Commonwealth Games (The Goodies)

"Commonwealth Games"
The Goodies episode
Episode no.	Series 2 Episode 9 (of 76)
Produced by
Starring	Tim Brooke-Taylor Graeme Garden Bill Oddie
Original air date	8 October 1971 (Friday — 9.20 p.m.)
Guest stars
Reginald Marsh as the Minister for Sport Valerie Stanton as the Miss Foster, the Minister's Secretary
Series 2 episodes
1 October 1971 – 14 January 1972 Scotland Commonwealth Games Pollution The Lost Tribe The Music Lovers Culture for the Masses Kitten Kong Come Dancing Farm Fresh Food Women's Lib Gender Education Charity Bounce The Baddies
List of The Goodies episodes

Commonwealth Games is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.^[1][2][3]

This episode is also known as "Sporting Goodies" and "Goodies of sport".

As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.

Plot

Tim comments how Britain had colonized far away places to keep alive the noble art of playing cricket, and he and Bill argue about keeping politics out of sport.

The Minister of Sport asks the Goodies for help, informing them that all other member countries have left the Commonwealth, apart from the tiny August Bank Holiday Islands (where the next Commonwealth Games are to be held).

The Goodies are asked to train the British Commonwealth athletic team to top fitness, but the potential members of the team are all former Members of Parliament, and not athletes — they are also very old and fail the test, and the Goodies have to take their places in the team.

Amongst the sporting equipment given to the Goodies are extremely heavy boots which, the Minister informs them, is to combat expected weightlessness they would encounter at the August Bank Holiday Islands. However, the extremely heavy boots prove to be totally unnecessary, and create a problem for Tim, Graeme and Bill, who have trouble even walking in them. When the Goodies state that they do not want to wear the boots, the Minister for Sport insists that the Goodies keep wearing them throughout the entire Commonwealth Games. Because of the extreme heaviness of the boots, the Goodies lose every event, and Britain has to forfeit the British Commonwealth to the August Bank Holiday Islands as a result — the Minister unfairly blames the Goodies for Britain's failure in the games.

Later, the Minister sees the Goodies again, and tells them that the former member countries had rejoined the Commonwealth under the new August Bank Holiday Islands rule — however, the news is not so good for Britain.

Songs written and sung by Bill Oddie

• "Needed"
• "Superman"

Quote

• Graeme: "August Bank Holiday Islands - where's that?"
• Minister for Sport: "Between Easter Island and Christmas Island."

Spoofs and cultural references

• Commonwealth Games

Discovery of Missing Segment

The only surviving copy of this episode was found in the library of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A segment about a sex test was missing, edited out to make it suitable for a G (for General Exhibition) timeslot. An archives researcher from the Corporation discovered the missing footage in the National Archives of Australia. The missing segment runs for forty seconds. A group of elderly members of the British parliament assemble in the Minister of Sports office, hoping to be chosen to represent England at the Commonwealth Games. In order to be chosen, they must pass a sex test with the Minister's secretary. The excised footage was shown to Australian audiences for the first time during the 2009 Australian Goodies tour.

References

1. ^ Light Entertainment Production nomination — official BAFTA website
2. ^ Best Light Entertainment Programme nomination — official BAFTA website
3. ^ Information is given, by the BBC, about the BAFTA-nomination on the back of the "The GOODIES ... At Last ... Back for More, Again!" DVD cover.

• "The Complete Goodies" — Robert Ross, B T Batsford, London, 2000
• "The Goodies Rule OK" — Robert Ross, Carlton Books Ltd, Sydney, 2006
• "From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980'" — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980
• "The Goodies Episode Summaries" — Brett Allender
• "The Goodies — Fact File" — Matthew K. Sharp
• "Memento", issue 39, published by the National Archives of Australia, July 2010.

External links

• Sporting Goodies at the Internet Movie Database

("Commonwealth Games" is listed under an alternative title at IMDb)