Come Dancing (The Goodies)

"Come Dancing" is an episode of the award-winning British comedy television series The Goodies.

This episode is also known as "Wicked Waltzing".

Written by The Goodies, with songs and music by Bill Oddie.

Plot

When the male members of the Penelope Fay Dancing Team are unable to take part in a Ballroom Dancing competition, the Goodies are asked to take their place and partner some girls in the competition. The girls introduce themselves as: "We are Norma. We are a hair artiste." The Goodies then introduce themselves as: "We are Cyril. We are a bank clerk."

There is a problem. None of the Goodies are able to dance. However, Graeme solves the problem by inventing some special dancing suits which dance by themselves by remote control. Everything goes well until Graeme confides to opposition dance mistress, Delia Capone, how the suits work — realising too late what he had done. Delia Capone takes over the remote control for the suits and everything goes haywire for the Goodies, but the Goodies and their partners win the dance trophy — much to the delight of Penelope Fay, and the anger of Delia Capone.

Delia Capone challengers her team of men against the Penelope Fay's girls in an outdoor dancing duel. However, Penelope Fay's girls are not there to take part in the duel, so it is left to Tim, Bill and Graeme to take their place. The resultant duel leads to Tim, Bill and Graeme being sore and bruised, and ballroom dancing is never quite the same again.

Cultural references

• Come Dancing
• Al Capone

Notes

• One of the rarer Goodies episodes, since the BBC wiped the mastertape of this episode sometime in the 1970s. For many years, it was thought to exist only as a b/w 16mm telerecording (a technique for transferring video footage to film) made for overseas sales, until a low band PAL video recording made for training purposes surfaced at BBC Scotland in the late 1990s, together with the preceding edition of Top of the Pops. Despite the technical flaws of this recording (low level colour and some minor tape glitches), the episode was remastered/colour boosted and included on the 2005 Network DVD release The Goodies - At Last A Second Helping.

• Joan Sims also appeared in a later Goodies episode, Way Outward Bound. In her autobiography, High Spirits, she remembers having trouble reciting the long speeches the team wrote for her.

• Bella Emberg and Veronica Clifford have unbilled cameos as members of the Delia Capone syndicate.

• Tim's LP, Invitation to the Dance, supposedly features Lionel Bleugh. This is a reference to the light entertainment performer Lionel Blair, who had developed a rather camp persona for his television work.

• Peter Vest (Roland MacLeod) is a parody of the genuine Come Dancing presenter of the time, Peter West.

• The Dogginosh spoof advertisement features Graeme's impersonation of the gourmet, broadcaster, journalist and MP Clement Freud, who at that time appeared in a series of real-life dogfood commercials with a lugubrious bloodhound named Henry.

References

• "The Complete Goodies" — Robert Ross, B T Batsford, London, 2000
• "The Goodies Rule OK" — Robert Ross, Carlton Books Ltd, Sydney, 2006
• "From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980'" — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980
• "The Goodies Episode Summaries" — Brett Allender
• "The Goodies — Fact File" — Matthew K. Sharp

External links

• Wicked Waltzing at the Internet Movie Database

("Come Dancing" is listed under an alternative title at IMDb)