A good-y puzzle from Soup this morning.
For those of a certain vintage, this puzzle will bring back memories. For those of the younger generation, some of it may go over their head. I was six years old when the Goodies first aired, but it ran from 1970 to 1982, so some slightly younger solvers may just remember it. It certainly helped me to solve some of the clues as I clearly remember the BIG CAT knocking down the POST OFFICE TOWER, the LOCH NESS monster episode, the GOODY GOODY YUM YUM at the end of the theme tune, and the FUNKY GIBBON and Black Pudding Bertha (OFFAL) songs. There may be more themed entries than the ones I’ve highlighted, but the setter also managed to get Tim, Bill and Graeme, the three actors who played the Goodies, into the clues.
Some of the clues were a bit wordy, the definition in 15 down is loose and the perennial LOCH does not sound like LOCK issue appears in the Spoonerism, but that apart, a fine puzzle, especially given the constraints of the theme.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Soup.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | EXPLOSION |
Big Bang Theory’s third on – spoil end of Netflix broadcast (9)
|
| *(e on spoil x) [anag:broadcast] where E is (th)E(ory) [‘s third] and X is [end of] (netfli)X | ||
| 10 | OFFAL |
Refuse very noisily, with a look back around (5)
|
| <=LO (“look”, back) around (FF (fortissimo, so “very noisily”) with A) | ||
| 11 | ACNED |
Dance about, get spotted (5)
|
| *(dance) [anag:about] | ||
| 12 | BOWSTRING |
Wrong bits used to make part of a weapon (9)
|
| *(wrong bits) [anag:used to make] | ||
| 13 | BRING ON |
Induce drummer to entertain battalion? Quite the reverse! (5,2)
|
| Bn. (battalion) to entertain RINGO (Starr) (“drummer”) | ||
| 14 | EXCEEDS |
29s from first principles, as on the 17 (7)
|
| EX (“from”) + homophone/pun/aural wordplay [as on the radio] of SEEDS (“first principles”)
The 29 in the clue refers to TRANSCENDS (solution to 29 across) and the 17 refers to RADIO (solution to 17 across) |
||
| 17 | RADIO |
Every so often, try and win on entertainment programmes here (5)
|
| [every so often] (t)R(y) A(n)D (w)I(n) O(n) | ||
| 18 | OBE |
Award given to Taco Bell (3)
|
| Hidden in [given to] “tacO BEll” | ||
| 19 | TOWER |
Big build-up to the pair of us beginning to reconcile (5)
|
| TO + WE (“the both of us”) + [beginning to] R(econcile) | ||
| 21 | SAYS YOU |
Delivers uniform? By one report, but not according to me! (4,3)
|
| SAYS (“delivers”) + homophone/pun/aural wordplay [by one report] of U (uniform, in the NATO phometic alphabet) | ||
| 23 | BILLING |
Oddie in front of Goodies line-up of stars (7)
|
| BILL (Oddie) + IN + [front of] G(oodies) | ||
| 24 | LAMENTING |
Deploring mis-alignment? (9)
|
| *(alignment) [anag:mis-] | ||
| 26 | FUNKY |
Strong-smelling lubricant behind pleasurable activity (5)
|
| KY (jelly) (“lubricant”) behind FUN (“pleasurable activity”) | ||
| 28 | CLUES |
Hints and tips for Colin ‘let’s upset everybody’ Sell (5)
|
| [tips for] C(olin) L(et’s) U(pset) E(verybody) S(ell) | ||
| 29 | TRANSCEND |
Go over Tim’s head and screen performance lacking energy (9)
|
| T(im) [‘s head] + *(and scren) [anag:performance] where SCREN is SCRE(e)N lacking E (energy) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MEGA |
Brilliant contribution from Graeme Garden (4)
|
| Hidden in [contributon from] “graeME GArden” | ||
| 2 | OPEN MIND |
If you’re not sure, keep it! (4,4)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 3 | GOODY-GOODY |
Twice turn round and, losing heart, deny being pious (5-5)
|
| [twice] GO (“turn”) + O (round) and D(en)Y [losing heart] | ||
| 4 | GIBBON |
One of Barry, Robin or Maurice performing – what an animal! (6)
|
| GIBB (“one of Barry, Robin or Maurice” (the Bee Gees)) + ON | ||
| 5 | ANYWHERE |
