Snooze (The Goodies)

"Snooze"
The Goodies episode
Episode no.	Series 1 Episode 2
Directed by	Jim Franklin
Original air date	15 November 1970
Guest appearances
Roddy Maude-Roxby as Rupert Windcheater Corbet Woodall as himself (the "Newsreader")

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

Plot

It is morning, and Graeme's intricate alarm system goes off. Graeme and Tim wake from sleep, but Bill is already awake, having been awake all night. Bill mentions that he never sleeps, commenting that he is afraid to go to sleep because he goes sleepwalking whenever he sleeps.

A fast-talking man Rupert Windcheater (Roddy Maude-Roxby) arrives and asks the Goodies to help with his company's excellent bedtime drink called "Venom". For some reason, good though it is, it just isn't selling. The Goodies set to work on a new marketing plan, starting with changing the name to "Snooze".

Graeme decides to upgrade the formula to New and Improved Snooze. The new mixture instantly knocks the drinker unconscious, as proven by its test subject Bill who goes into a three-day sleep. After Windcheater and the Board of Directors try the new formula, they too are instantly put into a long-term sleep for being a bit too hasty. Soon after, Bill starts sleepwalking and leaves the office. Tim must chase Bill as he sleepwalks, while Graeme sets to work on an antidote. Upon finishing it, Graeme plans to test it by drinking some of the new improved Snooze but falls asleep before being able to drink the antidote. Tim, who is still chasing Bill, catches up with him. However, when Tim gets Bill to sleepwalk back to the office, he notices Graeme is now sleepwalking. Tim manages to get them both back to the office, where he then gives them the antidote and they wake up. They check the news, but as a result of Snooze being shipped out to the entire country, the newsreader (Corbet Woodall) has fallen asleep on his desk. Graeme says that the effect will be lessened if they add the antidote to every reservoir in the country.

The Goodies take a barrel of Graeme's antidote down to a creek, to put a teaspoon of formula into the creek (with the intention of taking the remainder to all other waterways in Britain). While Graeme is carefully filling his teaspoon with the antidote, the barrel suddenly rolls down the bank into the creek by Bill's sneeze and Tim's carelessness, spilling out all the contents. Tim demands to know what will happen because of the unintentional spillage, and Graeme tells him that the effect would be to speed up metabolism, as well as speeding up the people themselves. However, they realize that because of the mass amount of antidote that was spilled, the effect will be amplified up to a hundred times.

Life takes on a surreal effect as the whole of Britain reacts to the effects of the spillage by talking and doing everything extremely fast — a cricket Test match between England and Australia takes only minutes to play, instead of days; a Royal car goes by very rapidly, carrying the Queen; and the British Prime Minister sounds like a cartoon chipmunk as he rushes through his speech in Parliament. The sleeping newsreader wakes up and takes a sip of water — followed by more sips — and, getting faster and faster with his speech, he finally jumps up and pounds his chest with his fists (like King Kong), before rushing off.

Windcheater arrives in a furious mood. His company has been forced to part with the entire quantity of Snooze free-of-charge, to counteract Graeme's antidote. Windcheater intends to take out his anger on the Goodies by shooting them — but, after drinking some of the antidote, the Goodies quickly run away.

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

• "Snooze" at IMDb