'Art For Art's Sake' by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden

When the Goodies visit Sotheby’s Spring Sale to pick up an art bargain, Tim is dismayed and outraged to find that the only bidders are rich Americans who don’t care what they are buying, and that the auctioneer is only interested in making money. On a crusade to prevent the loss of Britain's art treasures, Tim gets into a bidding war over a painting by Velasquith, and ends up paying a million, billion, trillion, quintillion pounds and 2 ½ pence for it. With only 13p between them, Tim, Bill and Graeme decide to present the painting to the Minister For The Arts, with the expectation that the government will fork out the rest; unfortunately their plan backfires: the minister has no funds, and he has no option but to bump up the entrance fee at the National Gallery in order to cover the costs. Refusing to allow the public to pay to see the painting, Tim persuades Graeme to come up with an alternative plan to get the cash – so Graeme proposes they steal all the art on display at the National Gallery, so that the government can claim back on the insurance money…

Spoof Advertisement: ‘Creamy Cathay’ Soap

Bill Oddie (Bill), Tim Brooke-Taylor (Tim), Graeme Garden (Graeme), Tommy Godfrey (Auctioneer), Julian Orchard (Minister For The Arts), Ray Marlowe

Produced and Directed by Jim Franklin
Music by Bill Oddie and Michael Gibbs

TX (BBC 2):
5th November 1971

Notes:
*Featuring Tim, Bill and Graeme

*Alternative title: 'Culture for the Masses'