When at first you are getting frisky, position doesn’t matter (8)
|
| *(when y are) [anag:getting frisky] where Y is [at first] Y(ou) | ||
| 6 | POST |
Pale, stop messing around (4)
|
| *(stop) [anag:messing around] | ||
| 7 | OFFICE |
Position away from the freezer? (6)
|
| OFF ICE (“away from the freezer?”) | ||
| 8 | FLAG |
Tire jack (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | BORES |
Floods burrows (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | CUTTLEFISH |
Slippery customer felt up in quite sweet surroundings (10)
|
| <=FELT [up] in CUTISH (“quite sweet surroundings”)
Very loose definition? |
||
| 16 | SPRIG |
Spray a bit of scent on 3 (5)
|
| [a bit of] S(cent) on PRIG (“goody goody”, see 3dn) | ||
| 18 | OCULISTS |
Those restoring sight with chicken’s heart and rabbit’s foot could be witches (8)
|
| If (chi)C(ken) [‘s heart] and (rabbi)T [‘s foot] are added to OCULISTS (“those restoring sight”), you’d get OC(C)UL(T)ISTS (“witches”) | ||
| 20 | WHINNIES |
White offspring of stallions and donkeys sounds like a horse (8)
|
| W (white, in chess notation) + HINNIES (“offspring of stallions and donkeys”) | ||
| 22 | YUM-YUM |
Esteban’s really, really upset Japanese schoolgirl (3-3)
|
| <=MUY (Spanish for very, so “esteban’s really”, upset) but “really” is repeated, so it’s YUM-YUM, one of the “Three Little Maids from School Are We” in The Mikado | ||
| 23 | BIG CAT |
One that writes about grams, a tonne, or an ounce? (3,3)
|
| BIC (“one that writes”) about G (grams) + A + T (tonne) | ||
| 24 | LOCH NESS |
Spooner’s to drop some pounds somewhere in Scotland (4,4)
|
| Spooner’s version of LOCH NESS may have been KNOCK LESS (pound less often, so “drop some pounds”).
As a Scot, who has become tired of the argument, I’ll just stay silent about the pronunciation of “loch” that doesn’t rhyme with KNOCK. |
||
| 25 |
See 24 Down
|
|
| 27 | YODA |
‘Green sage stems in yogurt’ and other delicious appetisers (4)
|
| [stems in] Y(ogurt) and O(ther) D(elicious) A(ppetisers) |
A fun theme, as pointed out by loonapick, for us of a certain vintage, (although I suspect that covers must of us), referencing the opening sequence to the comedy show. There’s also a MEGA EXPLOSION and RADIO TOWER. I liked SAYS YOU, OPEN MIND, SPRIG, CUTTLEFISH and finally OCCULTISTS for the surface. Most enjoyable.
Ta Soup & loonapick.
OBE can possibly be regarded as thematic, as there was a long-running gag about Tim being obsessed with being awarded one – ‘maybe an earl and an OBE’ ‘You’d be an earlobe…’
FLAG is also possible, as part of his costume was a Union Jack waistcoat.
Morning, all! Thanks for the blog, loonapick. Well, this seems to have gone down a bit better below the line on the Guardian’s site than a couple of my last puzzles, so I’m showing my head above the parapet early in the day. Fun to have a bit of a trip down this alley, anyway, and it gives me an opportunity to say ‘happy birthday, Graeme Garden!’.
I’d not considered OFFAL part of the theme, but RADIO and OBE were at least in my mind as ‘potential themers’, as was ANYWHERE (I wanted ANY TIME and ANYTHING as well but ran out of places). I also wanted to include SCOUTS and maybe TONY BLACKBURN somewhere but didn’t want to do too much shoehorning; I had also hoped to get in one more which I won’t say as I might use it again in future. Words with repeats (GOODY-GOODY; YUM-YUM) are always hard to clue (see also TSETSE, which doesn’t rear its proboscis here) but I think I’ve done it fairly, though people over at the G say YUM-YUM is quite hard. My favourites were EXPLOSION and ANYWHERE, given rather neat surfaces. Fair cop re the lock-loch; the get-out-of-jail card is that Spooner could conceivably have pronounced it Lock, even if I most certainly would not, even given my anachronistic Eastbournian roots.
