I bought the complete box set of The Goodies for more money than I generally like to spend, so now we have to watch it. Which is no chore: once the show hits its stride (which admittedly took several seasons) the standard is high.
Such a weird show. Fiona and I were both traumatised by an episode called The End in which the comedy trio (writers Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie with co-star Tom Brooke-Taylor) are entombed alive in their flat in a block of concrete. Plot synopsis: they grow old and die, still entombed.
The intertitles go like so:
And it plays out sort of like a mad version of the stages of grief.
Panic.
Religion.
Blackface.
Cannibalism.
Senility.
Skeletons.
The blackface routine is deeply embarrassing, though I suppose it is portraying racial dress-up as a stupid, demented activity. The awkward racial moments in the show (it was the 70s, as you probably guessed) run a truly weird, wide gamut from legit satire to lazy caricature.
As a child, I loved this show but found this one terrifying. Black comedy often freaked me out more than horror, because I couldn’t understand the tone. A recurring nightmare was being chased by a horrific lizard while everyone laughed, thinking it was just a joke.
Here, the Beckettian futility and claustrophobic insanity seemed, as a child, to call out for release — surely, the way to end the story would be with an uplifting rescue and daylight? But as an adult I recognize the creators were right to traumatize the young me thoroughly with an ending that seems to fuse Star Trek to THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL.
