The Goon Show
DVD of The Last Goon Show of All, aired by the BBC in 1972.
Genre	Comedy
Running time	30 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Home station	BBC Home Service
Starring	Michael Bentine (1951-1953) Spike Milligan Harry Secombe Peter Sellers
Creator(s)	Spike Milligan
Producer(s)	Peter Eton (101) Dennis Main Wilson (38) Pat Dixon (29) Charles Chilton (25) John Browell (23) Roy Speer (14) Leslie Bridgmont (4) Tom Ronald (3) Jacques Brown (1)
Narrated by	Andrew Timothy Denys Drower Wallace Greenslade
Recording studio	Camden Theatre London
No. of episodes	238 plus 12 specials.

The Goon Show was a popular and influential British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. It was heard in the United States as early as the mid-1950s when it was carried on NBC.

The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of silly and bizarre sound effects. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades afterward.

Many elements of the show satirised contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature and film.

Contents 1 Background 2 Format 2.1 Surreality 2.2 Music and sound effects 2.3 Communication with the radio audience 2.4 A weekly task for the Goons 2.5 Innocent humour 3 Cast members and characters 4 Episodes and archiving 5 Running jokes 6 Trivia 6.1 The dreaded Lurgi 6.2 Brandyyy!!!! 6.3 Watch out Moriarty! 6.4 Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb! 6.5 Parp! 6.6 Birthday 7 Films 8 Later revivals 8.1 Books 8.2 Films 8.3 Stage 8.4 Radio and television 8.5 Records 9 Impact on comedy and culture 9.1 Peter Cook 9.2 Monty Python 9.3 The Beatles 9.4 The sincerest form of flattery 10 The end of the Goons 11 References 12 See also 13 Bibliography 14 External links

Background

The show was enormously popular in Britain in its heyday; tickets for the recording sessions at the BBC's Aeolian Hall studio in London were constantly over-subscribed and the various character voices and catchphrases from the show quickly became part of the vernacular. The series has remained consistently popular ever since – it is still being broadcast once a week by the ABC in Australia, as well as on BBC 7; and it has exerted a singular influence over succeeding generations of comedians and writers, most notably the creators of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the Beatles' movies.

The series was devised and written by Spike Milligan with the regular collaboration of other writers including (singly) Larry Stephens, Eric Sykes, Maurice Wiltshire and John Antrobus, under the watchful eye of Jimmy Grafton (KOGVOS - Keeper of the Goons and Voice of Sanity). However, on four occasions during the 8th series, Milligan was unable to come up with scripts, so Stephens wrote The Stolen Postman, and Stephens and Wiltshire The Thing On The Mountain, The Moriarty Murder Mystery and The White Neddie Trade, in very convincing Milligan-esque style. In the 9th series, when a similar situation occurred, Stephens and Wiltshire also wrote The Seagoon Memoirs (Stephens had contributed a solo script during the 4th series). Many senior BBC staff were bemused by the show's surreal humour and it has been reported that senior programme executives erroneously referred to it as "The Go On Show" or even "The Coon Show"..

Milligan and Harry Secombe became friends while serving in the Royal Artillery during World War II; they met up with Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine back in England after the war and got together in Grafton's pub performing and experimenting with tape recorders.. Famously, Milligan first encountered Secombe after Gunner Milligan's artillery unit accidentally allowed a large howitzer to roll off a cliff - under which Secombe was sitting in a small wireless truck : "Suddenly there was a terrible noise as some monstrous object fell from the sky quite close to us. There was considerable confusion, and in the middle of it all the flap of the truck was pushed open and a young, helmeted idiot asked 'Anybody see a gun?' It was Milligan..."

Format

The principal parts were performed by Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, with Sellers and Milligan performing literally dozens of different characters. The first two seasons also featured Michael Bentine in the role of Professor Osric Pureheart and musical interludes from singing group The Stargazers, but both they and Bentine left during the second series. The show went on to feature musical intermissions from singer Ray Ellington and his quartet and virtuoso jazz harmonica player Max Geldray. The BBC announcer Andrew Timothy, succeeded by Wallace Greenslade, provided spoken links as well as occasionally performing small roles in the scripts, usually as himself.

