BBC Radio 4 Extra’s regular Tuesday Goon Show slot is on the verge of competing it’s run through the series. It reaches the end of the Vintage Goons series with The Albert Memorial episode on 28th July, and that will be followed with The Last Goon Show Of All on 4th August.
What’s coming after that is a run of the six part The Milligan Papers series from Radio 4 in 1987. It starts on 11th August with The Incredible Case of the Vanishing Flying Scotsman.
The series was written by John Antrobus. It starred Spike Milligan, with John Bluthal, Chris Langham, John Antrobus and George Chisholm leading his Gentlemen of Jazz.
These shows are available for 30 days after they are broadcast on BBC Sounds. Streaming BBC radio shows on catch-up is no longer available outside the UK. There is still a live stream here.
The popular Telegoons puppet TV series was seen on BBC TV between 1963 and 1965.
When production ceased, some of the studio puppets were given as gifts to friends, whilst others were exhibited in the popular Nellie McQueens restaurant in Sunbury on Thames until that restaurant ceased trading in 1992.
At that time, those restaurant puppets were also given away to well known customers and friends of David Young (brother of Tony Young, who co-founded and produced the series).
Where are they now?
The Goon Show Preservation Society (established 1972) is making one last effort to gather in stories of any of the individual puppets themselves, from the people who were given them (or their families), to add to our extensive documentary Encyclopedia Goonicus project.
Please use this form to send any information which might help
The GSPS will be represented again at the next Talking Pictures TV Festival of Film and TV Roadshow. This time it’s in the Midlands, on Sunday 13th September at the Redditch Palace Theatre.
Hopefully we’ll have our stand where visitors can come and chat to us, and maybe even buy stuff. And not only that, our own Richard Usher will be appearing on stage performing a couple of Goon-style sketches which were originally written for Peter Sellers by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
And not only only that, Richard will be overshadowed on stage by a lady with a Goon Show connection. The legendary actress Britt Ekland, once married to Peter Sellers of course, is topping the bill.
For more information about who else is appearing, and how to get tickets, visit renownfilms.co.uk.
Last September, the author Stephen Palmer came to the GSPS Annual Gathering and told us about the book he was busy writing, The Goons Go To Africa. The book is now set to be published later this year.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first Goon Show broadcast, he has released this preview of the Hunt Emerson designed front cover.
In the book, Stephen evokes the trials, losses, victories and success of The Goon Show using its own techniques. He imagines the men of the show, including those, like Jimmy Grafton, Larry Stephens, John Snagge and the irrepressible, remarkable Wallace Greenslade, who both supported Milligan and acted as the framework in which his genius flourished. This is no dry history of great times in radio broadcasting, this is the book of the show.
The first new book proper on The Goon Show for thirty years.
Tells the story of the main comic actors in vivid narrative format.
Follows the entire history of the show and through it interrogates the nature of humour.
Celebrates the legacy of the show through the use of its unique narrative form.
Includes the stories of Goon Show associates less well known to the general public.
Update The book is now available for pre-order from the publishers Pen and Sword Books. click here for more.
Spike and Steve
Stephen Palmer is a professionally published author of thirty years, whose work has garnered much acclaim in genre, independent and national press. His books have encompassed SF, Steampunk, and in narrative non-fiction Music and Anthropology. He first discovered The Goon Show in his teens, where they had been lurking for a while. Now a mature adult in his sixties, he likes peace and love, laughter, and Spon. He lives in south Shropshire, but can often be found tramping the woods of north Herefordshire thinking green thoughts.
The first Goon Show was broadcast on the BBC Home Service on 28th May 1951.
Hello Folks! Calling Folks! Are you celebrating the 75th anniversary of our beloved show in style?
Sadly, it wasn’t possible to get an actual Goon Show arranged to celebrate the milestone (oh we tried folks, we really tried…), but there should be plenty going on to commemorate it in other ways.
One way the GSPS is celebrating the day is with the publication of the new (seventh) edition of Encyclopaedia Goonicus, our archive collection of documents and recordings which we make available to paid-up members of the society.
There’s also a new 75th Anniversary page on the website looking at some stories from that 1951 broadcast.
And to celebrate the anniversary, there’s a special discount offer on our membership fee to those of you who might be persuaded to join our society.
On yesterday’s episode of GoonPod, Tyler Adams marked the anniversary with six Goon Show fans having a round table discussion about our favourite show Find it on your usual podcast source or try here if you don’t have one.
I will be taking to the stage at the TPTV event in September with two performances of some long-forgotten Galton and Simpson mini–Goon Shows, and the mighty Hambledon Productions will soon be touring the UK with The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town.
