Our own Richard Usher will be performing rare Goon Show-inspired scripts in York on the 8th of June. He’ll be bringing back to life sketches written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson for Peter Sellers to perform in Midday Music Hall in 1954. Midday Music Hall was a Saturday lunchtime show on the BBC Home Service, and Sellers was the ‘Resident Top of the Bill’ in October of that year.
The evening is part of the York Festival of Ideas, and it’s titled Innit Marvellous? The World of Hancock and Steptoe. The main feature will be Gary Brannan, the Keeper of Archives and Research Collections at the University of York, presenting an illustrated talk on the Galton and Simpson collection which was acquired by the University of York in 2024. The Sellers scripts were found in the collection.
Perhaps it’s of more interest to The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society and the Steptoe and Son Appreciation Society, but the Borthwick Institute at York houses the Goon Show Preservation Society archives too. We’re happy to lend support.
Admission to the event is free, but places have to be booked here.
The Borthwick Institute has ambitious plans for the Galton and Simpson archive. They’re fundraising to ensure that they can secure all of the material. If that’s something you can support, click here for more information
The Goon Show Preservation Society 