Surreality

The Goon Show paved the way for surreal and alternative humour. Many of the sequences have been cited as being visionary in the way that they challenged the traditional conventions of comedy. Perhaps one of the most famous is from The Mysterious Punch-Up-The-Conker, where Bluebottle (Sellers) asks Eccles (Milligan) what the time is. Eccles consults a piece of paper, on which is written "Eight o'clock" – the answer he received the last time he asked somebody what the time was. The implications of this method of telling the time are then explored at some length:

Bluebottle: What time is it Eccles?

Eccles: Err, just a minute. I've got it written down here on a piece of paper. A nice man wrote the time down for me this morning.

Bluebottle: Then why do you carry it around with you, Eccles?

Eccles: Well, if anybody asks me the time, I can show it to them.

Bluebottle: Wait a minute Eccles, my good man...

Eccles: What is it fellow?

Bluebottle: It's writted on this bit of paper, what is eight o'clock, is writted.

Eccles: I know that my good fellow. That's right. When I asked the fella to write it down, it was eight o'clock.

Bluebottle: Well then, supposing when somebody asks you the time, it isn't eight o'clock?

Eccles: Then I don't show it to them.

Bluebottle: Well how do you know when it's eight o'clock?

Eccles: I've got it written down on a piece of paper!

This idea appeared frequently in similar guises: pictures and audio recordings of money were accepted as legal tender, the word "dinner" written on a piece of paper and eaten served as a full meal, and so on.

Music and sound effects

Musical intermissions were provided by the Ray Ellington Quartet and Max Geldray. The Goon Show was also famed for its unique library of sound effects. Originally for the first two series the only effect was of a rusty, sinister chain; Milligan became so frustrated that he demanded sound effects from the BBC board of directors. Later, Eccles and Bluebottle would perform an out-of-tune, speeded-up, comedy version of Unchained Melody, featuring the same chain at the beginning and end as a homage. And, later on, Unchained Melody developed into fully fledged piece with the entire cast of the Goons 'playing' musical instruments : Minnie on Saxophone, Eccles on Drums, Seagoon doing something (though not specifically anything), Grytpype and Moriarity on Brass, Crun trying to restrain Minnie - and then the drums collapse, almost deading Bluebottle ("Harm can come to lad like that !")

Another musical (?) item was a multi-tracked choir of Eccleses singing "Good King Wenceslas" (The String Robberies)

The show's scripts often provided the BBC's sound effects department with such challenges as generating the audible equivalent of a piece of string, the sound of a wall/piano/Christmas pudding being driven at high speed, the noise made by an idiot attempting to open a door in the wrong direction and various explosions, splashes, splatters, clatters and bangs. Apparently, the BBC sound library, whose previous work had involved producing nothing more stimulating than "footsteps on a gravel path" or "a knock on the door", greatly appreciated the variety of challenges posed by the show's often surreal requirements. A classic example of this was the attempt by Spike Milligan to create a sound like "a sock full of custard splattering against a wall". A story recounted in Harry Secombe's biography relates that a bemused canteen cook made up a pot of custard at Milligan's request (thinking that Milligan was suffering from an upset stomach); only to see him pour it into his socks; and run off whimpering into the kitchen. Milligan then went to an already prepared tape recorder and slapped both socks against a table, but was still unable to get the correct effect. He was then heard to cry "Shit!" and storm off, because, as Secombe recounts, "if truth be known, that was really what he wanted the sock to contain."

Many of the memorable sound effects created for later programs featured innovative production techniques borrowed from the realm of musique concrète, and using the then new technology of magnetic tape. Many of these sequences involved the use of complex multiple edits, echo and reverberation and the deliberate slowing down, speeding up or reversing of tapes. One of the most famous was the sound effect created by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to represent the sound of Major Bloodnok's digestive system in action, which included a variety of inexplicable gurgling and explosive noises. This effect kept turning up on later comedy shows, and can even be heard on a track by The Orb.

Another classic pair of sound effects were featured in The Nasty Affair at the Burami Oasis, in which the Arabs are attacking the British Legion's garrison to tire them out, in order for the Arab football team to have the advantage over the British in an upcoming football match. Grytpype-Thynne warns Seagoon that if he takes one step closer, his men (the Arabs) will drink the oasis. Neddie then receives a phone call from Bloodnok, reporting the loss of 20,000 gallons of gin, which Bloodnok placed in the oasis "on account of the shortage". Neddie, realising the probable effects, calls Grytpype's bluff, whereupon the sound of corks being pulled from bottles is heard, followed by the sound of 2,000 men drinking what would appear to be 10 gallons of gin each. Greenslade goes on to recount that, when the football match was played, the Arabs, despite their intoxicated state, defeated the British garrison team by 68 goals to 12. To quote Neddie from numerous occasions, "Let's see them do that on television".

