Culture for the Masses

"Culture for the Masses"
The Goodies episode
Episode no.	Series 2 Episode 13 (of 76)
Produced by
Starring	Tim Brooke-Taylor Graeme Garden Bill Oddie
Original air date	5 November 1971 (Friday — 10.10 p.m.)
Guest stars
Julian Orchard as the Minister of culture' Tommy Godfrey as the Auctioneer Ray Marlowe as the Texan Millionaire
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

Culture for the Masses 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 "Art for Arts Sake" and as "Antiques".

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

Plot

When the Goodies attend an art auction at Sotheby's, Tim is interested in a Renoir painting, while Bill is interested in the Monarch of the Glen painting.

Tim is horrified to find that a portrait painting is being bid for by Americans, who are all willing to bid huge amounts of money for art treasures, so Tim rushes in to save the priceless work of art for Britain. He ends up bidding the enormous amount of:

one million billion quintillion zillion pounds and two and a half new pence

for the painting, and the painting is sold to him, much to the horror of Bill and Graeme. While the Goodies are able to afford to pay a few pennies off the painting, they are not able to pay the remainder of the buying price, and decide to leave the remaining huge sum of money to be paid for by the National Gallery. However, the National Gallery does not want the painting, and do not want to pay for it.

All seems lost until the Goodies come up with an unusual solution to the problem.

Quotes

Quote 1

• Tim: "But they're not art lovers, they're Americans!"

Quote 2

• Tim (speaking to the Americans): "Too many times you've taken too much from us — London Bridge, the "Queen Mary", Julie Andrews and David Frost — and we're grateful."

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

External links

• Culture for the Masses at the Internet Movie Database