Category: Uncategorized

Our own Neddie Seagoon returns to the airwaves this month in a newly rediscovered and restored recording. It’s an episode of Hancock’s Half Hour which was originally broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 10^th May 1955.

The history is that, as the second series was about to begin, Tony Hancock fled to Italy while suffering “nervous exhaustion”. The producer, Dennis Main Wilson (of Goon Show series 1 and 2 fame) turned to Harry Secombe to fill in for Hancock, a stint which lasted for three episodes. Hancock came back before the show was renamed ‘Secombe’s Half Hour’ and in the fourth episode ‘A Visit to Swansea‘ Hancock goes to Swansea to thank Harry for filling in. This is the episode which has been rediscovered.

Sadly, no original recordings exist of the other three episodes which starred Harry Secombe. However, they were remade in 2017 for the Missing Hancock’s series, with Andy Secombe playing the part of his dad.
Those 2017 recordings are available to listen to here on BBC Sounds.

The recovered and restored ‘A Visit to Swansea‘ will make its debut on BBC Radio 4 Extra at 6.15pm on Sunday 12^th May, introduced by our friends from the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. It’s part of five hours of programming on that evening to celebrate the centenary of Tony Hancock’s birth.
Link to the newly restored show on BBC Sounds

March 10^th this year marked the centenary of the birth of the Goon Show’s musical maestro, Angela Morley, born as Wally Stott in 1924.

In the latest issue of Goon Show News, we ran a tribute to mark the occasion.

BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast the documentary Musical Variations: The Life of Angela Morley of 15^th March as a tribute. It’s available to stream from BBC Sounds using this link.

more on Wally Stott / Angela Morley

Since early in the days of the GSPS we’ve been aware that there was the Goonist Movement, a Goon Show fan club in the 1950s. However, apart from getting a glimpse of one newsletter years ago, no one had ever tracked down any information. And yes, we did try using Google….

In a last ditch effort, a GSPS investigation team placed notices in the GSPS newsletter and this website last year, asking if anyone had information. The response was very slow to begin with, but eventually tip-offs flooded in at a rate of one.

Fortunately, that one turned out to be a good one. A gentleman named Ian Gilbert said he thought there might be some material buried in family keepsakes which he’d inherited from older relatives. That material turned out to be a full set of the Movement’s newsletters. Ian was good enough to allow our chief investigator, Chris Smith, to make scanned copies of them.

It turns out that this fan club was formed in January 1956 by a lady called Rayna Allen and friends. They had some success and were in contact with the Goons. Monthly newsletters were distributed and there was some access to tickets for show recordings. Sadly, running the club through the communications technology of the 1950s appears to have become too much, and it came to an end by the end of that year.

Scanned copies of the Goonist Movement newsletters are being added to the GSPS Digital Archive and the full story will appear in the next issue of Goon Show News. We’re greatly obliged to Ian Gilbert for his help in filling this blank in the history of The Goon Show.

The first of our newsletters of 2024 is being delivered.

The contents include Tyler Adams on how he started the ever wonderful GoonPod podcast, features on Wally Stott and Roger Wilmut and a look at the Goon Show revival performance at Birmingham Comedy Festival.

All this and there’s more, check the Goontents list below.

See what you’re missing if you’re not a GSPS member? Think about joining today.

BBC Radio 4 Extra airs one Goon Show per week, played in three time slots on a Tuesday. That much is old news. What’s new is that, for the first time, they’re using episodes from the Vintage Goons series.

The first show in the series, The Mummified Priest, was played on 29^th November, and more shows from the series are queued for the next few weeks.

The Vintage Goons shows were fresh recordings of updated Series 4 scripts, taped on the same nights as Series 8 shows in 1957 and 58. They were intended to be used for overseas sales (the Canadians were particularly keen), not for UK broadcast at that time. Within a year however, many had aired on the BBC Home Service as the public demanded more Goons.

There was an exception to this, and a favourite Goon Show trivia question is about to be ruined.
“Which Goon Show episode has never been broadcast in the UK?”
The answer was the third of the series, The Missing 10 Downing Street. That show is best remembered perhaps as being featured on an abridged version with a fake stereo effect on the EMI release The Very Best of the Goons in 1974.
It’s going to be broadcast on R4x on Tuesday 12^th December, starting at 8am.

After broadcast, the shows are being added to and should continue to be available for 30 days for streaming through BBC Sounds. Whether they’ll remain available after that, like other Goon Show episodes, remains to be seen.

Links
Vintage Goons series listing
BBC Sounds – the Vintage Goons series streams

ATTENTION PLEASE!

Following the long service of our chairman, John Repsch, he has decided to take a break and pass the chair to somebody else.

We need your help!
We need a new chairperson to help steer the Society towards its main goal, to keep The Goon Show fresh and alive in people’s minds and habits and to spread the word to the world.
We need to keep the pressure on the BBC to broadcast shows, appeal to the public for more lost audio treasures, perhaps encourage theatre groups to perform scripts of shows the BBC no longer holds recordings of, and to help build our archive of everything Goon.
In addition, we need to keep membership growing, and to find a long-term solution regarding our archive.

If you are attracted by this role, please let the Secretary know. Alternatively, if you’d be interested in the secretary role, get in touch anyway. A reshuffle of roles could well be possible [Contact Form]
Please briefly outline your history with the Society and The Goon Show, and your ideas to ensure the GSPS thrives and fulfils its central aim to: ‘… perpetuate enjoyment of The Goon Show among its members and the wider public, by increasing their knowledge and awareness of The Goon Show, including its pleasures and its place in entertainment history.’

It’s your society, so why not become part of the team that runs it?

Please…
and thank you.

Regards, Richard Usher
Secretary (Acting Chairperson), GSPS

Birmingham is celebrating its connection with the Goon Show scriptwriter Larry Stephens this week. Larry was born in the West Midlands 100 years ago.

On 3^rd October, local radio station Switchradio.co.uk broadcast a new documentary in which James Sandy explored Larry’s life. It’s available to listen to on their catch-up service here.

Also part of Birmingham Comedy Festival, as previously reported, two 1958 Goon Show scripts which were written by Larry Stephens and Maurice Wiltshire will be performed at Symphony Hall on Sunday 8^th October. An addition to Larry’s biographer Julie Warren and the cast of Richard Usher (Sellers), Mark Earby (Milligan) and Jimm Rennie (Seagoon) who were already announced, local broadcaster Ian Dander has been added to take on the Wallace Greenslade announcer role.
Follow this link for tickets.

More about Julie Warren’s biography of Larry Stephens

Our annual meeting took place at Stephens House and Gardens, Finchley, on 30^th September. Unfortunately it coincided with a rail strike, which restricted the number of members who could make it.

One pleasing note from the AGM was that membership of the GSPS has risen by about 25% since last year, which is encouraging. The other notable point is that John Repsch has stood down as Chairman. John has been filling that role since 2004, and deserves all of our thanks for his contribution over those 19 long years, and indeed from before then too.

Clearly we can’t go too long without having a replacement chair, so if anyone thinks they could contribute to the post, or knows someone who could, please contact the Secretary.

---

We’re particularly grateful to Associated London Scripts stalwart Brad Ashton, who braved the traffic and spent the afternoon talking to us about his life in comedy. Brad has been our guest several times before and, at the age of 92 he was still on great form. No matter which comedy performer’s name we brought up, Brad came in with anecdotes about them. He had stories to tell about Spike Milligan, Groucho Marx, Dick Emery, Ernie Wise, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd, Tony Hancock, Terry Thomas and many more.