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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 . The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with Surreality , Pun s, catchphrases and an array of silly and surreal Sound Effect s. 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, Parody ing aspects of Showbusiness , Commerce , Industry , Art , Politics , Diplomacy , the Police , the Military , Education , Class Structure , Literature , Film and much more. 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 Catchphrase s 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 occasional collaboration of other writers including (singly) Eric Sykes , Larry Stephens , Maurice Wiltshire and John Antrobus , under the watchful eye of Jimmy Grafton (KOGVOS - Keeper of the Goons and Voice of Sanity). Many senior BBC staff were bemused by the show's surreal, left-field humour and it has been reported that senior programme executives erroneously referred to it as "The Go On Show" or even "The Coon Show". FORMAT The principal parts were performed by Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe , with Sellers and Milligan performing literally dozens of different characters. The first two seasons also featured Michael Bentine . The show also featured musical interludes by singer Ray Ellington and his quartet and virtuoso jazz harmonica player Max Geldray . A singing group called The Stargazers also performed, but left in the middle of the second series. The BBC announcer Wallace Greenslade provided spoken links as well as occasionally performing small roles in the scripts, usually as himself. One Goon Show sequence, from ''The Mysterious Punch-Up-The-Conker'', begins with Bluebottle (Sellers) asking 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. This idea appeared frequently in similar guises: pictures of money were accepted as currency, the word 'dinner' written on a piece of paper and eaten served as a full meal, and so on. Another episode, ''Lurgi Strikes Britain'', introduced the fictional malady of Lurgi , an invented word (sometimes also spelled "lurgey") which has survived into modern usage to mean any miscellaneous illness. In the episode, Grytpype Thynne and Moriarty (who, in the episode, sell Brass Band instruments) invent the disease, tell Ned Seagoon that the only known cure is to play a brass band instrument, and convince him to make a plea to the House Of Commons for millions of pounds to be spent on life-saving brass-band instruments, to be dropped over the affected areas. At the end of the Commons sequence, Sellers, as Winston Churchill , is heard to say to a fellow member of the Government front bench, "Give me an A, will you?".
Many of the memorable Sound Effects created for later programs featured innovative production techniques borrowed from the realm of '' Musique Concrète '', and used 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 side-splitting sound effects was the famous sequence created by the Radiophonic Workshop to represent the sound of Major Bloodnok's digestive system in action, and which included a variety of inexplicable gurgling and explosive noises. This also kept turning up on later comedy shows, and can even be heard on a track by The Orb . 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. The scripts did not so much break the Fourth Wall as demolish it. In one episode, ''The White Neddie Trade'', 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." In a later episode, Moriarty comments on the state of the story itself: "At last! found a plot!" Finally, Moriarty's character is introduced in an episode as he is recounting an actual conversation he had in the previous episode. Milligan even baited his audience by having a character ask them a question and having the sound of sheep bleating played back as their response. In another episode, ''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!" A third example comes from the episode ''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?1 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 led 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 knife. 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 surreal. 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 new car and asked Milligan for his help in locating an annoying squeak coming from the rear of the vehicle. Armed with a torch and a piece of chalk (for marking the location of the squeak) Milligan got into the boot and Sellers drove the car a few yards down the road. He was stopped by a policeman who, upon discovering Milligan in the boot merely nodded and said "Yes, I should have known it would be you!" and went on his way without further comment. REGULAR CAST MEMBERS OTHER MEMBERS
GUEST APPEARANCES
ARCHIVING Many of the earliest radio episodes no longer exist. Only two episodes from series 2 (1951-2) survive, and no episodes from either seasons one or three survive. Only selected episodes from series 4 were selected for preservation in the BBC Sound Archive, and some exist only as off-air copies made by fans at the time of the original broadcast. However, commencing with the start of series 5 ( 1954 ), BBC Transcription Services began making copies for overseas sales, and even commissioned re-recordings of some key series 4 episodes for the "Vintage Goons" series, which was mainly intended for overseas markets. Rather than making copies from the broadcast tapes, Transcription services made their own recordings simultaneous with the broadcast recordings in order to obtain the best possible sound quality. The TS copies were then edited to match the producer's cut of the broadcast tapes. The Transcription Services versions were then cut to remove topical and parochial material and anything that might be potentially offensive (and the Goon Show did feature quite a lot of politically incorrect humour, much of it sneaked under the noses of BBC censors). Later TS