Goodies heading for Brum

The Goodies Still Rule OK!, which received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Festival last summer and sold out two tours in Australia, stars comic legends Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden.

Due to filming commitments the third member of the trio, Bill Oddie, will beam his performance to the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham via the wonders of digital technology.

The Goodies were an integral part of the remarkable explosion of British comedy talent during the 1970s.

Blending reminiscences with ridiculousness, the Goodies Still Rule OK! offers a chance to hang out with Tim and Graeme, enjoy cyber-Bill and share with them their favourite sketches, video clips and behind-the-scenes tales.

The trio are among the most loved and prolific of all UK comedians, with writing and performing credits that include the cream of British comedy from the 1960s to the present.

The Birmingham show will include near-the-mark bits banned by Australian TV, plus sketches from the student revue that took them to Broadway.

Alexandra Theatre spokeswoman Anna Downes said the show would also feature Tim Brooke-Taylor's famous Union Jack waistcoat and other familiar sights.

The three friends, along with John Cleese, David Hatch and Jo Kendall, were part of the radical new comedy movement spearheaded by the pioneering sketch series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, pre-dating so-called alternative comedy by a couple of decades.

Their Goodies characters were caricature exaggerations of their real selves, with Tim the respectable establishment figure and a manic royalist, Graeme the scatty, back-room boffin and inventor of all manner of weird devices, and Bill, an aggressive, earthy, hairy individual who tended towards environmentalism, socialism and feminism.

Tickets cost £20.50 and £19.50. The show comes to The Alex on Friday, April 6.