Graeme Garden | |
|---|---|
 Garden during a recording ofYou'll Have Had Your Tea in 2006 | |
| Born | David Graeme Garden (1943-02-18)18 February 1943 (age 82) Aberdeen, Scotland |
| Education | Repton School |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Notable work | I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (1965–1973) Twice a Fortnight (1967) Broaden Your Mind (1968–1969) The Goodies (1970–1982) I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (1972–) |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 3 |
| Comedy career | |
| Years active | 1964–present |
| Medium | Stand-up, radio,stage, television |
David Graeme Garden (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter. He is best known as a member ofThe Goodies and a regular panellist onI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.[1][2][3]
Garden was born on 18 February 1943 inAberdeen, Scotland, and raised inPreston,Lancashire, England, only son (with a daughter) ofRobert Symon Garden [fr] (1910–1982), an eminent orthopaedic surgeon who created theGarden classification of hip fractures, and his wife Janet Ann (née McHardy). R. S. Garden's parents, John and Elizabeth, farmed atMacduff,Banff and Buchan, Aberdeenshire.[4][5] Garden was educated atRepton School, and studied medicine atEmmanuel College, Cambridge, where he joined theCambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club and served as its president in 1964, while also performing in the 1964 Footlights revue,Stuff What Dreams Are Made Of at theEdinburgh Festival Fringe.[1]
Garden qualified in medicine but has never practised. Asked how he justified making jokes rather than saving lives, he answered:[6]
I don't think I would have done it as well. It's an interesting question – whether you've contributed more to the vast store of human enjoyment by doing comedy or by being a doctor, but the answer for me is that I don't think I would have been as successful or as happy being a doctor.
Garden was co-writer and performer in the BBCradio comedy sketch showI'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again in the late 1960s. Garden was studying medicine during the first few series of the show, this commitment making cast membership difficult for him during the third series as he was following amidwifery course inPlymouth. However, he continued sending in scripts for the radio show by mail, and he rejoined the cast upon his return to his medical studies in London.[7] On several occasions, his medical qualifications are lampooned in the show; in the 25th Anniversary Show, David Hatch asks him if he is still a writer. Garden: "Here's something I wrote this morning". Hatch: "It's a prescription". "Yes," says Garden, "but it's a funny one..."
Garden was a permanent panellist on the long-running BBC Radio improvisation showI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, in a cast which includedTim Brooke-Taylor, for almost fifty years. He also starred in and co-wrote, withBarry Cryer,You'll Have Had Your Tea, a direct spin-off of ISIHAC, and has contributed to several books from the series including guides to the gameMornington Crescent.
Garden wrote for and appeared withBarry Cryer andAlison Steadman in the 1989 BBC radio comedy sketch showThe Long Hot Satsuma. Garden had a role inPaul B. Davies' 2000 radio playSpy Nozy and the Poets. In 2001 and 2002, Garden wrote for and appeared in the BBC radio comedy sketch showThe Right Time, along withEleanor Bron,Paula Wilcox,Clive Swift, Roger Blake andNeil Innes. He was also script editor forThe Hudson and Pepperdine Show.
Garden is chair of the spoof radio game showBeat the Kids. He has also appeared on the UK version of the improvisation television seriesWhose Line Is It Anyway?, which has a similar format. He was a co-writer of the BBC Radio 4 comedyGiles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off, and in 2006, Garden co-devised and appeared on theBBC Radio 4 comedy quiz showThe Unbelievable Truth. He also appeared in the BBC Radio 4 comedy seriesOne, created byDavid Quantick.
In 2003, Garden wrote the Radio 4 sitcomAbout a Dog, based on an original idea byDebbie Barham, with a second series in 2007.
Garden has appeared in several ofBig Finish'sDoctor Who audio dramas. InBang-Bang-a-Boom! he plays Professor Fassbinder, a parody ofVictor Bergman inSpace: 1999. InMax Warp he plays TV presenter Geoffrey Vantage, parodyingTop Gear presenterJeremy Clarkson. He also plays Abbot Thelonious (an alias of theMeddling Monk) in theEighth Doctor audio playThe Book of Kells in 2010, and subsequently returns as a recurring antagonist to the Eighth Doctor as the Monk (a role previously played on television byPeter Butterworth).