Also references to I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, with CLUES and the inclusion of Colin Sell in 28 across. All three Goodies appeared in ISIHAC at some point, with Tim and Graeme being long term participants. Thanks Soup for taking me back to my childhood and loonapick for the blog
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Thanks for popping in Hamish/Soup. I knew the Japanese schoolgirl but I have little Spanish, so it was the GOODY-GOODY that led me to the answer, an excellent combination. Anarchic for its time, I’m not sure it would be as hilarious nowadays, a bit like Morecambe & Wise.
Also, Tim used to wear a Union FLAG waistcoat, and wasn’t their slogan “Any time, any place, ANYWHERE “?
Oh dear. When I see all the pretty colours in the above grid, it confirms that alas I’ve missed another theme. I wasn’t a big fan of The Goodies, having watched it only occasionally. But at least it was screened in Australia.
I scratched my head at deploring/lamenting. Hadn’t heard of KY jelly. And my knowledge of Spanish was inadequate. Non-existent even.
One or two other speed bumps, but on the whole an enjoyable experience, thank you Soup.
Crispy @12: it was Anything Anytime ANYWHERE as mentioned by Soup @3.
Our boys were avid Goodies fans, we the adults absorbed random bits, like the yum-yum theme, and the dozens of Rolf Harris Rabbits (he went to the same school as me and mrs ginf, so we kinda noticed). All good fun, ta Soup and loona.
Oh and I’m no doubt being totally dim, but htf does bores = floods?
Nice to be reminded of a show from my childhood and I spotted some of the references as we went along but without quite clocking the entirety. I think getting both GOODY GOODY and YUM YUM into the grid is pretty neat. And it must be nice for Soup not to have an ear bashing for once 😉
Crispy @12: I think you might be thinking of Martini? But then, who wouldn’t at 8am on a February morning!
Thanks both
Muy buen rompecabezas. Gracias Soup.
PM@16 Yes, I woke up at 5am a bit nervous – if this had gone down badly then I was going to reconsider my approach (and potentially just stop). Nice to feel I might still have it…
Enjoyed this — got the theme early enough to help too, eg I started looking where FUNKY and GIBBON might fit before even finding the respective clues 😁 Liked EXPLOSION, SAYS YOU, OFFICE, OPEN MIND and my LOI, YODA.
Many thanks to Soup and loonapick
AlanC @14. My mistake. I was too keen to get my post done.
Hamish – you’ll have had your tea, I hope?
About 24D, I wondered whether we were supposed to rhyme with NOSH LESS, equally unScottishly.
(I have been expat far too long and never once watched the Goodies. Solved with no idea of the theme.)
Great stuff from Soup.
I’ve seen enough of the Goodies to know the three names but not enough to know the details of their sketches.
Missed the anagram part of TRANSCENDS and YUM-YUM was beyond my knowledge of Operas but the checking letters or wordplay allowed me to complete it.
Liked BOWSTRING,CUTTLEFISH and TOWER.
Thanks Loonapick and Soup
Muy muy bien. Top ticks for OCULISTS, YODA and CUTTLEFISH – at least it wasn’t “swimmer” 🙂
Cheers L&S
I liked the concealed anagrind for POST, which made me briefly wonder if the theme was going to extend to a range of old comedy shows. I thought the surface and construction of CUTTLEFISH made up for any vagueness in the definition.
Favourite: OCULISTS.
I could not parse 14c apart from def = transcends; the YOU in 21ac, 5d.
New for me: YUM-YUM = Japanese schoolgirl (and the names of the characters in “Three Little Maids from School Are We” seem to be very ridiculous); Bill Oddie (for 23ac).
I never heard of the Goodies so I did not see the theme.