The 'sound pictures' created by the Goons were equally groundbreaking; in one episode, The Choking Horror, they conjured up the image of the tops of all the major buildings and landmarks in London being covered by a thick growth of hair.

Communication with the radio audience

The show relied heavily on breaking the fourth wall. Examples include:

• In the episode The Mountain Eaters, after Milligan's anguished portrayal of Moriarity in need of money, Grytpype-Thynne tells Ned Seagoon that the money must be found soon as Moriarty's "over-acting is becoming increasingly apparent to us all".
• Moriarty comments on the state of the story itself: "At last! [We've found] a plot!"
• Another comment on the plot: Neddie Seagoon: What a fiendish plot! Bloodnok: 'Yes I wonder who wrote it?!'
• Moriarty's character is introduced in the episode The Lost Gold Mine (of Charlotte) as he is recounting an actual conversation he had in the previous episode (The Whistling Spy Enigma.)
• Milligan would sometimes bait his audience by having a character ask them a question and having the sound of sheep bleating played back as their response.
• In The Nasty Affair At The Burami Oasis, Sellers was playing Bloodnok and changed his voice to do one line by another character. Once back as Bloodnok, the character demanded, "Sellers! How dare you change your voice from mine to his for one joke only!"
• Likewise from The Histories of Pliny the Elder:

Brutus Moriartus (Moriarty): Why don't you stop him, Julius Caesar?

Sellers: How can I when I'm playing the part of Bloodnok?

• And from The £1,000,000 Penny, Grytpype and Moriarty knock on Henry Crun's door. When Henry answers, he asks: "Who's knocking?'

Moriarty: It was my friend Mr Grytpype Thynne.

Crun: I can't see him.

Moriarty: That's because you are playing him, he's never around when you're here.

Crun: I don't understand ....

Moriarty: Neither do the audience, that's why it isn't getting a laugh!

• In The £1,000,000 Penny, Eccles, as a gamekeeper, apprehends Bloodnok, whom he accuses of shooting fish (Bloodnok was firing his shotgun into the river). Bloodnok protests that he was shooting the river, whereupon Eccles says to the audience, sotto voce: "Somethin' funny goin' on here folks." Bloodnok replies: "Come away from that audience, Eccles, you don't know where they've been!"

• In The Fireball of Milton Street, Seagoon, running to London to warn the Queen of imminent disaster, narrates his own journey. Along the way, he jumps three successively large rivers, and admonishes the audience for suspecting that he would fall into the last one, ordering them to write "I will not try to guess the end of Goon Show gags!" He then does fall into the river, and addresses the audience again: "Hands-up, all those who took the hundred lines?"

• In World War I, Bluebottle is on sentry duty in a lonely wood, and isn't happy about it. Then he says: "Suddenly sees studio audience - hello everybody! (GRAMS: rapturous applause)" and goes into a rock 'n roll routine, ignoring the plot.

A weekly task for the Goons

The strain of writing and performing took a heavy toll on Milligan, who was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He suffered a nervous breakdown during the run of the show, requiring hospitalisation, and the intense pressure also contributed to the failure of his marriage. Milligan was absent from the show for twelve episodes in the third series after an attempt to murder Peter Sellers with a potato peeler. The story was that he left his house and made for the Sellers household, but Milligan's wife managed to telephone Sellers before Milligan arrived at the door,

Sellers could be similarly eccentric. Once, around midnight, he turned up on Milligan's doorstep totally naked. "Can you recommend a good tailor?" he asked. On another occasion Sellers had bought a Jaguar and asked Graham Stark for his help in locating an annoying squeak coming from the rear of the vehicle. Graham got into the boot and Sellers drove the car four miles down the road before being stopped for speeding by a policeman - who said "Hello, hello, hello, who have we got here then?" upon investigating noises coming from the boot. Milligan recounted a similar version on a chat show years later, which involved him and not Stark in the boot of the car, and ended with the policeman opening it, taking one look at Milligan, and saying, "I should have known it would be you," and closing the boot again. Yet another version was recounted by Eric Sykes. Sykes claimed that Sellers stopped off at a public house for something to eat. The Barman apparently heard knocking coming from inside the boot, but Sellers simply stated he was taking his son to school, finished his lunch and promptly drove away. This incident was recounted in the section on Sellers in Sykes book, Eric Sykes' Comedy Heroes.

