Culture for the Masses

"Culture for the Masses"
The Goodies episode
Episode no.	Series 2 Episode 6
Original air date	5 November 1971 (1971-11-05)
Guest appearances
Julian Orchard as Minister of culture Tommy Godfrey as Auctioneer Ray Marlowe as Texan millionaire

"Culture for the Masses" (also known as "Art for Arts Sake" and "Antiques" and as "Art Restoration") is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies. Written by The Goodies, with songs and music by Bill Oddie.

Plot

When the Goodies attend an art auction at Sotheby's, Tim is interested in a Renoir painting, while Bill is interested in the Monarch of the Glen painting.

Tim is horrified to find that a portrait painting is being bid for by Americans, who are all willing to bid huge amounts of money for art treasures, so Tim rushes in to save the priceless work of art for Britain saying: "But they're not art lovers, they're Americans!" Turning to the Americans, he says: "Too many times you've taken too much from us — London Bridge, the "Queen Mary", Julie Andrews and David Frost — and we're grateful." Tim ends up bidding the enormous amount of:

one million billion quintillion zillion pounds and two and a half new pence

for the painting, and the painting is sold to him, much to the horror of Bill and Graeme. While the Goodies are able to afford to pay a few pennies off the painting, they are not able to pay the remainder of the buying price, and decide to leave the remaining huge sum of money to be paid for by the National Gallery. However, the National Gallery does not want the painting, and do not want to pay for it.

All seems lost until the Goodies come up with an unusual solution to the problem.

Cultural references

• Julie Andrews
• David Frost

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

• "Culture for the Masses" at IMDb