... after 22 years

The Goodies are to appear in their first ever live stage show, 22 years after their TV series ended.

Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke Taylor, and Graeme Garden were coaxed into the reunion for Sydney's Big Laugh Comedy Festival in March.

But after three gigs there, they will perform in Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, too. There is no word on whether the show will come to Britain, although that would be a logical step.

The show promises a mix of insights and reminiscences, sketches and clips with “tall tales, audience talkback and possibly explosions”.

Big Laugh Comedy Festival director John Pinder spent five months persuading Oddie, 63, Brooke Taylor, 64, and 61-year-old Garden to do the show.

“This is a real comedy coup,” he said. “The Goodies are British comedy royalty. I’ve always been a fan – and I’m definitely not alone.

“I asked hundreds of people which legendary comedy artists they would like to see and The Goodies topped the list, particularly with the 30somethings who religiously watched their shows five nights a week on the ABC.”

The reunion comes after a greatest hits DVD made the bestseller lists, selling 50,000 copies in Australia alone.

“It was then I knew I was onto a good idea,” Pinder said.

The show will also include clips of Goodies routines banned by Australia’s ABC TV, The Funky Gibbon sung live and sketches from the Cambridge Footlights revue that took Tim, Bill and Graeme to Broadway.

Tickets to The Goodies Live Australian shows, listed below go on sale on December 13.

March 3: Sydney Parramatta  Riverside Theatres
March 4: Sydney State Theatre
March 5: Sydney State Theatre
March 8: Melbourne, venue to be announced
March 10: Canberra, venue to be announced
March 11:  Brisbane, venue to be announced.

Published: 7 Dec 2004