Innocent humour

The Goon Show was cited as entertaining without resorting to sexual innuendo. However this is because many listeners didn't understand the sexual jokes in the show.

Due to his dislike of rules imposed by the establishment, Milligan spent a lot of time working allusions to rude and/or sexual barrack room jokes into his scripts. These were instantly recognised by his peers and went completely over the heads of the BBC and other innocent listeners. For instance "The Good Ship Venus" was mentioned either directly by name or allusion (eg HMS Venus) in at least four shows (Stolen Postman, Call of the West, Giant Bombardon, Treasure in the Tower). Often innocent but quirky things are no such thing at all eg, in The Spy, or Who is Pink Oboe?, Seagoon has to remember a list of secret agents: "Black Rabbit, the Blue Pelican and the Yellow Alligator, Octoroon Monkey, the Pink Oboe, and the Purple Mosquito, Vermilion Sock, the Vermilion Ponk, the Chocolate Speedway and the White Bint" - the Pink, Brown and White bits allude to a male organ, and two possible destinations. In one episode, the boys had Wallace Greenslade issue good wishes to their friend Hugh Jampton (ie "huge hampton") at the beginning of the show. Those who do not know the term "Hampton" as a slang term for the penis may find this incomprehensible, as the BBC managers presumably did.

Another example is in The Affair of the Lone Banana: cowardly Bluebottle seeks to escape hazardous duty by claiming, "It's my turn in the barrel," a reference to a classic obscene joke.

From time to time the two Hindu characters Lalkaka (Sellers) and Banerjee (Milligan, although occasionally vice versa) would appear, and converse in broken English salted with bits of Hindi, including sexual references which the producers, of course, did not catch. However when interviewed later by Michael Parkinson, Sellers told how old ladies who had been to India would send in letters complaining about these conversations, the implication being that they were therefore not "nice old ladies" given their knowledge of the obscenities involved.

Cast members and characters

Main article: The Goon Show cast members and characters

• Harry Secombe's Characters

Major: Neddie Seagoon

Minor: Uncle Oscar • Unteroffizier Krupp • Private Bogg • Nugent Dirt • Izzy • Welshmen

• Spike Milligan's Characters

Major: Eccles • Minnie Bannister • Count Jim Moriarty

Minor: Throat • Little Jim • Spriggs • Yakamoto • Cor blimey • Thingz • Hugh Jampton • Fu Manchu

• Peter Sellers' Characters

Major: Major Bloodnok • Hercules Grytpype-Thynne • Bluebottle • Henry Crun

Minor: Cynthia • Mate • Mr Lalkaka • Eidelberger • Flowerdew • Cyril • Fred Nurke • Gladys • Lew/Ernie Cash • Churchill • Hearn • And more...

• Michael Bentine's Characters

Prof. Osric Pureheart and more

• Other cast members
• Guest cast members

Episodes and archiving

See: Goon Show episodes and archiving

Running jokes

See: The Goon Show running jokes.

Trivia

The dreaded Lurgi

Several of the words and phrases invented for the show soon entered common usage, the most famous being the word lurgi. In the episode Lurgi Strikes Britain, Spike Milligan introduced the fictional malady of Lurgi, (sometimes spelled "lurgy") which has survived into modern usage to mean any miscellaneous or non-specific illness.

Brandyyy!!!!

Alcohol was of course strictly forbidden during rehearsals and recording, so the cast fortified themselves with milk. The milk in turn was fortified with brandy. In later episodes the catchphrase "'round the back for the old brandy!" or "the old Marlon Brando" was used to announce the exit of one or more characters, or a break for music; Ray Ellington, on one occasion, before his musical item began, mused, "I wonder where he keeps that stuff!" In another, he sympathised with the listeners, "Man, the excuses he makes to get to that brandy!", causing Spike Milligan to wail "MATE!" in protest.

Watch out Moriarty!

Peter Sellers, as Grytpype-Thynne, usually pronounced the name of his henchman "Morry-arty" (IPA: [ˌmɔː.ɹiː.ˈɑː.tɪ]). However, if he (Sellers) was not in a good mood, or Milligan (as Moriarty) was overdoing his part, Grytpype-Thynne would start pronouncing the name as "Mor-EYE-atty" ([ˌmɔːˈɹaɪ.ətɪ]). This gave Milligan a cue to simmer down.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!

