David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.
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, "I don't think I would have done it as well. It's an interesting question – whether you've contributed more to the vast store of human enjoyment by doing comedy or by being a doctor, but the answer for me is that I don't think I would have been as successful or as happy being a doctor."
Garden and Bill Oddie co-wrote many episodes of the television comedy series Doctor in the House, including most of the first season episodes of the series and all of the second season episodes, as well as co-writing episodes of the subsequent Doctor at Large and Doctor in Charge series. Later, Garden also wrote for Surgical Spirit (1994). Graeme Garden has also presented three series of the BBC's health magazine Bodymatters.
Garden was co-writer and performer in the classic BBC radio comedy show, I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (ISIRTA) (1965–1970, and 1973). Garden was studying medicine during the early seasons of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, and this commitment made it difficult for him to be a member of the cast during the third season because of a midwifery medical course in Plymouth. However, he kept on sending scripts for the radio show by mail – and rejoined the cast of ISIRTA upon his return to his medical studies in London. On several occasions his medical qualifications are lampooned; in the 25th Anniversary Show, David Hatch asks him if he's 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...".
On television Graeme Garden was co-writer and performer in the comedy series Twice a Fortnight with Bill Oddie, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Jonathan Lynn.
Later, he was co-writer and performer in the comedy series Broaden Your Mind with Tim Brooke-Taylor (Bill Oddie joined the series for the second season).
Graeme appeared, with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie, in the Amnesty International show A Poke In The Eye (With A Sharp Stick) (during which they sang their hit song "Funky Gibbon"). The trio also appeared on "Top of the Pops" with the song.
In 1982 Garden and Oddie wrote, but did not perform in, a 6-part science fiction sitcom called Astronauts for Central and ITV. The show was set in an international space station in the near future.
Garden wrote a play called The Pocket Orchestra which ran in London from 26 April 2006 till 20 May 2006.
He was a regular team captain on the political satire game show If I Ruled the World. Brooke-Taylor appeared as a guest in one episode, and during the game "I Couldn't Disagree More" he proposed that it was high time The Goodies episodes were repeated. Garden was obliged by the rules of the game to refute this statement, and replied, "I couldn't disagree more... it was time to repeat them ten, fifteen years ago."
Garden wrote for and appeared with Barry Cryer and Alison Steadman in the 1989 BBC radio comedy sketch show The Long Hot Satsuma. 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.
In 2004, Garden and Brooke-Taylor were co-presenters of Channel 4's daytime game show Beat the Nation, in which they indulged in usual game show "banter", but took the quiz itself seriously. It was notable for its use of a "laugh track" instead of a studio audience, unusual for a quiz show.
Graeme Garden also writes and directs for the corporate video company Video Arts, famous for its training films starring John Cleese.
Garden is chair of the spoof radio game show Beat The Kids. He has also appeared on the UK version of the 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.
Graeme Garden's voice was featured in the irreverent animated comedy series about a horrifically bad London comprehensive high school, Bromwell High beginning in 2006.
In June 2006, Garden became a panellist on the new BBC Radio 4 comedy quiz show, The Unbelievable Truth (which he co-devised), starring, among others, Jeremy Hardy and Andy Hamilton.
In August 2006, Garden and Brooke-Taylor joined up to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe in a show which looked back with some nostalgia to their work with the Goodies and in light entertainment.
He also appeared on the comedy quiz show QI in November 2006.
In 2003, Garden wrote the Radio 4 series About a Dog, based on an original idea by Debbie Barham, with a second series in 2007.
Garden has also played a minor role in the 2007 television adaptation of Agatha Christie's 'Nemesis'.
Garden has appeared in two of Big Finish's Doctor Who audio dramas playing a parodic character. In Bang-Bang-a-Boom! he plays Professor Fassbinder, a parody of Victor Bergman in . In Max Warp he plays TV presenter Geoffrey Vantage, parodying Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson (this episode broadcast on BBC Radio 7 on 26 October 2008). He also plays Abbot Thelonious in the Eighth Doctor audio play The Book of Kells in 2010, and subsequently returns as a recurring antagonist to the Eighth Doctor.
Graeme Garden lives in Oxfordshire with his family; his leisure interests include painting and playing the banjo. He played the banjo in the Goodies episodes, "Gender Education" and "Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms".
Garden was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to light entertainment.
Co-written with the other members of The Goodies:
; Endnotes
Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:Old Reptonians Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:People from Aberdeen Category:Scottish cartoonists Category:Scottish comedians Category:Scottish comedy writers Category:Scottish humorists Category:Scottish illustrators Category:Scottish radio actors Category:Scottish radio writers Category:Scottish stage actors Category:Scottish television actors Category:Scottish television directors Category:Scottish television writers Category:Scottish voice actors Category:Scottish medical doctors Category:I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
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