigh-slapping, guffawing reminiscences of favourite episodes (mine include any with over-sized domestic animals and Goodies hiding in post boxes).
To my great delight the first episode that unfolded was 'Radio Goodies', where our adventurous trio start a pirate radio station (and pirate postal service based on a complex system of balloons, air rifles and messages in bottles) in a submarine five miles off the coast. It all goes terribly wrong, of course, with Graeme becoming a megalomaniac and Bill and Tim stuck playing one record over and over again (the instrumental 'A Walk in the Black Forest' - noice) until at last the submarine sinks and Graeme's totalitarian despot plans come to a cold and wet end.
At the time I remember thinking 'what ho! A pirate radio station! Ah mercy, those wacky Goodies with their over-active imaginations' but wouldn't you know there really were pirate radio stations broadcasting from boats anchored beyond the five mile limit, bringing rock 'n' roll to the poor music-starved masses on the mainland.
And to my great delight a new film has just been released called The Boat That Rocked about none other than the UK's pirate radio movement! I suspect it will be such a laff I won't know where The Goodies ends and the movie begins.
And now, in the words of pirate radio's greatest DJ:
Tim: "Yes, friends, that was number 1 in The Goodies Hit Parade, and now number 2, and incidentally 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 ... "A Walk in the Black Forest."