releases had further cuts for timing purposes. For many years these abridged versions were the only surviving copies of many episodes, but in recent years the BBC has done a huge amount of research to find and restore the missing footage, often literally from the cutting room floor. To date, the BBC has released 23 CD sets of these remastered episodes, containing 92 shows, plus ''The Last Goon Show of All'' and ''Goon Again''. Another 12 shows had been previously issued by EMI, but for contractual reasons these were all heavily cut to remove musical interludes and other music cues, and to this day they are the only commercially available versions of those particular episodes. Episodes of the Goon Show are still regularly broadcast in New Zealand and are still occasionally repeated on BBC Radio 2 or Radio 4 in the UK. More recently the show has become a regular feature on the digital radio station BBC 7 , which features both new material (much of it recognisably in a Goonish tradition) and archives from several decades of BBC comedy and drama. The ABC Radio National network in Australia has regularly broadcast the Goon Show since the 1960s . For many years, the series was broadcast every Saturday afternoon, just after the midday news bulletin. More recently, it was broadcast twice a week, on Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons. The network attempted to retire the series in January 2004 , feeling that it might have at last worn out its welcome; but a huge listener response proved them wrong, and broadcasts of the show resumed in the Friday timeslot in June of the same year. The ABC's broadcasts of the series have made the Goon Show one of the most repeated and longest-running of all radio programs. THE SOUND OF THE GOONS Alongside the musical intermissions provided by the Ray Ellington Quartet and Max Geldray , the Goon Show was famous 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. 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, various explosions, splashes, splatters, clatters, bangs, etc. 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. On one occasion, Milligan is reported to have filled a sock with custard from the BBC canteen in order to find a particular squelching noise. TRIVIA 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 Moriarity! Peter Sellers, as Grytpype-Thynne, usually pronounced the name of his henchman "Morry-arty" ( IPA : ). 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" (. 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 Spike Milligan, who would try to get the same effect with only three or four people. After some time, Harry 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". You rotten swine you! Bluebottle says this when something bad happens to him like being "deaded". Other Bluebottle catchphrases include: "I heard you call me, My Capitaine! " when entering, Variations of "Signals for Audience Applause...not a sausage", Variations of "Ooh! Licorice! I must be careful of how many of them I eat!", and, demonstrating his Freudian castration anxiety: "Harm can come to a growing lad like that!" You silly twisted boy! In the 5th series, Grytpype-Thynne says this to Neddie Seagoon in regard to his silly behaviour. In ''The White Box of Great Bardfield'', a running gag during the show is Seagoon's attempts to win a reward of ten shillings after being chained up by Ellington in the first scene; he has complete confidence in his ability to escape: after all, he is the son of Houdini!! Grytpype says the phrase after witnessing Neddie's long and agonising contortions. Ray Ellington himself gets to say this quote in the ''Sennapod Tea'' episode, and Grytpype also lets Greenslade say it (with permission) in ''The Six Ingots of Leadenhall Street''. It is also heard in ''China Story'', following Ned Seagoon's admission that he is the British ambassador. "The Little Grovelling..."
RUNNING JOKES
TIME WASTING Many episodes seemed to contain a great deal of time wasting. Some examples are below.
LATER REVIVALS 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 . However 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 Goons also had a considerable influence on the humour of The Beatles , and especially the writing of John Lennon . Interestingly, The Goons and The Beatles both worked considerably with record producer George Martin . '' 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). 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 . 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" (the first British record with the word "rock" in its title) and its B-side "The Ying Tong Song", which was reissued as an A-side in the mid- 1970s and became a surprise novelty hit. In the movies the following were a product of Goon activity:
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 on a CD. The last time all three Goons worked together was in 1978 when they recorded two new songs, "The Raspberry Song" and "Rhymes". Sellers died in 1980 , Secombe in 2001 , much to Milligan's relief, as he didn't want Secombe to sing at his, Milligan's, funeral; and Milligan himself in 2002 (Bentine had died in 1996 .) In 2001 the BBC recorded a "new" The Goon Show, ''Goon Again'', featuring Andrew Secombe (son of Harry), Jon Glover and Jeffrey Holland , with Christopher Timothy (son of Andrew Timothy) announcing, based on two unpreserved series 3 episodes from 1953, "The Story of Civilisation" and "The Plymouth Ho Armada", both written by Milligan and Stephens. 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. EPISODES ''See'': List Of Goon Show Episodes THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY Although the names, catch-phrases 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 {Link without Title} , 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 :
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. SEE ALSO
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