The Goodies (TV Series) Farm Fresh Food (1971) User Reviews

Farm Fresh Food

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 15 June 2023]

The Goodies are hungry and all Tim has to offer is a sultana to be shared by the three of them

They decide to go to a restaurants and are horrified to discover that they only sell processed food, from a can or a freezer. Creamy mashed potatoes comes from a packet with hot water added to it.

Tim then goes to see his Uncle Tom (John Le Mesurier) who runs a farm but the food is not natural. Square hen eggs, ready made butter and headless cows. A convenient farm making convenience food.

The Goodies were ahead of its time as Britain was going away from natural foods to factory farming. Organic food was a fad. Frankenstein food such as genetically modified crops were still a scientist's pipe dream.

There is a lot of visual imagery that the Goodies rely on for comedy.

"Worms? Full of protein!"

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 29 November 2006]

Desperate for some good, old fashioned home cooking, the Goodies visit Uncle Tom's farm. From a control room not unlike the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Uncle Tom uses modern technology to carry out such traditional duties as mucking out the pigsty and milking the cows. The Goodies volunteer to help out with the chores, and discover Uncle Tom has been selectively breeding animals - his cows can produce milk on tap simply by pumping their tails, whilst his duck pies run about on tiny webbed feet. Determined to put a stop to this madness, the Goodies set about ruining his produce...

The main difference between comedy past and present is apparent in this episode. The Goodies wreck a modern idea, simply because they prefer the traditional way. Today the reverse would probably happen. The recent debate about genetically modified food has made this a lot less dated than it should.

As Uncle Tom, John Le Mesurier acts as though he's just walked off the set of 'Dad's Army', no bad thing it has to be said. Andrea Lawrence, seen as a sexy barmaid in a spoof beer commercial, played the same role in the original.

Funniest moment - the Goodies serving customers with 'tampered' food such as flying sausages and rock-hard steak!