Kitten Kong

"Kitten Kong"
The Goodies episode
Episode no.	Series 2 Episode Original episode 14 (of 76) Montreux version 21 (of 76)
Directed by	Jim Franklin
Produced by	John Howard Davies
Starring	Tim Brooke-Taylor Graeme Garden Bill Oddie
Original air date	Original episode 12 November 1971 (Friday — 10.10 p.m.) Montreux version 9 April 1972 (Sunday — 10.05 p.m.)
Guest stars
Michael Aspel (as himself) Corbet Woodall (as himself) (the "Newsreader") Milton Reid as "Bodyguard"
Series 2 episodes
1 October 1971 – 14 January 1972 Scotland Commonwealth Games Pollution The Lost Tribe The Music Lovers Culture for the Masses Kitten Kong Come Dancing Farm Fresh Food Women's Lib Gender Education Charity Bounce The Baddies
List of The Goodies episodes

"Kitten Kong" is the first BAFTA nominated episode for Best Light Entertainment Programme of the British comedy television series The Goodies.

As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.

Award

A special episode, which was based on the original 1971 Goodies' "Kitten Kong" episode, was called "Kitten Kong: Montreux '72 Edition", and was first broadcast in 1972. The Goodies won the Silver Rose in 1972 for this special episode at the Rose d'Or Festival, held in Montreux, Switzerland.

Plot

Bill is cooking when Graeme and Tim return from chess championships. Graeme and Tim are hungry, and want their dinner — however, there is only soggy lettuce and potato peel to eat because Bill feeds their normal food (and wine) to a guinea pig.

Bill is being paid £30 to look after the guinea pig, and the thought of being able to get some extra money leads to the Goodies setting up the office as the "Goodies Animal Clinic" for 'loony animals'. Graeme sends Tim and Bill out to collect them from their owners. The Goodies' animal 'patients' include a gigantic-size snake, a gold fish, a hen (which escapes from the basket en route to the office), a large dog, a bushbaby, a tortoise, a mongoose, a vampire bat, two singing dogs, and a tiny fluffy white kitten called "Twinkle".

Graeme's specially formulated growth mixture, which he feeds to the kitten, causes Twinkle to grow to super-size proportions. Graeme keeps Twinkle inside to stop him from wandering, but Bill decides to let Twinkle out for the night — following which Twinkle destroys St Paul's Cathedral and the Post Office Tower, as well as squashing Michael Aspel with his huge paw, and frightening sundry people and dogs.

Graeme makes an antidote to counteract the disastrous effect of his growth mixture and reduce Twinkle back to the normal size of a cat, but the Goodies have to disguise themselves as giant mice, and to become airborne on their trandem, to be able to get close enough to Twinkle for the antidote to be successful — following which their "hot-air trandem balloon" is carried away by a Concorde airliner.

Twinkle returns to normal size, and all seems well. However, the Goodies discover that there is yet another unexpected and unforeseen consequence resulting from Graeme's growth mixture — they now have a king-size mouse problem on their hands.

Quote

1.

• Bill: (talking about Bunter the guinea pig)"...and now for his pudding."
• Tim: "His what?"
• Bill: "His pudding, lemon meringue, bombe alaska and a cherry on top, yum yum."
• Tim: "Ruddy 'ell."
• Bill: "Surely you're not resentful to a little kindness to one of our dumb friends."
• Tim: "Look the only dumb friend I've got is you."

2.

• Graeme: "Come on — we've got to find him and catch him before he eats someone he shouldn't."
• Tim: "Don't you mean something he shouldn't?"
• Graeme: "I know what I mean!"

Goodies Commercials

• Robinson's Paper
• Butch tobacco

Spoofs and cultural references

• King Kong
• Annie Get Your Gun (with the song "Anything You Can Do")

Note

Although Concorde had its first flight in 1969, it did not go into service until 1976.

The original 25 minute episode is thought to no longer exist, making it the only Goodies episode which is officially lost; however, the expanded and more elaborate version for the 1972 Montreux festival is said to have only minor differences with its 1971 prototype.

Graeme makes a reference to the episode during Earthanasia while talking about animal science.

DVD and VHS releases

Main article: World of the Goodies

The "Kitten Kong (Montreux special)" episode has been released on both DVD and VHS.

References

• "The Complete Goodies" — Robert Ross, B T Batsford, London, 2000
• "The Goodies Rule OK" — Robert Ross, Carlton Books Ltd, Sydney, 2006
• "From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980'" — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980
• "The Goodies Episode Summaries" — Brett Allender
• "The Goodies — Fact File" — Matthew K. Sharp
• "TV Heaven" — Jim Sangster & Paul Condon, HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 2005

External links

• Kitten Kong at the Internet Movie Database — (original 1971 episode)
• Kitten Kong: Montreux '72 at the Internet Movie Database