In honor of The Goodies coming back for a one-off radio performance (what did we ever do to deserve this?), here’s a little bit of Londinium stuff that ended up not making it into the final narrative.
As is probably very, very obvious around here, Londinium’s main cast draws inspiration from notable figures in 1960s British comedy, and in earlier drafts and plot summaries this extended into the 1970s, as well. When it came time to really finalize the story, a lot of characters were cut simply because they didn’t fit into the larger narrative, which is why the only real groups you see represented in the Society for the Preservation of Comedy and Satire are the cast of Beyond the Fringe (the group jokingly referred to as the “Extravaganza Unit” - this is especially obvious with members Basil and Dustin) and the cast of Monty Python (the Huddleston Players).
However, in earlier notes, there were plans to include nods to The Goodies, as well as to double acts Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies. Since all three groups arguably reached their television zeniths in the 1970s, they ended up being shelved as characters, but I’ve still kept them around for potential side stories and whatnot. The first image depicts the Londinium Goodies, who never had a group name but very much have character names - L-R: Frederick Hagdorn (Graeme), Bertram Gilchrist (Bill), and Cyril Montfort (Tim).
The second and third images show hypothetical Victorian Ronnies and Victorian Morecambe and Wise - these characters never made it beyond vague ideas and were never officially named, but I drew these images earlier this year for myself to imagine what it might have looked like just for fun. Both pairs actually look rather cute and I’d love to someday work more with them and do some Londinium side stories using these characters as the jumping-off point.