The Music Lovers (The Goodies)

"The Music Lovers"
The Goodies episode
Episode no.	Series 2 Episode 5
Original air date	29 October 1971
Guest appearances
Henry McGee as Music Master Corbet Woodall as himself (the "Newsreader") Norman Mitchell as Gerald Cilla Black as herself Ken Halliwell Walter Henry Patrick Milner Maria O'Brien Katya Wyeth

"The Music Lovers" is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies. Written by The Goodies, with songs and music by Bill Oddie.

Plot

Tim and Graeme are listening to a string quartet in an open-air classical music concert. Bill is also present at the concert, but he is listening to rock music on his radio. Suddenly, some men in dark-coloured suits force the string quartet members to leave the stage. Shocked and disbelieving at what they have just witnessed, the Goodies go home.

Both Graeme and Tim are very disappointed. They had been enjoying listening to the classical music, and they check the newspaper for some live classical music elsewhere, but find that all the live music concerts have been replaced by jukebox music. Turning on the television to hear classical music, they find that Moira Anderson is missing — and they are just in time to see Kenneth McKellar being dragged off stage. The live music television programmes are all being taken over by recorded music.

The Goodies decide to investigate what is happening and form their own music group so that they would also be stolen. Bill 'tunes' their piano so that all the notes sound identical. When Graeme complains, Bill 'tunes' the keyboard so that the keyboard will play musical tunes when a person moves his hand up and down the keyboard (Graeme makes him change the keyboard back to normal). The Goodies try various types of music, and various musical instruments (including a piano accordion which stretches to "the point of no return"). Finally, with Bill playing the guitar, and Graeme programming his computer to play orchestral music, they decide to sing "Land of Hope and Glory" — Bill is the principal singer, and Graeme and Tim sing harmony — with Tim receiving help with his harmony in the form of his "glee singers" (two very pretty girls). At the end of the song, they wait to be kidnapped, and are upset when only Tim's "glee singers" are stolen; the kidnappers reject them because they "ain't good enough."

The next step in their plan to be stolen has the Goodies giving a non-stop Woodstock Festival-type concert, in which they perform songs as various types of music groups. After a week of performances, which nobody comes to watch, they are about to give up their plan as being hopeless, but unbeknown to them, the Goodies have also been stolen.

They are driven to a house in the country, where they discover the identity of the mysterious being behind the kidnappings. Telling the Goodies that he is the Music Master, he explains the reason why the kidnappings occurred. The Goodies are not impressed and Graeme says: "You're a loony!", to which the Music Master replies proudly: "Thank you!"

Horrified at what they have found, the Goodies plan to right the situation — however, one of their decisions leads to unforeseen consequences for themselves.

The Goodies are enslaved by the Music Master until Bill finally comes up with an escape plan: to play the square dance rhythm and rescue all the musicians except Rolf Harris and Cilla Black. Gerald and the mobsters chase after the trio as they playing their instruments to get a head start and defeat them. But as the Music Master rides over the hill with his cannon organ, The Goodies call out the violinists to shoot violin bows as arrows on the defeated Music Master.

All the musicians are grateful to The Goodies and reward them with gifts but when Cilla finally escapes she blasts the trio with her high-pitched voice.

DVD and VHS releases

Main article: The Goodies videography

This episode has been released on DVD.

Notes

This episode has a sequel — The Goodies' episode "For Those in Peril on the Sea" where the Music Master reappears (going by the name "Nasty Person").

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

• "The Music Lovers" at IMDb