National Archives Of Australia Unearth Risqué, Censored Clips From The Goodies

The Goodies were, sadly, a little before my time. But I do remember catching a few episodes on the ABC of its absurdist, slapstick antics during my youth. Until this morning, I had no idea that the series contained nudity — I have what was the Film Clarification Board to thank for this. The Board cut quite a bit from the series and it wasn’t until recently this discarded footage was discovered by the National Archives of Australia.

According to an article in The Age, 21 clips from 12 episodes were given the chop. It seems this had a lot to do with the fact the show aired in a much later timeslot in the UK than it did in Australia — 8/10pm compared to 5:30pm on the ABC. As The Goodies’ Bill Oddie explains:

“The truth is that The Goodies was originally intended to be a bit risqué. We were first broadcast at 10pm, and early shows included such adult ingredients as a topless girl, which in a later episode escalated to a bottomless Bill.”

The article goes on to reveal what the Film Classification Board though of “Bottomless Bill”:

Bottomless Bill appeared in a 1973 episode called “Love the Police”, on which the censors wrote: “Twenty minutes into this GE [general approval rating] which is a knockabout satire on the police, delete shot of naked figure (back to camera) in pool in park.”

The full piece features a video of a few of the cut clips, as well as further explanations from the censors of the day.

[The Age]

Image: BBC / Wikipedia