The Goon Show Preservation Society
Over 50 years of bearing a torch and a sockful of custard for the most innovative radio comedy of all time!
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.
In the late 1970’s, Spike Milligan toured his one-man show around the world. Twice. Spike Milligan Productions will be recreating those performances in Finchley on Thursday 28th May, the 75th anniversary of the first Goon Show broadcast.
Jeremy Stockwell recreates that evening of unique, absurd, surreal flights of fancy. Featuring stories, poems, gags, and Goonery; expect a roller-coaster ride through the life of Spike; a homage to the man who defined a golden age of British comedy.
Jeremy Stockwell, renowned for his brilliant and multi-layered embodiment of Spike, will once more conjure this iconic legend. Jeremy will be joined by Spike’s daughter Jane and the very talented Matthew Deveraux on keys. Together they will perform some previously unheard songs composed by Spike.
The venue is Avenue House at Stephens House and Gardens, N3 3QE. There will be afternoon and evening performances on 28th May. Tickets cost £22.50 and are available here.
Spike Milligan Productions are also celebrating Spike’s birthday on 16th April with guided tours of the archive at Stephens House. Tickets are available here.
The Tuesday Goon Show slot on BBC Radio 4 Extra has reached the tenth and final series. (Hopefully they’ll loop round to some earlier shows next.) With that comes what will be the first time two of the episodes have been aired on any BBC channel since their original broadcasts in January 1960.
Getting their 4 Extra debuts will be The Chinese Legs on 31st March and Robin’s Post on 7th April.
They’ll be available to stream for 30 days after broadcast on BBC Sounds (for the UK audience) here
For the obsessives among us, other regular series episodes for which recordings exist still waiting for their Radio 4 Extra debuts are:
05/12 – Dishonoured, or the Fall of Neddie Seagoon
05/13 – Forog
05/26 – The End (Secret Senna-pod Drinker)
06/12 – The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu-Manchu
06/13 – The Lost Year
06/15 – The Hastings Flyer–Robbed
08/11 – The Stolen Postman
(all but Dishonoured have never been repeated on the BBC)
Grytpype-Thynne: Good news Moriarty, the March issue of Goon Show News has been posted out to the membership.
Moriarty: Sapristi Grytpype, it’s still only February, or if you’re in the Chateau D’If, nous ne sommes qu’en février. The GSPS are spoiling us…
Issue 192, the March edition of the GSPS newsletter, is indeed on it way to our members, on paper and PDF.
This edition has two major stories. There’s an appreciation of Goon Show scriptwriter and GSPS Honorary President John Antrobus, who passed away in December at the age of 92, and the cheerier confirmation that King Charles III is continuing to be the patron of the GSPS.
We also look at music in the Goon Shows, a mystery from the first ever Goon Show (aka Crazy People) episode, and consider Spike’s contributions to The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine and the early TV programme Secombe Here. Plus there are many more snippets filling the pages.
The clickable Kick up the Archives feature from this issue is here.
The Goon Show News newsletter/magazine thingy 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 join the GSPS. You won’t be disappointed.
The Goon Show Preservation Society is going to be represented again at the Talking Pictures Festival of Film & TV Roadshow. This latest one is being held in St Albans on the weekend of 21st and 22nd March.
Our involvement will be on the Sunday, when we’ll have our manned and womaned stand on-site. Come and have a chat with us.
Also, that day’s programme will include a screening of a newly restored recording of the 1968 Thames TV production of ‘Tales of Men’s Shirts‘. It features Spike, Peter and Harry performing the script, with John Cleese acting as announcer and our old friend John P Hamilton on the effects table. Introductions will be made by our Acting Chairperson Richard Usher and Honorary President Jane Milligan.
Apart from that, Talking Pictures TV have organised a very full and exciting two day programme of speakers, celebrities and shows.
For more info and to book, call 0808 178 8212 or follow this link.
Excellent news has reached us from across the oceans. New Zealand’s Goons fans, new and old, are going to be entertained by another show produced in Dunedin by Harry Almey and SillyBilly Productions.
They’re following up their performance of Foiled by President Fred last August with two more classic episodes, which audiences are guaranteed to love. There’s The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler (of Bexhill-on-Sea), which was a great hit when it was performed by Penrith Players in the UK last year, and the Christmas panto-style show Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest.
The performances are part of Dunedin Festival Fringe and will be on stage at the Allen Hall Theatre, 90 Union Street, North Dunedin, from 13th to 15th March.
More details and book tickets here
We’re excited and delighted that a book just been published which brings stories from the world of the Goons in the 1950s. The book is A Lifetime in Television, it’s the memoirs of Marjorie Graham.
The book is published by Kaleidoscope Publishing. It’s currently available as a hardback here on LULU. (see hint below)
Marjorie Graham? I hear many of you ask. To have her introduce herself, here’s an excerpt from an article she wrote under her maiden name of Sullivan for Girl Film and Television Annual in 1957.
