# We've lost Tim Brooke-Taylor, a Goodie in every sense **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681 "2020-04-13T07:34:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/1 "2020-04-13T07:34:16Z")
Not sure how far beyond Britain, Australia or the Commonwealth this will resonate, but [Tim Brooke-Taylor](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/apr/12/tim-brooke-taylor-the-goodies-star-leaves-a-legacy-even-without-repeats), a member of the [Goodies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goodies), a classic half-hour British comedy show has died, a victim of coronavirus. The Goodies sat somewhere between the Goons and Monty Python in their comedy. The Guardian obituary above reflects the lack of British TV repeats of the Goodies, but there were constant re-runs in Australia where they were a staple of after-school TV. TBT was awarded an OBE, but disappointingly was never made an Earl, which would have allowed him to be referred to as Tim Brooke-Taylor, Earlobe (his joke, not mine). ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/2 "2020-04-13T08:27:16Z")
Bugger For his post Goodies work, he was a regular panellist on the classic and long running BBC radio show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue > **[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Sorry_I_Haven%27t_a_Clue)** > > I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is a BBC radio comedy panel game. Billed as "the antidote to panel games", it consists of two teams of two comedians being given "silly things to do" by a chairman. The show was launched in April 1972 as a parody of radio and TV panel games, and has been broadcast since on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, with repeats aired on BBC Radio 4 Extra and, in the 1980s and 1990s, on BBC Radio 2. The 50th series was broadcast in November and December 2007. > After a per... ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/3 "2020-04-13T09:11:50Z")
_The Goodies_ was big in New Zealand too. I grew up with it, pitched right at my age group. Then rewatched it in the 80s and then 90s and it still was hilarious, and in some instances a lot more layered comedy than I realised. Tim was my favourite Goodie back then. He was great at panicking (“I’m a teapot, I’m a teapot!”) and was the snobby Royalist dressed in a Union Jack waistcoat all the time. Post-Goodies he co-starred in a sitcom that ran for a few years called _Me And My Girl_, about a widowed Dad bringing up his daughter, who worked for an advertising agency, and Tim played his work colleague there. He was very good at that too. Americans will only recognise him for his tiny role in the _Willy Wonka_ movie, where he played a statistician who worked out the likelihood of finding a Golden Ticket on a ticker-tape “computer”. He and the other Goodies also produced an animated series called _Bananaman_, and two of the three were regulars on a comedy radio panel show called _I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue_. He was never far away in the UK audience’s consciousness, and was still hilarious right to the end. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/4 "2020-04-13T12:50:27Z")
I think that even more importantly, he was one of the stars of _At Last the 1948 Show_. Only thirteen episodes of that show were made, all of which were shown in 1967. Without it, _Monty Python’s Flying Circus_ wouldn’t have been made. He was one of the four people in the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, for instance, which I consider to be the best comedy sketch of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/5 "2020-04-13T13:12:17Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > He was one of the four people in the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, for instance, which I consider to be the best comedy sketch of all time. … A sketch that he wrote… in the snow, barefoot, uphill, both ways. Of course he’s going to be best remembered for singing the words of _Hanky Panky_ by Madonna to the tune of… some ditty by George Formby. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/6 "2020-04-13T13:16:27Z")
“I am now telling the computer exactly what he can do with a lifetime supply of chocolate.” Also as an American…“Goodies. Goody goodie yum yum.” Loved Kitten Kong, Icky Thump and learned how to play “I spy with my little eye” from Goodies. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/7 "2020-04-13T13:24:33Z")
Don’t cry for me, Marge and Tina… ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/8 "2020-04-13T13:36:52Z")
The Goodies was seen as more of a kids’ show, (they once had John Cleese on it yelling “kids programme!”) and, more importantly, it never broke into the US market. His contributions to ISIRTA are often overlooked. (ICIHAC should have ended when Humph died) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/9 "2020-04-13T15:09:48Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > His contributions to ISIRTA are often overlooked. That’s where I recognize him from: the BBC radio series _I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again_. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/10 "2020-04-13T15:15:13Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > The Goodies was seen as more of a kids’ show, (they once had John Cleese on it yelling “kids programme!”) and, more importantly, it never broke into the US market. It played on PBS right along with Dr. Who and Monty Python. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/11 "2020-04-14T04:27:05Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > That’s where I recognize him from: the BBC radio series _I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again_. Ditto. Especially as the voice of Lady Constance de Coverlet and other dowager-type characters. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weve-lost-tim-brooke-taylor-a-goodie-in-every-sense/851681/12 "2020-04-14T12:09:00Z")
I’ll never forget when he and his mates won Prince Charles’s hand in marriage, their reward for delivering Great Britain from a plague of Rolf Harrises.