Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: #actualasiancomicwriters, coronavirus, goodies, monty python, tim brroke-taylor

British Comedy Legend Tim Brooke-Taylor Dies at 79 From Coronavirus

Comedy legend, writer and actor Tim Brooke-Taylor died this morning at the age of 79 from the coronavirus. He was best known as one of the three-member of The Goodies comedy troop of the seventies, alongside Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, the most popular TV comedy show of its day. But he was also a long-standing member of the sketch comedy show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, and the multi-decade-long panel show spinoff I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue which he was still a regular panellist on. While his work for At Last The 1948 Show begat Monty Python's Flying Circus who also made his sketch The Four Yorkshiremen world famous.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was president Footlights comedy show at Cambridge University, before launching into TV in the sixties TV show On the Braden Beat taking over from Peter Cook as a reactionary right-wing city gent who believed he was the soul of tolerance despite every indication to the contrary. From there he joined At Last the 1948 Show, alongside John Cleese and Graham Chapman, where he co-wrote and performed The Four Yorkshiremen.

He also took part in David Frost's failed pilot show How to Irritate People in 1968, designed to sell what would later be recognised as the Monty Python style of comedy to US, with many of the sketches were later revived in Monty Python's Flying Circus (which did sell to the US). For these, and other reasons, Tim Brooke-Taylor is considered by some to be 'the sixth Python'.

He continued to appear in TV and radio shows and films – keen eyes will recognise him as the computer scientist in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory trying to work out where the next Golden Ticket will appear. But it was with The Goodies on the BBC and then ITV that he gained national and international super-fame. Wil nine series running from 1970 to 1982, the broken comedy show was watched by tens of millions. Ostensibly about a do-anything team for hire, it gave the three members an excuse to follow – or parody – any plot of any genre they pleased. It inspired a generation of comedians to come and is still fondly remembered and pastiched to this day. It also gave Tim Brooke-Taylor and the rest a No 1 hit with The Funky Gibbon, as well as performances on Top Of The Pops. He also voiced characters for the Bananaman TV series, based on the kids comic strip, alongside the rest of The Goodies.

Both in his decade-long radio sketch show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again and four-decade long run on panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, he took on hundred of comic characters, including constantly sending himself up as a vain, pompous and tone-deaf performer. The truth was, he had a pitch-perfect ear for comedy and for the audience, and was gracious even as those around him gained greater fame and success. He will be sorely missed. He is survived by his wife Christine Weadon of fifty-two years, and his two sons, Ben and Edward.

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