"We're the Goodies, Yes the Goodies, oh the Goodies are coming for you - ha ha ha ha!"
At Last the 1948 Show
At Last the 1948 Show starred Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Marty Feldman. The troupe was assembled by David Frost and the show was conceived in the summer of 1966 during a six week writing holiday in Ibiza. The show would be Marty Feldman’s first venture as a performer, having previously carved his career in writing, most notably the radio series, ‘Around the Horne’. Tim, John and Graham were already friends from Cambridge and were sharing a flat together in London. This would also be their first major performing platform, although they had all done spots of television acting before (particularly Cleese on, The Frost Report). The title, At Last the 1948 Show was suggested by fellow Cambridge Footlighter (and now famous director) Trevor Nunn who, along with Cleese, came up with the title as a joke about how long it takes for the BBC to commission television programmes.
At Last the 1948 Show was devised to be a sketch comedy using new material alongside some material from the Cambridge Circus revue. The general tendency was that John Cleese and Graham Chapman would write in pairs, while Tim Brooke-Taylor co-wrote with Marty Feldman. Despite this, several sketches were a group effort, including the show’s most famous sketch of all, ‘The Four Yorkshiremen’. The cast was nearly complete except for the glamour girl - Tim and John ‘volunteered’ to do the scouting in a London nightclub and hired Aimi McDonald for the role.
At Last the 1948 Show ran for two series in 1967. The first series was six episodes broadcast from February to March, while the second series was seven episodes broadcast from September to November. An album of the show’s best moments was also released. At Last the 1948 Show was made by Rediffusion, executive produced by David Frost, and broadcast on ITV in only several select regions (most notably in London). The shows were recorded (but not broadcast) live to save money on the expensive process of videotape editing, which explains why several sketches (particularly the ‘Plain Clothed Policemen’ sketch) have large amounts of corpsing!
The show not only featured the core cast members but also future Python Eric Idle in several small, non-speaking roles; Barry Cryer in small, sometimes-speaking roles; Jo Kendall from ISIRTA; and Bill Oddie in some sketches - most notably co-starring with Tim in the ‘Automatic Hospital Visitor’ sketch, which initially featured in the Cambridge Circus revue and where Bill reprised his original role.
Sadly very little of At Last the 1948 Show exists. Although audio copies for all the thirteen episodes survive, many of the episodes themselves were wiped. Some, however, have since resurfaced, most notably five compilation episodes which were discovered at a Swedish TV station. These are the five episodes which have since ended up on the very reasonably priced DVD, but they are not how the episodes were originally broadcast.
The success of At Last the 1948 Show resulted in success for all its members, transferring to the BBC to do their own shows. Marty and Tim moved to the BBC to do, Marty, while John and Graham developed, Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Despite not being widely seen at the time, At Last the 1948 Show was hugely influential - Python and The Goodies may never have happened without it.
Compiled by Jess Pickles