Anything, Anywhere, Anytime

On the 40th anniversary of The Goodies' television debut, comedian Ross Noble revisits their world of rampaging Dougals, giant cats, Lancastrian martial artists and funky Gibbons.

In their 12 years in British living rooms, The Goodies saved Britain from a plague of Rolf Harrises, rediscovered the Lost Island of Munga, represented the UK in the Winter Olympics, started Britain's space program and blew up the BBC.

First appearing on the nation's screens in November 1970, The Goodies, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor, became prime-time mainstays for the next decade. They were the fifth biggest-grossing pop act of 1975 and bagged two Silver Roses of Montreux.

Their shows, in which the trio played an agency of three bicycling blokes for hire to do "anything, anywhere, anytime", were freewheeling streams-of-nonsense in which television conventions were upended and every silent-movie gag in history was lovingly re-created.