Tim Brooke-Taylor

When so many people have lost loved ones to Coronavid it almost seems churlish to write about someone famous passing with it. But having followed Tim Brooke Taylor all the way from The Goodies to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue since about 1970, I'm going to anyway.

The Goodies seem to have got lost by the BBC, no proper DVD issues, the one I have seems to have been filmed off the TV with a cine camera, and no repeats. It's not alone, lots of that stable , Monty Python, Rutland Weekend TV and so on are also in danger of drifting into history as I noted in my Neil Innes piece a while back. But The Goodies was the one talked about and re-enacted in the playground. Kitten Kong is the episode that gets the mention, my favourite however is still the Giant Dougal dog. I was never much of a fan of Python, the Rutland and Ripping Yarns  spinoffs were more my time period and I'm sure between them and The Goodies trained my sense of humour for Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (H2G2). Ironically budget overruns on the H2G2 TV series was what lead to The Goodies cancellation by the BBC.

About 1980 or so having discovered radio comedy through H2G2 and being a typical teenager spending a fair bit of time in my room I found Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The former dominated by Kenneth Williams was funny enough but Clue was something else. When I started listening it wasn't as anarchic as it became in the 90s but was still laugh out loud funny. Brooke-Taylor was an integral part of the mix in Clue. Where Barry Cryer had a one liner for every moment and Graeme Garden would say less but would always bring the house down with his catchphrases, Brooke-Taylor played the comic victim, much as he did in the Goodies, butt of some of the humour but able to come out on top of any situation. he had the job of teaming up with a succession of guest team members after Willie Rushton's death. He worked best with Jeremy Hardy and Tony Hawks, but rarely failed to gel with the other half of his team. That was I think his strength as a comedian, being able to mould his humour to any situation and find something to bounce off.

I hope they now let Clue end as it's vitality has faded with the more frequent absences of the principal players. Indeed Just A Minute should also depart with Nicholas Parsons. The obvious replacement Gyles Brandreth was too similar on his one stint in the chairman's chair and would not I feel bring his own spin the way Jack Dee has.

The golden age was the early noughties for me. I was lucky enough to see them at the Bristol Hippodrome then and later on one of the tours about 10 years ago. This is the only episode ever recorded for TV, and Humphrey Lyttelton's last. It features the best team lineup, sadly now half of them gone, and is a classic. If you are easily offended maybe pass on this, although you will be missing out on some of the finest improvised comedy there is.