Garden's best known television work is freeform sitcomThe Goodies, which he wrote and performed along withTim Brooke-Taylor andBill Oddie from 1970 to 1982. The three appeared in the Amnesty International showA Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick) (during which they sang their hit song "Funky Gibbon"). Garden andBill Oddie co-wrote many episodes of the television sitcomDoctor in the House, including most of the first series episodes, and all of the second series episodes - as well as co-writing episodes of the subsequentDoctor at Large andDoctor in Charge series. Garden was co-writer and performer in the sketch showTwice a Fortnight withBill Oddie,Terry Jones,Michael Palin andJonathan Lynn, and also sketch showBroaden Your Mind withTim Brooke-Taylor, withBill Oddie joining the cast for the second series.
In 1982 Garden and Oddie wrote, but did not perform in, a six-part science fiction sitcom calledAstronauts forCentral which was shown onITV. The show was set in an internationalspace station in the near future.
Garden was the voice of the title character inBananaman (1983), in addition to General Blight and Maurice of the Heavy Mob in the children'sanimated television comedy series, which also featured the rest of the Goodies team. The series parodied comic book super-heroes. Later, Garden wrote for the sitcomSurgical Spirit (1994). Graeme Garden has also presented three series of theBBC's health magazineBodymatters.
Garden appeared in the political sitcomYes Minister, in the role of Commander Forrest of the Special Branch in the episodeThe Death List. He also appeared as a television presenter in theDoctor in the House episode "Doctor on the Box".
He was a regular team captain on the political satire game showIf I Ruled the World. Brooke-Taylor appeared as a guest in one episode and during the game "I Couldn't Disagree More" he proposed that it was high timeThe Goodies episodes were repeated. Garden was obliged by the rules of the game to refute this statement, and replied, "I couldn't disagree more... it was time to repeat them ten, fifteen years ago."[8]
In 2004, Garden and Brooke-Taylor were co-presenters ofChannel 4's daytime game showBeat the Nation, in which they indulged in usual game show "banter", but took the quiz itself seriously. It was notable for its use of a "laugh track" instead of a studio audience. Garden has hosted the quiz gameTell the Truth and presented a series of history programmes,A Sense of the Past forYorkshire Television.[9]
Garden writes and directs for the corporate video companyVideo Arts, famous for its training films starringJohn Cleese.
Garden has a successful stage career, and has acted in severalNational Theatre productions, as well as London'sWest End. He has also acted in severalBBC Radio 4 comedy drama series, and television drama includingPeak Practice andHolby City. Garden appeared with Tim Brooke-Taylor in the theatre productionThe Unvarnished Truth.
He wrote several pantomimes forThe Theatre Chipping Norton during the 1980s.[10]
In 1986 he appeared in a production ofAn Inspector Calls byJ B Priestley at theRoyal Exchange, Manchester.
Garden wrote a play calledThe Pocket Orchestra which ran in London in 2006. In August 2006, Garden and Brooke-Taylor joined up to perform at theEdinburgh Fringe in a show which looked back with some nostalgia to their work with the Goodies and in light entertainment.
Garden lives inOxfordshire with his wife Emma, with whom he has a son, Tom. Garden also has a daughter, Sally, and a son, John, from his previous marriage to Mary Elizabeth Wheatley Grice.[11][12] His son John "JJ" Garden is the occasional keyboardist for the music groupScissor Sisters,[13] and shares songwriting credit on the song "The Other Side" from their 2006 albumTa-Dah.[14]
In 2002, Garden suffered an episode of the condition known asBell's palsy, where the muscles on one side of the face become paralysed.[15] He was able to continue his work commitments and eventually made a full recovery after some months.
Garden was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2011 Birthday Honours for services to light entertainment alongside his late comedy partnerTim Brooke-Taylor.[16]
Garden is a patron of the disability charity ENRYCH – formerly Ryder-Cheshire Volunteers. The charity works to enable adults with a physical disability to enjoy culture, leisure, learning and sporting opportunities through partnership with a volunteer.[17]
An incomplete list includes:
Co-written with the other members ofThe Goodies:
Poetry:
Media related toGraeme Garden at Wikimedia Commons
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