During radio programmes of the 1920s and 1930s, the background noise for crowd scenes was often achieved by a moderately large group of people mumbling "rhubarb" under their breath with random inflections. This was often parodied by Milligan, who would try to get the same effect with only three or four people. After some time, Secombe began throwing in "custard" during these scenes (For example in The Fear of Wages and Wings Over Dagenham). About 10 years after The Goon Show ceased production, Secombe, Eric Sykes and a host of other well-known comic actors made the short film Rhubarb in which the entire script consisted of what Milligan called rhubarbs.

Parp!

As well as a comic device randomly asserted in different sketches to avoid silence, the blowing of Raspberries entered the Goons as Harry Secombe's signal to the other actors that he was going to crack up; you would hear a joke from him, a Raspberry, and a stream of mad laughter. Years later, Milligan collaborated with Ronnie Barker on The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town, in which the credits read: "Raspberries Professionally blown by Spike Milligan."

Birthday

Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe shared the same birthday, 8 September.

Films

The following films were a product of Goon activity:

• Let's Go Crazy (Film) (1951)
• Penny Points to Paradise (1951)
• Down Among the Z Men (1952) (with Bentine)
• The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956)

A two-reeler starring Milligan, Sellers and Dick Emery

• The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1959)

A surreal one-reeler short subject starring Milligan and Sellers and directed by Dick Lester

Later revivals

Books

Spike teamed up with illustrator Pete Clark to produce two books of comic strip Goons. The stories were slightly modified versions of classic Goon shows.

• The Goon Cartoons (1982)

The Last Goon Show of All, The Affair of the Lone Banana, The Scarlet Capsule, The Pevensey Bay Disaster

• More Goon Cartoons (1983)

The Case of the Vanishing Room, The Case of the Missing C.D. Plates, The Saga of the Internal Mountain, Rommel's Treasure

Films

• The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)

A recreation of a Goon Show broadcast before a studio audience is seen early in the HBO Original Movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), with Geoffrey Rush as Sellers, Edward Tudor-Pole as Spike Milligan and Steve Pemberton as Harry Secombe. A very brief moment from that recreation is seen in the trailer for that film.

Stage

• Ying Tong: A walk with the goons

Ying Tong is a play written by Roy Smiles which is set partly in a radio studio, partly in a mental asylum and partly in Spike Milligan's mind. It recreates the Goons recording the much loved show, but part way through Spike has a mental breakdown and is committed to an asylum. While it features all all of the Goons throughout, the focus is really on Milligan and his breakdown. Written very much in the rapid fire dialogue style of the Goon Show, It is simultaneously hilarious and disturbing. It provides some fascinating insight into the mind of Spike Milligan as well as the slightly uneasy relationships between Milligan, Sellers and Secombe.

The following blurb is taken from the Sydney Theatre Company website, promoting the 2007 run of the show:

A Goon Show is underway but Spike Milligan (Geoff Kelso) has been institutionalised. The problem is Spike can’t write any more.

Undeterred, he writes anyway, under his hospital bed sheets, typing incessantly. But no civilised member of society can write like this: Catholic and Jewish leprechauns keep interrupting. And why do they look awfully like his fellow Goons Peter Sellers (Jonathan Biggins) and Harry Secombe (David James)?

Spike’s marbles have been stolen by Moriarty and Grytpype-Thynne. Eccles, Bluebottle and Neddie launch an offensive inside Spike’s head to recover them. Can Spike find his own marbles? Indeed will Spike ever write another Goon Show? Will he write again? Or will he be consumed by his own creations?

Welcome to the mad world of Ying Tong.

If you are already humming the song, you are probably half-way there. Roy Smiles’ play took the UK by storm last year. Inspired by the much-loved style and sounds of The Goon Show, Smiles has crafted a work of joy, sadness and ingenuity.

Radio and television

• The Idiot Weekly (1958–1962)

The Idiot Weekly (1958–1962) was an Australian radio comedy series written and starring Spike Milligan. Milligan adapted some Goon Show scripts and included his Goon Show characters (notably Eccles) in many episodes. Six episodes of The Idiot Weekly were remade by the BBC as The Omar Khayyam Show in 1963.