Looking ahead, this year’s Annual Gathering will be taking place at Stephens House & Gardens in Finchley on Saturday 10th October, and we hope to see lots of you there.
A message from our editor has arrived. It says he’s been visited by the nice lady in her red van. What does that mean? You can imagine what you like, we choose to think that the June issue of the GSPS newsletter has entered the postal system, and it’ll be delivered to our members once they’ve found the Stolen Postman*.
In this newsletter issue, we’re celebrating the 75th Anniversary of our beloved radio show first hitting the airwaves. And there’s more than anniversary talk, just look at the crowded contents list above.
The Goon Show News newsletter is published quarterly and sent to all of our members. A sample copy can be downloaded here. If you’re not getting it, why not take advantage of the special offer now on and join the GSPS. You won’t be disappointed.
* A postman hasn’t really been stolen. It’s an attempted humorous reference to a Goon Show episode.
It’s time to get your tickets for the UK stage tour of The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town.
The work was written by Spike Milligan and Ronnie Barker. It was originally conceived to be a Goon Show revival project, however, Peter, Harry and Spike couldn’t get together at the time.
Many will remember the Phantom from its serialisation on The Two Ronnies TV show. Actually that was 50 years ago, so many more might not.
For those who don’t remember, it’s a Victorian London set spoof on the Jack the Ripper story. With the Milligan and Barker connection, expect surreal absurdism, clever puns, near-the-knuckle ribaldry, quick-fire jokes and wordplay.
Hambledon Productions, the theatre company which specialises in vintage comedy, have adapted the show and are touring it from September to November this year. Details of the tour and tickets are on the Hambledon Productions website.
A celebration of 75 years of the Goon Show being held on 28th May has come to our attention.
It’s part of the regular monthly series of WAM (Words Art Music) events held in St. Elvan’s Church in Aberdare. In the words of the organisers: Join us for a WAM | Thursday Night Radio Play Special, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary (to the day Minn) of the first ever broadcast of the iconic Goon Show. Expect madness, mayhem – and more!
We’re delighted that, after a break of three months, Tyler Adams’ podcast Goon Pod started a new series on 1st April.
If you haven’t listened to Goon Pod before, and I know that won’t be many of you, it’s a weekly show which looks at various aspects of The Goon Show. It could be a specific episode from the radio show, the music, movies or other projects involving one or more of the cast, or even some celebrity guest who can talk about a connection. The new series has started with a look at a Peter Sellers film which is now 50 years old, The Return of the Pink Panther.
Goon Pod can be supported through Patreon, where Tyler produces Goon Pod Film Club for subscribers, looking at the wider world of comedy.
The wan Don who thinks he’s Don Juan – a Welsh librarian gets the seven-year-itch.This week writer Paul Whitelaw makes his first faltering steps into Goon Pod territory to talk about a favourite film: Only Two Can Play, directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Peter Sellers, Virginia Maskell and Mai Zetterling. Released barely a year before Sellers breasted the tape of international stardom with The Pink Panther, it is a delightfully quirky, darkly amusing tale based on a Kingsley Amis novel. Amis himself got caught up in the filming and was regularly present during the production; he and Sellers became friendly and tried to outdo each other in who could spin the filthiest yarn. This is the film where Sellers was beastly to Virginia Maskell throughout, suggesting she ‘couldn’t act for toffee’ and trying to get her fired. One cannot fault Sellers for his sound judgement, as Maskell went on to win a Bafta for her performance as Jean Lewis, down-trodden wife of the film’s antihero, provincial Welsh librarian John Lewis (Sellers). Lewis has a roving eye and soon gets caught up in a sort-of-affair with an influential councillor’s wife who is amused by him but clearly sees him as a temporary dalliance until someone else comes along. X-rated upon release and addressing issues and themes considered racy for the time, the film was very successful despite Sellers’ insistence that it would be a disaster. The Daily Post wrote: “What will surely be one of the year’s funniest comedies keeps its hero moral by accident… Peter Sellers has provided another rich character study, reflecting not only the hero’s obvious attitudes but the interior life from which they arise. In short, there is reality here as well as wit.”We discuss the film’s origins, the cast (including Richard Attenborough and Kenneth Griffith) and our favourite lines and scenes. Also: Bryan Forbes’ softened screenplay; how Sellers got ‘the voice’; the big deal they made about it in Swansea; Mai Zetterling and MI5; dirty Graham Stark; and the ghastliness of stag wallpaper.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first Goon Show broadcast in 1951, the GSPS will release a new, seventh, edition of Encyclopaedia Goonicus, on 28th May.
The Encyclopaedia gives access to the GSPS’s’s library of information and archive material in digital form on a memory stick. It’s available to paid up members of the society only.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 