It’s very rare for me to get a theme that I know and spotted early enough on to help. This time gibbon led me to funky, and I wouldn’t have been confident about yum yum without the connection. I recognised Muy and the japanese girl in retrospect, but they didn’t come to mind in time to help me parse the clue.
GiF@15: I thought it was to do with tidal bores, like the annual one down the River Severn – these are surge tides and often cause flooding.
Good fun – thank you Soup and loonpick.
Got the theme – and then didn’t use it making FUNKY (e.g.) harder than needed to be. I’m missing why PALE = POST and my Chambers appears not to be helping.
Enjoyed this – thanks to Loonapick and to Soup for popping in.
Oh yes, thanks JOFT, I’d forgotten about those continuous wave thingies.
PianoMan @28 – From Chambers (sorry!) “Pale – A stake of wood driven into the ground for fencing”
Piano Man @28, I think pale is another word for a fence post but I might be wrong
I concur with the posters who consider this good fun. The Goodies theme was sitting still half formed in my mind when I’d finished, I certainly didn’t see the bulk of the themers. I was sadly reminded of the year my parents were so disgusted at my b********g up my A levels that all I received for my birthday that autumn was a Goodies annual. Perhaps the loch/lock thing could have been ameliorated by the addition of “as a sassenach might say”.
To quote Afferbeck Lauder – mirsten choiple.
A late reply to Crispy, Bill Oddie was a regular in “I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again”, the predecessor to ISIHAC. His name was Angus Prune and he never missed ISIRTA.
Thank you Crispy and Alan!
[Smudgekent @33 – He also appeared in the early editions, including the very first edition, of ISIHAC. He and Graeme found writing the scripts for ISIRTA was becoming a pain so they hit on the idea of an ad-libbed version – ISIHAC. At some point in the early days, all the ISIRTA regulars appeared on ISIHAC – even John “Otto” Cleese!]
Crispy, I am sure you will remember that Mr Cleese also made a memorable appearance in The Goodies.
Never knew that FUNKY had the meaning of smelling bad. Nor, I suspect, did the wine waiter in a posh (one Michelin star, no less) restaurant who asked us if we’d like to try one of their newer funky wines…
FWIW I *loved* ISIRTA, especially the 25th anniversary episode – you could feel the joy radiating from the radio.
Now I’m much more heavily involved in teaching undergrads, I am gradually developing a philosophy that there is a lot of crossover between crosswords, comedy and teaching. Crosswords and comedy are both about looking at things in a bit of an oblique way: you can’t ‘get’ a clue twice; you can’t get a joke twice, either – once you’ve heard it once you don’t get that PDM (though of course you can laugh at what you know is coming in a way that you can’t really with crosswords).
And then teaching: there’s a *lot* of crossover with comedy, as lecturing is basically a performance and is all about engaging with your audience. But beyond that, think back to when you’ve been to a comedy gig: sometimes the performer will go down some route or other and the audience will get the joke (or get to what the joke is going to be) before the performer has said it – that leads to glorious moments where the performer can stop and say ‘what? what’s so funny?’ – and of course that’s entirely down to their skilful scripting of what they’re saying.
And *that* is where I think good teaching becomes great teaching: is it possible to get students to ‘get’ where you’re going with something before you’ve told them where that route is? Then the students feel clever for understanding before you’ve told them, and learn the process of making that mental connection – as it were, learning how to have ideas. But the key here is that the teacher has permitted the students to have those ideas – they’ve put the scaffolding in place for it to happen, ideally without the student realising it.
So there’s the connection with crosswords: as a setter, I have to let the solver win but without realising I’ve let them win. Otherwise it’s no fun.
Anyway, there’s my two penn’orth – would be interested what anyone (particularly teachers or students!) think.
Smudgekent – Sadly, I don’t remember that. If I’m being honest, all I remember about Goodies programmes are the kitten on the Post Office Tower, and ‘Ecky Thump. I do, however, have “The New Goodies LP”, and all their singles. Sad, but true. Incidentally, the lyrics for what is called “New Goodies Theme” on the album simply have Anything, Anytime – not Anywhere, although I could have sworn that they did. Maybe that was the Old Goodies theme.
Pianoman@28 The expression “beyond the pale” comes from the fences constructed of pales beyond which it was unacceptable or unsafe to venture.