• The Telegoons (1963–1964)

The Telegoons (1963–1964) was a 15-minute BBC puppet show featuring the voices of Milligan, Secombe and Sellers and adapted from the radio scripts. 26 episodes were made. The series was briefly repeated immediately after its original run and all episodes are known to survive (having been unofficially released on the Internet).

• The Last Goon Show of All (1972)

In 1972, the Goons reunited to perform The Last Goon Show of All for radio and television, before an invited audience that didn't, however, include long-time fan HRH The Prince of Wales (who was out of the country on duty with the Royal Navy at the time). The show was broadcast on BBC television and radio, and eventually released in stereo, first as an LP on vinyl, and later on a CD.

• Goon Again (2001)

In 2001, the BBC recorded a "new" Goon Show, Goon Again, featuring Andrew Secombe (son of Harry), Jon Glover and Jeffrey Holland, with Christopher Timothy (son of Andrew Timothy) announcing and Lance Ellington (son of Ray Ellington) singing, based on two unpreserved series 3 episodes from 1953, "The Story of Civilisation" and "The Plymouth Ho Armada", both written by Milligan and Stephens.

Records

They made a number of records including "I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas" (originally sung by Milligan in the show to fill in during a musicians' Christmas Break), "Bloodnok's Rock and Roll Call" and its B-side "The Ying Tong Song". "The Ying Tong Song" was reissued as an A-side in the mid-1970s and became a surprise novelty hit. The last time all three Goons worked together was in 1978 when they recorded two new songs, "The Raspberry Song" and "Rhymes".

• Bridge on the River Wye (1962)

A 1962 comedy LP with Milligan and Sellers as well as Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller. A spoof of the film 'Bridge on the River Kwai', it was originally recorded under the same name. However the film company threatened legal action if the name was used. Thus some clever editing of the recording by future Beatles Producer George Martin removed the 'K' everytime the word 'Kwai' was uttered, creating 'Bridge on the River Wye'. The LP is based on The Goon Show's "African Incident" (1957).

• How to Win an Election (1964)

In 1964, Milligan, Secombe and Sellers lent their voices to a comedy LP, How to Win an Election (or Not Lose by Much), which was written by Leslie Bricusse. It was not exactly a Goons reunion because Sellers was in Hollywood and had to record his lines separately. The album was reissued on CD in 1997.

Impact on comedy and culture

Peter Cook

Whilst at boarding school, Peter used to feign illness on Friday evenings, just so he could listen to the Goons on the radio in the sick bay. A happy moment from his childhood concerns when he sent a script to the BBC and they sent it back, saying it was a great Goon script but not original. Despite this knock-back, this script somehow landed on the desk of Spike Milligan and brought about a meeting between Peter Cook and his heroes. He, and others from Beyond the Fringe, were later to work with Milligan and Sellers on Bridge On The River Wye. Both Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers appeared on Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's TV show, Not Only... But Also.

Monty Python

The future members of Monty Python were fans, and they have on many occasions expressed their collective debt to Milligan and The Goons, but ironically their famous TV series over-shadowed Milligan's later anarchic TV efforts (such as the Q series) – even though the Python team have credited Milligan and especially Q as being the source of two key Python features – sketches didn't have to be "about" real subjects and they didn't have to follow conventional structures, particularly in respect to ending sketches without the traditional punchline.

In a memorial show for Milligan, Terry Jones recalled that he and the Monty Python team, while trying to think up a new sketch, were confronted by an old man at the door trying to sell them a wheelbarrowful of manure. They took this as a sign from above and made a sketch in which a similar thing happened to an upper class dinner party. Jones was horrified to discover, years later, that Spike Milligan had created an almost identical sketch years before, and had in all probability gone to his grave believing that it had been stolen. Jones then apologised to Spike in heaven from the stage.

Although Python now seems to be the more quoted, it is fair to say that virtually all British alternative comedy in its modern form is based on the model created for The Goon Show by Milligan.

The Beatles

The Goons made a considerable impact on the humour of The Beatles, and especially on John Lennon. On September 30, 1973, Lennon reviewed the book The Goon Show Scripts for The New York Times. He wrote: "I was 12 when The Goon Show first hit me, 16 when they finished with me. Their humour was the only proof that the world was insane. One of my earlier efforts at writing was a 'newspaper' called The Daily Howl. I would write it at night, then take it into school and read it aloud to my friends. Looking at it now, it seems strangely similar to The Goon Show." Lennon also noted that George Martin had made records with both Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers.

