9. Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games

8 October 1971

Fifty years ago today, the Goodies devoted the first of what would be three episodes spent poking fun at Britain’s participation in international multi-sport events. (Subsequently, those Super Chaps Three turned their attention to both the Winter and Summer Olympics, the comedy in each iteration focussing on misplaced self-assurance as an absurd cure-all for lack of funding, lack of professionalism and, most notably, a lack of athletes! In ‘Commonwealth Games’ and ‘Winter Olympics’, the Goodies are the British team. In ‘A Kick in the Arts’, Bill and Graeme go one step further by representing the entirety of The Rest of the World.)

The episode is not exactly topical. The most recent Commonwealth Games—referenced specifically by way of the change from imperial to metric units—was Edinburgh 1970, but this was held more than 14 months previously; indeed, before Series 1 of The Goodies went out. The lack of concurrence, however, means little at 50 years’ remove, and even at the time can hardly have been fatal, for sporting ineptness was, ultimately, just a veneer over the lads’ lampoon. Yes, the Goodies’ antics are funny. Their training session (to the song ‘Superman’) shows Jim Franklin’s outside direction coming more and more astutely to the fore, while the games themselves (to the delightfully catchy marching dirge ‘Far Away’) are rife with physical comedy and the joyous over-the-top hijinks of absurdity embraced. Still, in its underlying cut and thrust the episode constitutes a more serious, more scathing denunciation of British colonialism.

It is also more than a wee bit complicit.

Unlike Series 5’s ‘South Africa’, which would tackle apartheid head-on and without compromise, ‘Commonwealth Games’ takes the lazier option of merely portraying casual racism and then ridiculing the perpetrators, rather than condemning the practices outright. And yes, I know I took no issue with the Goodies adopting this very same approach in ‘Scotland’, but there’s a difference—several oceans’ worth, in fact—between intra-British bigotry (ingrained and historically sensitive though it might be) and the assumptive belittling, from a position of strength, of those peoples over whom John Bull asserted dominion. Yes, the Goodies were subversive. They clearly took a dim view of Britain’s foreign policy, its barefaced use of sport as a political tool, and concomitant issues of racial and nationalistic chauvinism. But at this stage in the programme’s run they were still part of the system, not actively breaking it down. The result is not always comfortable.

But enough of that.

‘Commonwealth Games’, like Series 1’s ‘Caught in the Act’, exists only in black-and-white and so was omitted from the ABC’s looped godsend of Goodies repeats. It is an episode that I haven’t seen very often (indeed, the first I knew of it was when The Cricklewood Tapes turned up—an audio godsend even to outdo the complete series DVD release of which it formed the bonus material—and two of the songs proved totally unfamiliar). While the lack of colour detracts, much of the comedy nevertheless stands up well. Reginald Marsh is nicely divorced from reality as the Minister for Sport (one of three ministers to feature in quick succession this series). The lads, while still presenting as a united front, start also to explore some of the social/ideological differences that would set their characters at each other’s throats in later series (most notably within bottle episodes such as ‘The Stone Age’ and ‘The End’). The destructive, studio-bound striking of Big Ben is handled with aplomb, as are the weightless scenes in the British Team Digs. The character acting has some exquisite moments and the quips are well-delivered.

‘Commonwealth Games’, like Series 1’s ‘Caught in the Act’, exists only in black-and-white and so was omitted from the ABC’s looped godsend of Goodies repeats. It is an episode that I haven’t seen very often (indeed, the first I knew of it was when The Cricklewood Tapes turned up—an audio godsend even to outdo the complete series DVD release of which it formed the bonus material—and two of the songs proved totally unfamiliar). While the lack of colour detracts, much of the comedy nevertheless stands up well. Reginald Marsh is nicely divorced from reality as the Minister for Sport (one of three ministers to feature in quick succession this series). The lads, while still presenting as a united front, start also to explore some of the social/ideological differences that would set their characters at each other’s throats in later series (most notably within bottle episodes such as ‘The Stone Age’ and ‘The End’).[1] The destructive, studio-bound striking of Big Ben is handled with aplomb, as are the weightless scenes in the British Team Digs. The character acting has some exquisite moments and the quips are well-delivered.


The Goodies are limbering up, about to hit their stride!

Jacob Edwards, 8 October 2021

[1] They also make an early stab at such cricket parody as would later underpin ‘2001 & A Bit’. (Tim: “You just don’t appreciate the finer points of cricket, that’s all… What happened?! Did somebody move? Yes! Look! Somebody actually moved! Cover point moved! Well played, sir. Well moved. Hahaha. Do you realise, that’s the first time that cover point has moved, in a test match, since 1937?”)

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