Everything about Tim Brooke-taylor totally explained
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor, (born
17 July 1940 in
Buxton,
Derbyshire,
England) is a
English comic
actor most well known in Britain and Australia as a member of
The Goodies and in the comedy radio shows
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, and
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again.
Tim Brooke-Taylor is the grandson of a
parson who played centre-forward for
England's football team in the
1890s. His mother was an international
lacrosse player and his father a
solicitor.
He is married to Christine and they've two sons, Ben and Edward.. He lives in Berkshire.
Education and comedy
Despite an expulsion from school at the early age of five and a half years, Tim Brooke-Taylor studied at
Winchester College and at
Pembroke College at the
University of Cambridge. There he read
Economics and
Politics before changing to read
Law, and mixed with other budding comedians, including
John Cleese,
Graham Chapman,
Bill Oddie, and
Jonathan Lynn in the prestigious
Cambridge University Footlights Club (of which Tim became President in 1963).
The Footlights Club revue,
A Clump of Plinths was so successful during its
Edinburgh Fringe Festival run, that the show was renamed as
Cambridge Circus and the revue transferred to the
West End in
London, and then later taken to both
New Zealand and to
Broadway in September 1964.
He was also active in the Pembroke College drama society, the
Pembroke Players.
Tim Brooke-Taylor moved swiftly into
BBC Radio with the fast-paced comedy show
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again in which he performed and co-wrote.
As the screeching eccentric Lady Constance de Coverlet, he could be relied upon to generate the loudest audience response of many programmes in this long-running series merely with her unlikely
catchphrase "did somebody call?" uttered after a comic and transparent feed-line, as their adventure story reached its climax or
cliffhanger ending. Other members of
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again were
John Cleese,
Bill Oddie,
Graeme Garden,
David Hatch and
Jo Kendall.
In the mid-60s Brooke-Taylor performed in the TV series
On the Braden Beat with Canadian
Bernard Braden, taking over the slot then-recently vacated by
Peter Cook in his guise as
E L Wisty. Brooke-Taylor played a reactionary right-wing city gent who believed he was the soul of tolerance.
In 1967 Brooke-Taylor became a writer/performer on the television comedy series
At Last the 1948 Show, with
John Cleese,
Graham Chapman and
Marty Feldman.
The famous "
Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was co-written by the four writers/performers of the series. The sketch was one of the few sketches which survived the destruction of the series (by the tapes being wiped), by
David Frost's Paradine Productions (which produced the series), and the sketch appears on the DVD of
At Last the 1948 Show. The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch has also been performed during
Amnesty concert performances (by members of
Monty Python - occasionally including other comedians and actors in place of Monty Python regulars - notably
Rowan Atkinson and
Alan Rickman), as well as being performed during
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl and on other Monty Python shows.
Tim Brooke-Taylor also took part in Frost's pilot programme
How to Irritate People in 1968, designed to sell what would later be recognised as the 'Monty Python' style of comedy to the American market. Many of the sketches were later revived in the Monty Python TV series, notably the job interview sketch where Brooke-Taylor played a nervous interviewee tormented by interviewer John Cleese. The programme was also notable as the first collaboration of
John Cleese and
Michael Palin.
In 1968-1969, Brooke-Taylor was also a cast member and writer on the television comedy series
Marty starring
Marty Feldman, with
John Junkin and
Roland MacLeod.
A compilation of the two series of
Marty has been released on a BBC DVD with the title of
The Best of Marty Feldman.
At around the same time, Brooke-Taylor made two series of
Broaden Your Mind with
Graeme Garden (and
Bill Oddie joining the series for the second season).
Describing itself as "An Encyclopedia of the Air", this series was a string of comedy sketches (often lifted from
I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again), linked (loosely) by a weekly running theme. Unfortunately, nothing but a few minutes of film inserts exist for this programme, though home-made off-air audio recordings survive for both seasons. Its success led to the commissioning of
The Goodies, also with Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden. First transmitted on BBC2 in November 1970,
The Goodies was a huge television success, running for over a decade on both BBC TV and (in its final year) UK commercial channel
London Weekend Television, spawning many spin-off books and successful records.
During the run of The Goodies, Brooke-Taylor took part in the BBC radio series
Hello, Cheeky!, a bawdy
stand up comedy show also starring
Barry Cryer and
John Junkin. The series transferred to television briefly, produced by the UK commercial franchise
Yorkshire Television.
He also appeared on television in
British sitcoms, including
You Must Be the Husband with
Diane Keen,
His and Hers with
Madeline Smith, and
Me and My Girl with
Richard O'Sullivan.
Brooke-Taylor also appeared regularly in advertisements, including the Christmas commercials for the Brentford Nylons chain of fabric stores, and in a public information film for the now-defunct E111 form.
In 1971 he played the short, uncredited role of a computer scientist in the film
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
After the end of
The Goodies on UK television, Brooke-Taylor also worked again with Garden and Oddie on the
animated television comedy series
Bananaman, in which Brooke-Taylor was the narrator, as well as voicing the characters of King Zorg of the Nurks, Eddie the Gent, Auntie, and Appleman. The voice of the children's TV series
Gideon was also provided by Brooke-Taylor.
Tim appeared, with Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden, in the Amnesty International show
A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick) (during which they sang their hit song "Funky Gibbon"), and also appeared in the Amnesty International show
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball in the sketches "Top of the Form" (with John Cleese, Graham Chapman,
John Bird,
John Fortune,
Rowan Atkinson and
Griff Rhys Jones), and "Cha Cha Cha" (with John Cleese and Graham Chapman).
Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, and Bill Oddie also appeared on "
Top of the Pops" with their song "Funky Gibbon".
Brooke-Taylor also appeared with Graeme Garden in the theatre production of
The Unvarnished Truth.
Other BBC radio programmes in which Brooke-Taylor played a part include the self-styled "antidote to panel games"
I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue.
On
18 February 1981 Brooke-Taylor was the subject of
Thames Television's
This Is Your Life.
Graeme Garden was a regular team captain on the political satire game show
If I Ruled the World. Tim Brooke-Taylor appeared as a guest in one episode, and, during the game "I Couldn't Disagree More" he proposed that it was high time
The Goodies episodes were repeated. Garden was obliged by the rules of the game to rebut this statement, and replied "I couldn't disagree more... it was time to repeat them ten, fifteen years ago." This was followed by uproarious applause from the studio audience.
In
2004, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden were co-presenters of
Channel 4's daytime
game show,
Beat the Nation, in which they indulged in usual game show "banter", but took the quiz itself seriously.
Tim Brooke-Taylor remains a well-spoken, instantly recognisable, radio and stage actor and has appeared on stage in Australia and England, usually as a middle-class Englishman. Around 1982, he branched out into pantomime as the Dame in
Dick Whittington. He is also the author (and co-author) of several humorous books based mainly around his radio and television work and the sports of
golf and
cricket. Tim also took part in the
Pro-Celebrity Golf television series (opposite
Bruce Forsyth).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tim Brooke-taylor'.
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