The now multi-bootlegged recordings of the Beatles to their fans on the famous Christmas Message records, are masterpieces of surreal Beatle comedy that draws heavily on the Goons and their comedy. http://www.norwegianwood.org/beatles/disko/html/xmas2.html

The sincerest form of flattery

Although the names, catchphrases and slang of The Goon Show came to permeate British culture, the same could not be said of the USA, so when an issue of a Marvel comic book, The Defenders issue 148[1], used the character names Minerva Bannister, Harry Crun (i.e. Henry), and Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, it went completely unnoticed by American readers. The reactions of British readers, if any, were not recorded. The characters were as follows:

• Minerva Bannister - Villainous heiress.
• Harry Crun - Private Detective, employed by Ms. Bannister, and in love with her.
• Hercules Grytpype-Thynne - Cop on their trail.

In the movie Shrek, Shrek refers to a constellation as Bloodnok, the Flatulent.

The rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin took their name from a Goon Show episode.

The character of Catherwood in the Firesign Theatre production of Nick Danger, Third Eye is vocally nearly identical to Major Bloodnok. This voice was also used in other Firesign productions. The character Tweety in David Ossman's solo work "How Time Flys" uses a voice very much like Eccles. In the book, The Firesign Theater's Big Mystery Joke Book, David Ossman references Spike Milligan as one of the comedians all four members admired the most, and Peter Bergman in fact worked briefly with Spike Milligan in London in 1966. The Firesign Theatre's most common format, an audio play lasting roughly thirty minutes with a clear if bizarre plot on which are hung surreal or buffoonish jokes, is, in terms of format, closer to the Goon Show than the work of either Beyond the Fringe or Monty Python.

Goon Show fan and one time The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film collaborator, Richard Lester named Clark Kent's former schoolmistress "Miss Bannister" in 1983's Superman III.

The end of the Goons

Peter Sellers was the first Goon to be "deaded", as his character Bluebottle would put it, at the young age of 54 in 1980. Michael Bentine died in 1996. Harry Secombe died in 2001, much to Milligan's relief, as he didn't want Secombe to sing at his, Milligan's, funeral (though he did anyway, through a recording); and Milligan himself in 2002.

