Hype Pressure

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

This episode is also known as "The Rock and Roll Revival".

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

Plot

Tim is the presenter and producer of "New Faeces", a TV talent show. Having run out of awful acts to humiliate, he overhears Bill and Graeme in the Goodies' office trying to write a new single and ending up trying to perform like folk singers. He invites the pair onto the show, but their dreadful performance actually goes down well with the audience and the judges, leaving a furious Tim out of a job.

However, Tim then hits on the idea of the 50s/rock and roll revival. When Bill points out that that's already been done, he brings back the rock and roll revival revival and the country is plunged into a ridiculous obsession with everything 1950s. After an appearance on another of Tim's hideous shows, with Tim as director Mike Mansfield, Bill and Graeme decide that Tim's scheme has gone too far, especially when he tries to bring back World War II.

After Tim "cue's" in various foes, Kitten Kong and the Giant Dougal make brief cameo appearances, as do the special effects team working the strings, Bill and Graeme cue a "Party Political Broadcast" starring Margaret Thatcher, which beats Tim into submission.

Cultural references

• Supersonic
• World War II
• New Faces
• Stars On Sunday
• 6.5 Special/Oh Boy
• Little Richard

Notes

• During the opening sequence, there is another swipe at Tony Blackburn, a long-running Goodies target of ridicule, in the shape of Graeme's book Play Guitar My Way and Other Jokes by Tony Blackburn.
• During the 1950s revival scenes, Bill's complaint that "they've taken off Porridge and Fawlty Towers" (both popular BBC sitcoms of the day, and still being regularly repeated) gets a spontaneous boo from the studio audience. Similarly, the mention of Muffin the Mule, a well-loved marionette from the early days of the BBC, gets a spontaneous nostalgic cheer of recognition.
• Tim's reinvention as a 'black marketeer' is an obvious parody of the George Cole character "Flash Harry" from the long-running St Trinian's series of British comedy films.
• The cowboy footage during the end sequence is gleaned from They Died with Their Boots On.
• After a wait of 33 years, this episode premiered on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ABC2 on 13 December 2010.

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

• Hype Pressure at the Internet Movie Database