The Movies (The Goodies)

"The Movies (The Goodies)"
5 episode
Original air dates	10 February 1975 (Monday — 9 p.m.)
Guest appearances
Ernie Goodyear as "Buster Keaton" and "Keystone Kop" and "Cameraman" Melita Clarke as "Delilah"

The Movies is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.

This episode is also known as "The British Film Industry" also as "BBC" and "The choices of film creation".

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

Award

The Goodies won the Silver Rose in 1975 for this episode at the Festival Rose d'Or, held in Montreux, Switzerland.

Plot

After complaining about the decline of the British film industry, the trio purchase Pinetree Studios (for £25) in the hope of making some good films. They then fire all the directors, whom they consider to be making films which are either "very boring or extremely pretentious" and decide to make a film themselves.

Their attempt to remake Macbeth with less violence and more family interest is a complete failure, and leads to the three Goodies falling out with each other and attempting to make their own films, separately. Tim wants to make a Biblical epic, Graeme a violent Western, and Bill a silent black and white comedy (believing that to do this he has to paint everything monochrome, and not talk). As the filming starts, the sets for the three films become intertwined and chaos ensues.

Quotes

Quote 1

• Graeme: "At least I can act which is more than I can say for some people present."
• Tim: "And what's that supposed to mean?"
• Graeme: "Well lets face it darling, you're no Glenda Jackson are you?"

Quote 2

• Bill: "Buster Keaton must have spent three weeks painting the whole town black and white. And then a ruddy great building falls on him, and he doesn't make a sound"

Spoofs and cultural references

• Elstree Studios and Pinewood Studios
• Silent films
• Western movies
• Samson and Delilah
• Epic films
• Keystone Kops
• Buster Keaton
• Charlie Chaplin
• Laurel and Hardy
• The Sound of Music
• Macbeth
• Mae West
• Frankenstein's Monster

Notes

• The Spanish town seen in the episode was a standing exterior set at Pinewood Studios. It can also be seen in the film Carry On Abroad.

• Among the directors sacked by Tim are Franco Zeffirelli, Stanley Kubrick, Ken Russell, Sam Peckinpah, Federico Fellini and Andy Warhol.

• Bill Oddie has compared the middle sequence in which the Goodies view a rough edit of their film-making efforts to "funny movies you make with your family on Boxing Day".

DVD and VHS releases

Main article: The Goodies videography

This episode has been released on DVD.

References

• "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

• The Goodies — "The Movies" - at IMDb

(the episode is listed under the title of "Movies" on IMDb)