References

1. Under the Influence of the Goons (HTML). FIREZINE #4. Firesign Theatre (Winter 1997/98). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.
2. BBC Radiophonic Workshop#Sound effects and music contributions
3. (Nov 1997) "Harry Secombe's Story", in Farnes, Norma (ed.): The Goons: The Story. London: Virgin Publishing, pg.96. ISBN 1-85227-679-7. “... people used to fight to get in there, fight to get tickets for the recording at the Camden Theatre” 
4. Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). "Goonography", The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books, pp. 137, 147, 151. ISBN 0-903895-64-1.
5. Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). "The Birth of the Goons", The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books, pg.37. ISBN 0-903895-64-1. “...one puzzled planner was heard to ask, 'What is this "Go On Show" people are talking about?” 
6. Milligan, Spike [1973] (1974). "Interview", More Goon Show Scripts. London: Sphere Books, pg.13. ISBN 0-7221-6077-1. “Goon. What's a Goon? D'you mean The Coon Show...?” 
7. (1997) "Spike Milligan's Story", in Farnes, Norma (ed.): The Goons: The Story. London: Virgin Publishing, pg.48. ISBN 1-85227-679-7. 
8. Secombe, Harry (1975). "Goon Away - Try Next Door", Goon For Lunch. London: M. and J. Hobbs. ISBN 0-7181-1273-3. 
9. (Nov 1997) "Eric Sykes' Story", in Farnes, Norma (ed.): The Goons: The Story. London: Virgin Publishing, pgs.161,168. ISBN 1-85227-679-7. “p161 ... The Goon Show was a new departure in comedy ... seemingly free-form style of humour ... p168 ... presented scenes of seemingly uncontrolled anarchy” 
10. Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). "A Quartet of Goons", The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books, pg.44. ISBN 0-903895-64-1. “Sound effects were 'a knock on the door and tramps on gravel' - that was it and I tried to transform it” 
11. Spike Milligan: His Part In Our Lives
12. Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). "Ringmaster: Peter Eton", The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books, pg.48. ISBN 0-903895-64-1. “...Milligan's nervous trouble, which had been getting worse all through the 2nd series, finally blew up into a full-scale nervous breakdown and he went into hospital ...” 
13. Farnes, Norma (1997). The Goons: The Story. London: Virgin Publishing Ltd., pg.115. ISBN 1-85227-679-7. 
14. Sellers, Michael (1981). "Marriage and Stardom", P.S. I Love You: Peter Sellers 1925-1980. London: Collins, pg.39. ISBN 0-00-216649-6. 
15. The Goons: The Story
16. the Goon Show: Information From Answers.com. encyclodictionalmanacapedia. Answers Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-08-05. “The three main performers proving that comedy doesn't need to be smutty to be funny”
17. Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). "The Birth of the Goons", The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books, pg.25. ISBN 0-903895-64-1. “His early experiences of life bred in him a detestation of officialdom and the establishment in general” 
18. Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). "The Method in the Madness", The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books, pg.78. ISBN 0-903895-64-1. “The object of the exercise was to slip a dirty joke into the script in such a way that it was either not obvious, or else couldn't be objected to.” 
19. Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). "Produced by Pat Dixon", The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books, pg.62. ISBN 0-903895-64-1. “Possibly the cast's brandy-and-milk in the back room had a little to do with it (those cries of 'round the back for the old brandy' before the musical items are not there just for effect!).” 
20. Milligan, Spike (1982). The Goon Cartoons, Clarke, Pete (illus.), London: M & J Hobbs. ISBN 0-7181-2200-3. 
21. Milligan, Spike (1983). More Goon Cartoons, Clarke, Pete (illus.), London: M & J Hobbs. ISBN 0-7181-2200-3. 
22. (Jun 1999) "Take Off", in Morgan, David (ed.): Python Speaks. New York: Harper Paperbacks, pg. 72. ISBN 0-380-80479-4. “p72 ... MacNAUGHTON: . . . they [Monty Python] loved Milligan. MORGAN: Python Would not have been what it was had it not been for The Goon Show . . . MacNAUGHTON: Precisely. But would The Goon Show have been what it was were it not for the Marx Brothers?” 

See also

• Monty Python
• The Milligan Papers - A BBC Radio comedy from 1987, often called "A Goon Show For The 80s."
• Goon Show Preservation Society

Bibliography

• (Nov 1997) in Farnes, Norma (ed.): The Goons: The Story. London: Virgin Publishing. ISBN 1-85227-679-7.  — includes chapters from Milligan, Secombe & Sykes. Sellers & Bentine were excused due to being deaded.
• Wilmut, Roger; Jimmy Grafton (1976). The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography. London: Robson Books. ISBN 0-903895-64-1.  — remains the definitive book on the series

External links

• The Goon Show on BBC7 – Plays shows online once a week (see their Monday schedule)
• Goon Show Preservation Society – UK
• Goon Show Preservation Society – USA
• The Goon Show Site – Contains downloads, pictures, collectables, cast, characters and much more
• Goon Show Depository – Fan site with good Goon Show discussion forum
• The Goon Show Archive
• The Goon Show YAQ: Google Usenet archive
• The Goon Show – Some of the scripts: +50 scripts available for download
• the alt.fan.goons newsgroup exists to discuss the Goon show and Goon-related things
• The Goonlog – a Goonish weblog by Wayne Stewart. Contains polls, guess this sound clip competitions and find links to shows.
• The Goon Show – A Quick Guide – An introduction to Spike Milligan's revolutionary radio show, with audio clips.
• Fabcat – Webcast, plays episodes of The Goon Show continuously.

v • d • e The Goons
Michael Bentine • Spike Milligan • Harry Secombe • Peter Sellers
Other Contributors	Dick Emery • Kenneth Connor • Valentine Dyall • George Chisholm • Ray Ellington • Max Geldray • Wallace Greenslade • Dennis Main Wilson • Charlotte Mitchell • Larry Stephens • Wally Stott • Eric Sykes • Andrew Timothy
Radio and TV Series	The Goon Show • The Telegoons
Films	Let's Go Crazy • Penny Points to Paradise • Down Among the Z Men • The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn • The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
Characters	Cast members and their Characters • Major Bloodnok • Bluebottle • Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister • Eccles • Hercules Grytpype-Thynne • Count Jim Moriarty • Neddie Seagoon
General information	Episodes and archiving • Running Jokes