Astronauts (1981)

Astronauts was a British sitcom that aired on the ITV network in 1981. It was written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, two of The Goodies.  There were 13 episodes over two series.

I liked The Goodies and I liked sci-fi but I quite vividly remember not liking this.  Of course it was all a long time ago and I was relatively young so maybe it stands up better than I remember.  I might just have been annoyed because it didn't star The Goodies themselves.

 

Steve

Goodies - Invasion of the Moon Creatures (1973)

The Goodies was a British comedy series that first aired on the BBC on the 8^th of November 1970 and clocked up a total of 76 episodes over 9 series, ending its run with its final series broadcast in the early 1980’s over on the ITV channel.

The Goodies were Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie.  The three men co-starred and co-wrote the series where each week quite literally anything could happen and the trio could find themselves just about anywhere as long as it provided the opportunity to cram in as many gags as possible or parody current events or trends.

In the episode; Invasion of the Moon Creatures from the 4^th series and broadcast on the 8^th December 1973, we see Bill and Tim take a trip to the moon in pursuit of Graeme’s first experimental moon rocket and its lost crew of specially trained rabbits.

The two of them then don some of Gerry Anderson’s second hand UFO spacesuits as they mess about on the moon’s surface before being captured and brainwashed by the now hyper-intelligent rabbits.  They are then returned to earth, dressed as giant rabbits, vanguards of the invading rabbit forces, and just have time for a quick parody of A Clockwork Orange’s ultra-violence before the show wraps to the sounds of its rather brilliant theme tune.

I loved the Goodies as a kid and, though rarely repeated, a recent handful of episodes that were shown over the Christmas period were still just as silly and entertaining as I recall.

And Invasion of the Moon Creatures is as fine an episode as any, cool spacesuits excluded.


Steve