I remember several years ago, when I was leaving school, wanting to do work that was unusual and out-of-the-ordinary, but I never imagined my Boss would turn to me one day and ask me to find an elephant from somewhere and arrange to transport it. Neither did I imagine during my normal working hours I would ever be seated in the rear of a 1934 taxi with my Boss grimly clutching what was left of a steering wheel as we chugged slowly across a cricket pitch. But now, after a few years as a Television Production Assistant I find that these and many other similar happenings are all part and parcel of the daily work.
Since joining one of the London Independent Television Companies, I have been working in the Light Entertainment Department on many shows, including the Peter Sellers & Spike Milligan ‘Fred’ series and the Tommy Cooper series, and – on looking back, I can’t think of any career which could be more out of the ordinary.
Marjorie wrote that piece in 1957 to encourage girls into the Film and TV industry. (The article was reproduced in full in the September 2022 issue of Goon Show News, if you’re interested.)
Marjorie has been a great supporter of the GSPS over the years. Her contributions include a talk she gave at the Son of a Weekend Called Fred meeting we held in Brighton in 1997. She has also provided insights to the, largely lost, TV programmes which involved the Goons in the mid 50s. Not least, she provided copies of the scripts for an episode of A Show Called Fred, four episodes of Son of Fred, four episodes of The Idiot Weekly Price 2d, an episode of Yes, It’s the Cathode Ray Tube Show and a show called After Hours (starring Michael Bentine).
For a taste of what to expect, GSPS members will find the December 2021 issue of Goon Show News included a transcript of Marjorie’s talk at our 1997 meeting.
hint: Its suggested that if you’re going to buy a copy, log in to the site first and create an account. Pause… You’ll be sent a code for 10% off and two quid is two quid. Then you can go back in and buy your book.
Happy New Year everybody. To begin the year, we have excellent news to share in the form of the following press release:
Our “Highly Esteemed” organisation has received its own version of a New Year’s Honour in the shape of a communication confirming that His Majesty The King would be delighted to retain Patronage of The Goon Show Preservation Society.
We are overjoyed that His Majesty continues to honour us with the Royal Patronage he bestowed upon us as the former Prince of Wales. It is well documented that His Majesty has been a lifelong aficionado of
The Goon Show and a friend and admirer of the principal stars of the series, Sir Spike Milligan, Sir Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine.
The Goon Show Preservation Society was created in 1972 following a performance of The Last Goon Show of All for the BBCs 50th anniversary celebrations. Famously, the then Prince of Wales was unable to attend the recording, which was, however, attended by Prince Philip and Princess Anne. A telegram was despatched and read out by announcer Andrew Timothy:
“One of your most devoted fans is enraged at the knowledge he is missing your last performance. Last night my hair fell out and my knees dropped off, having turned green with envy at the thought of my father and my sister attending the show. One day, perhaps, you will find time to give a performance to a shipful of Seagoons.”
The GSPS is not simply a humble fan club, oh no! The clue is in the society’s name, a remit to preserve anything associated with a radio series that began life as Crazy People in May, 1951, and quite literally changed the landscape of British comedy for generations to come. As devotees of this groundbreaking radio comedy show, the membership of the GSPS has collected and collated a mass of items including scripts, photographs, rare film reels and even a typewriter. Much of the society’s archive is now deposited with the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, while we continue to seek out rare items and safeguard all things Goon.
In addition to our Royal Patronage, the society is proud to have as honorary presidents, Spike Milligan’s daughters, Silé and Jane Milligan, who look after their father’s archive and perpetuate his legacy through Spike Milligan Productions Ltd.
For more information or to join our merry band, please browse this website and follow the ‘join us’ link.
GREENSLADE: I would just like to mention that the Radio Times is now on sale at all book stores, price thruppence. Three copper coins, mark you.
Yes Wal, but the latest price on the newsstands is £5.50. Compare that to the value of a year’s membership of the GSPS, with which you get four issues of Goon Show News.
And with that short diversion, we regret to announce that the time has come for the GSPS annual membership fees to go up. They’ve been held at the old level since 2014, but rising postage costs have to be accounted for.
So, the following prices will come into force at New Year 2026:
Electronic Membership: will rise to £9
Standard Membership: will rise to £14
Overseas Membership: will rise to £18
A Very Merry Christmas to everyone from the Goon Show Preservation Society.
If you’re looking to pass some time over the festive season, have a go at the quizzes which were set for this year’s annual meeting. There’s the Great Multiple Choice Quiz and the Peter Sellers Picture Quiz.
Also new to the website and worth a read is a transcript from a 1996 GSPS meeting known as An Evening Called Fred. John Browell talked about his days as producer of series 9 and 10, The Last Goon Show Of All, and later jobs with Spike and Peter. Brian Wiley remembered working with Peter, while John P Hamilton described the making of A Show Called Fred for TV and told a funny blooper story featuring Wallace Greenslade.
And, BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Tuesday Goon Show slot this week features the 1956 panto style episode Robin Hood, featuring Valentine Dyall and Dennis Price. This is a show which was recorded for overseas use and it wasn’t actually aired by the BBC until 1988. UK listeners can stream it here from Tuesday.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 