48. Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms
28 April 1975
Bunfight is perhaps unique in the Goodies oeuvre, in that it can be appreciated without any knowledge whatever of the 1970s or contemporary celebrities. There are no Eddie Waring impersonations, no throwaway digs at David Frost or Nicholas Parsons. Instead, the Super Chaps throw themselves (in Graeme’s case, quite literally) into a full-bore spoof of the wild west… and what a spoof it is!
We begin with the Goodies in dire, impecunious straits. Tim is mending his handkerchief (patching it with an old pair of trousers). Bill resorts to smashing his piggy bank (or trying to). Only Graeme is sanguine. Indeed, he enters the room in upbeat, banjo-strumming high spirits… having spent all their money on gold prospecting gear!
The lads make their way to the wild frontier (of Cornwall!), following a map whose ‘X’ appears helpfully transposed onto the ground where Graeme is standing (cf. Series 2’s ‘The Lost Tribe’), bearing the mule that is supposed to be hauling their gear.[1] The mule, of course, proves a recurring source of laughs, most notably when Graeme steals the march on Bill and Tim in staking the trio’s cream claim, and, in classic contrast to, say, taking the last horse, is slowed down considerably by having to puff and pant and carry his steed into town.
The Goodies always worked to their own logic. Thus, firstly, the old tin mine:
…then, since they are in Cornwall, striking a rich vein of cream, and thence to the splendiferous ‘Old West’ Rube Goldberg machine whereby the entire point of the mining operation—carried out by Tim and Bill, overseen by a whip-cracking Graeme seated in a rocking chair—is the pouring of fresh cream into cups pulled along by a lettuce-enticed tortoise… said cups then being used to season Graeme’s bowl of strawberries!
In quintessential Goodies fashion, two of the super chaps (Bill and Tim) are set against the third (Graeme). The tent scenes are astutely handled, providing laughs in a micro bottle–episode environment before a further escalation in absurdity: the pulling of the tent pegs reveals a second strike, this time in strawberry jam, and a buried treasure of scones! This quickly gives rise to the instant-classic recurring joke of Bill and Tim’s disagreement as to how to pronounce the word ‘scone’, said spat popping up later in the episode (sublimely inserted into the ‘Bunfight’ narration) and in future Goodies outings ‘Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express’ (Series 6) and ‘Goodies and Politics’ (Series 8).
Quite frankly, every aspect of ‘Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms’ is spot-on: the incidental piano music (Fred Tomlinson as pianist); Bill’s compositions (‘Working the Line’, a toe-tapping hoedown that would be re-recorded with faux-comedic sensibilities for The New Goodies LP; the ever recrudescent ‘Square Dance’ instrumental; and ‘Bunfight’, whose masterful meld of music and visuals must surely constitute the most satisfying ending ever to a Goodies episode); the costumes (Tim a lumberjack-styled rube; Bill in his outsized Davy Crockett hat; Graeme the sophisticated gambler); the all-in card game with toast and gingernuts (and Graeme’s concealed toaster!); the descent into tomato sauce-squirting showdown (‘face-to-faces’; Graeme’s ‘eleven paces’ stratagem)…
…but enough of this waxing lyrical. ‘Bunfight’, though raising no issues or social commentary, is comedy in its purest form—a rich strike indeed! More than any other episode, this one speaks, sings and six-shoots for itself…!
Jacob Edwards, 28 April 2025
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[1] As so often with the Goodies, one is left to wonder whether the script called for a mule, or whether they had one lying around (from ‘Rome Antics’?) and merely incorporated it into the mayhem.
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