Over the festive break I held a conversation with a friend I hadn't seen for a while, a great fan of the seventies British Series "The Goodies", featuring Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke Taylor and Bill Oddie. For those that haven't had the privilege of seeing this hilarious show, it's about a group of misfits who hire themselves out to do "anything, anytime", with hilarious results. The show was very much on the zany side, in the Monty Python manner, with lots of satire, political and cultural references, etc. Despite the fact that many of the references are dated, it's still well worth watching today.
Said friend (who is currently reading "Devil Rides Out" at my suggestion, and really enjoying it) reminded me of an episode where the team take on a group of Satanists, and rescue Bill Oddie by breaking up the meeting carrying electric torches. He made the point that this is an obvious reference to the scene where Rex and the Duke rescue Simon using the Hispano Suiza with headlights blazing.
I replied airily that a lot of scenes, ideas, etc invented by Wheatley found their way into just about every black magic novel published in the fifties onwards, and that the scene was referencing the cliche rather than Wheatley's scene. Friend pointed out that as an avid reader of Satanic tales he'd often seen other Wheatley-inspired scenes but never one in the manner of the rescue of Simon.
Which leads to the interesting idea - was DW well enough known in the seventies for the viewers to reference "Devil Rides Out", or is the idea of using electric light to dispel the powers of darkness the sort of idea that might appeal to anyone?
possible DW reference in "The Goodies"
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Steve Whatley
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- Joined: Sat 19 Aug, 2006 13:43:36
I can't remember seeing that particular episode of The Goodies, but I wouldn't say that Tim and Graeme with electric torches was a direct reference to the Duke in a Hispano Suiza. The use of bright lights would seem an obvious way to combat the Powers of Darkness, and the actual means of producing such light would presumably be dictated by the context of the storyline.
It might be interesting to view the episode to see if there are any other similarities between the scene described and DW's novel.
I've done a quick scan of an online episode guide, and of product details of available DVD's, but have failed to identify the episode in question.
Perhaps we need a really keen Goodies fan to tell us which episode we need to look at. [font=Courier New] [/font]
It might be interesting to view the episode to see if there are any other similarities between the scene described and DW's novel.
I've done a quick scan of an online episode guide, and of product details of available DVD's, but have failed to identify the episode in question.
Perhaps we need a really keen Goodies fan to tell us which episode we need to look at. [font=Courier New] [/font]
Well, I last saw the episode in the seventies, so can't help a lot, except to confirm that it definitely DID exist - though whether it ever found its way to DVD or video is another question of course. The only piece of it I remember (since it struck my 13 year old self as totally hilarious) was the Goodies trying to pass themselves off as female virgins in order to infiltrate the Satanist coven, (which gave Brooke-Taylor the excuse to wear drag, as he did in just about every episode!) The Satanist leader points to Bill Oddie and says "That's no young virgin - look at that beard!" to which Brooke-Taylor replies, in a girlish falsetto "Yes, that's why she's a virgin"...
You're probably right Steve in that it wasn't a DW reference, unfortunately. I was very avidly into DW at that time, and would probably have remembered if they'd been other references... Still, I'd love to see it again.
You're probably right Steve in that it wasn't a DW reference, unfortunately. I was very avidly into DW at that time, and would probably have remembered if they'd been other references... Still, I'd love to see it again.