Having been delighted to see Soup’s name at the top of the crossword after a week of unchallenging crosswords, we were then disappointed to find we whisked through it. This is obviously not the majority view, you can’t please all of the people all of the time 😞. It was a fun puzzle and with Soup’s trademark humour , and the theme brought back some nice memories. Thanks Soup and Loonapick, and please, don’t change too much Hamish, we really enjoyed the crosswords that we had to think longer on…….
Our kids loved The Goodies, and we enjoyed it too – enough to pick the theme (obvious enough from 3/22), but not enough, apparently, to pick up all the references. I looked in vain for Marge and Tina (as in Don’t Cry For Me…). I first thought 23a was going to be _ _ _ BILL, having only the I – the SE corner fell last for me. Right idea, wrong place. I did wonder about pale = POST, thinking the palings go between the posts. Great fun, like The Goodies. Thanks, Soup and loonapick.
What a lovely analysis, Soup. #38. A bit meta for a Wednesday morning, but nothing wrong with that.
Thanks for a timely reminder of why teaching teenagers can be (sometimes) such great fun.
[Hamish @38 – I remember a summer school from when I was doing my Open University degree back in the late 80s / early 90s. One lecturer always made a point of telling a joke halfway through a lecture to get our attention back. Worked every time!]
Crispy@44: Dr Sonja Dunbar, Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at Cambridge, has researched exactly this: see https://ukstemconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/horizons-in-stem-2024-conference-proceedings-v2.pdf on page 29. It doesn’t have to be a joke – interesting, non-examinable content is also really good.
Hamish @45. Thanks for that. We also found that after the first time he’d done it, we were all more focussed in subsequent lectures, waiting for the gag, in case he slipped it in early, or slipped a second one in later on.
Good fun. How the hell did I miss that theme???
Thanks to Soup and Loonapick
I loved The Goodies yet still managed to completely miss the theme (as usual).
Admin@17: I think you mean “crucigrama” (‘rompecabezas’- literally ‘headbreaker’ – is the general word for a puzzle, but ‘crucigrama’ is specific).
Completed and just popped in to check my parsing, only to discover yet another missed theme. I loved the Goodies as a kid and was watching some clips on YouTube just recently. Now I feel stupid.
Thanks both.
Hamish@38 – I think you’ve summed it up very nicely. I teach software development. Humour/scaffolding and signposting is essential. Humour helps the students feel you’re on their side, and scaffolding is like a referee in a football game. If it does its job properly, no one notices it’s there. The same applies, as you say, to crossword setting too. We need to feel you’re on our side, but we should feel a sense of accomplishment by finding the key that opens the way through.
Thanks for an entertaining puzzle, and a lovely reminder of my childhood. Thanks Loonapick for the blog too.
And also, I discovered today, all three of the Goodies were awarded OBEs.
Know nothing about the Goodies – before my time – but mostly solved anyway so thanks Soup. My DNF was, of all things, YODA with the very cleverly disguised definition. I even thought of Yoda but didn’t see the def. Made me laugh when I finally revealed it. Good crossword.
Thanks for a fun crossword. I have to confess the theme completely passed me by – which is good, because it means you don’t have to have to be my age to complete it! Thanks, Graham/Soup for avoiding obscure cross-references. Some great clueing – particularly liked – BRING ON, CUTTLEFISH and OCULISTS.
I have to confess, unlike most of my fellow commentators, I was never a great fan of the Goodies. However, many of the references do now come back to me. I was probably spoilt by the genius of Monty Python! Also that I was young enough to have other distractions than watching TV – no playback or even VCR in the early days!
Very enjoyable. MEGA was my first one in and the mention of Graeme Garden immediately made me think there was something going on. Lots of ticks. I liked “mis-” as an anagram indicator in LAMENTING!
Fascinating comments, Hamish. I entirely agree with you about the crossover between crosswords and comedy. I always think that some of the best clues are like good jokes. GIBBON for example reminded me of one of my all-time favourites, by Paul: “Actress was less inclined to sketch Robin and Maurice Gibb, but…? (4,9)”.
Many thanks both.