Lordy. This is turning out to be a bit of a year for mourning the loss of beloved stalwarts of British light entertainment: Terry Jones, Derek Fowlds, Nicholas Parsons, Roy Hudd - and now Tim Brooke-Taylor!
Like so many witty and creative future "national treasures" - such as John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Sandi Toksvig, Griff Rhys Jones, David Frost, Olivia Colman, Douglas Adams, Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Julian Fellowes, Clive Anderson, Clive James, Miriam Margolyes, Jonathan Miller, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Peter Cook - Tim cut his comedy teeth at the Cambridge Footlights Club. He soon became a radio star, courtesy of one of the "precursors" to Monty Python - the fab revue show called I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again - then he made the transfer to telly with another, At Last The 1948 Show, on which he (with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman) premiered the classic Python "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch. He was also a panellist on Radio 4's parody panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for more than forty years.
It was however, of course, for his appearance as part the utterly anarchic trio The Goodies - a BBC staple from 1970 until 1982 - that we treasure him the most. So let's take a little trip down memory lane...
Thank you, Mr Brooke-Taylor, for so many happy childhood memories.
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE (17th July 1940 - 12th April 2020)
