Graeme Garden

David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of The Goodies and a regular panellist on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''.

Early life and education

Garden was born in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and raised in Preston, Lancashire, England, only son (with a daughter) of (1910-1982), an eminent orthopaedic surgeon who created the Garden classification of hip fractures, and his wife Janet Ann (née McHardy). R. S. Garden's parents, John and Elizabeth, farmed at Macduff, Banff and Buchan, Aberdeenshire. Garden was educated at Repton School, and studied medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he joined the Cambridge 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 the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Garden qualified in medicine at King's College London, but has never practised. Asked how he justified making jokes rather than saving lives, he answered:

Career

Radio

Garden was co-writer and performer in the classic BBC radio comedy sketch show, ''I'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 a midwifery course in Plymouth. 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. 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 show ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'', in a cast which included Tim Brooke-Taylor, for almost fifty years. He also starred in and co-wrote, with Barry 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 game Mornington Crescent.

Garden wrote for and appeared with Barry Cryer and Alison Steadman in the 1989 BBC radio comedy sketch show ''The Long Hot Satsuma''. Garden had a role in Paul B. Davies' 2000 radio play ''Spy Nozy and the Poets''. In 2001 and 2002, Garden wrote for and appeared in the BBC radio comedy sketch show ''The Right Time'', along with Eleanor Bron, Paula Wilcox, Clive Swift, Roger Blake and Neil Innes. He was also script editor for ''The Hudson and Pepperdine Show''.

Garden is chair of the spoof radio game show ''Beat the Kids''. He has also appeared on the UK version of the improvisation television series ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', which has a similar format. He was a co-writer of the BBC Radio 4 comedy '' Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off'', and in 2006, Garden co-devised and appeared on the BBC Radio 4 comedy quiz show, '' The Unbelievable Truth''.

In 2003, Garden wrote the Radio 4 sitcom ''About a Dog'', based on an original idea by Debbie Barham, with a second series in 2007.

Garden has appeared in several of Big Finish's ''Doctor Who'' audio dramas. In ''Bang-Bang-a-Boom!'' he plays Professor Fassbinder, a parody of Victor Bergman in '' Space: 1999''. In '' Max Warp'' he plays TV presenter Geoffrey Vantage, parodying ''Top Gear'' presenter Jeremy Clarkson. He also plays Abbot Thelonious (an alias of the Meddling Monk) in the Eighth Doctor audio play ''The 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 by Peter Butterworth.

Television

Garden's best known television work is freeform sitcom ''The Goodies'', which he wrote and performed along with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie from 1970 to 1982. The three appeared in the Amnesty International show '' A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)'' (during which they sang their hit song "Funky Gibbon"). Garden and Bill Oddie co-wrote many episodes of the television sitcom ''Doctor 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 subsequent '' Doctor at Large'' and ''Doctor in Charge'' series. Garden was co-writer and performer in the sketch show ''Twice a Fortnight'' with Bill Oddie, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Jonathan Lynn, and also sketch show '' Broaden Your Mind'' with Tim Brooke-Taylor, with Bill 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 called ''Astronauts'' for Central which was shown on ITV. The show was set in an international space station in the near future.

Garden was the voice of the title character in ''Bananaman'' (1983), in addition to General Blight and Maurice of the Heavy Mob in the children's animated television comedy series, which also featured the rest of the Goodies team. The series parodied comic book super-heroes. Later, Garden wrote for the sitcom '' Surgical Spirit'' (1994). Graeme Garden has also presented three series of the BBC
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