Broaden Your Mind
Misleadingly described as a part-quiz, part-educational programme,
Broaden Your Mind was in fact a fast-paced themed-sketch
show, albeit with those two ingredients worked into the mix.
Tim Brooke-Taylor conceived the idea, which was subtitled 'An
Encyclopaedia Of The Air', inspired by the proliferation of weekly
part-work magazines that built eventually into an all-encompassing
tome.
He realised that a spoof of the format would enable the players
to fit any number of sketches around each week's chosen theme.
One of the most popular recurring sketches featured two old
men, Teddy and Freddy (Graeme Garden and Brooke-Taylor) lecturing
on a given topic but finding it hard to stick to the subject.
Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Bill Oddie appeared as guest
artists during the first series and Oddie joined the cast as a
regular for the second series, meaning that the trio who would
eventually make The Goodies was assembled.
As it was, adding Jo Kendall's involvement, Broaden Your
Mind featured four of the six troopers from the smash-hit BBC
radio comedy series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again,
excepting John Cleese and David Hatch.
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