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December has arrived and, for our members, the December issue of Goon Show News will arrive soon too.

Highlights this quarter include a look at the Radio Series Danger! Men at Work! which was an influence on the formation of the Goons, and memories of Spike Milligan by Bexhill journalist John Dowling. There’s lots more too, see the list of contents below.

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The newsletter is published quarterly and sent to all of our members. If you’re not getting it, why not join the GSPS. You won’t be disappointed.

Time appears to be running out for the Goon Shows which have been available to stream from the BBC Sounds website for years. It’s a great resource, used by many Goon Show lovers, and if it ends it will be missed by many.

Most programmes on BBC Sounds are available for 30 days after broadcast, but other shows for which the BBC holds rights have been made available for longer. This has applied to the Goon Show, and there are currently 104 episodes listed as available at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes.

Until recently, the time the 104 shows were to be available for was listed as ‘more than a year’ and seemed endless. However, they’re all showing as available for only four months now, and counting. That countdown is due to reach zero at the end of next March.

When the Vintage Goons series was aired for the first time on Radio 4 Extra, nearly a year ago, those shows were treated differently and only got the standard 30 days availability.

What will happen if the availability ends? As far as we can tell, only four shows will be available at any time, during the 30-day period after they’re played on the regular Tuesday Radio 4 Extra slot. Listeners who have downloaded shows within the Sounds app to listen offline will have those disappear on the expiry date too. This is the situation if you fancy listening to, for example, a Navy Lark.

It’s not just the Goon Show which will be lost. The Hancock’s Half Hour‘ show’s are on a countdown too.

What are the alternatives if this comes to pass? The GSPS would of course recommend that members invest in a copy of Encyclopedia Goonicus which includes more recordings than you can imagine. However, if you want the convenience of streaming, collections of Goon Shows are available on the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and various other online locations of varied legitimacy

But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that and the BBC resets the expiry dates.

For those who take an interest in these things, Spike Milligan Productions have a new Instagram account where a fascinating selection of Spike related content is being posted.

Take a look at www.instagram.com/spikemilliganproductions/

The P in GSPS stands for Preservation, and part of our reason for existing is to collect and save original material relating to the Goon Show. Until now, our collection of material has been lovingly kept by society members, but this isn’t sustainable in the long term.

We’re delighted, therefore, to be upping our preservation game by entering into a partnership with The Borthwick Institute for Archives, part of the University of York, which is renowned for its expertise in archival preservation and in making historical records accessible to everyone.

At the GSPS annual meeting in September, our guest speaker was Gary Brannan, whose job title is Keeper of Archives and Special Collections at the Borthwick Institute. Gary described the facilities the Borthwick has for storing items and making them available for viewing. He also talked about some of the archives it already holds, from the likes of Barry Took and Frankie Howerd.

Gary is very enthusiastic about this project as, it turns out, he’s a big Goon Show fan too. At the meeting, we had a quiz and a reading of The Jet Propelled Guided NAAFI script, and Gary played his part in both.

The next tasks will be to gather the material which is being stored by our members around the country and transfer it to York where it can be safely stored.

There’s more information on this in the article in our recently issued newsletter no 186, and see also the Borthwick Institute website.

This year’s GSPS annual meeting will be held on Saturday, 14th September at
AVENUE HOUSE at STEPHENS HOUSE & GARDENS
17 EAST END ROAD, FINCHLEY,
LONDON N3 3QE

PROGRAMME*
• 10am – Arrivals with Tea & Coffee
Introduction by Richard and summary of AGM Voting and Minutes Discussion
• 11am – The Big Goon Quiz with Prizes including the new Goon Show News book!
• 12.30 – LUNCH BREAK…round the back for the old brandy!
• 1.30pm – Presentation with Gary Brannan from the University of York Borthwick Institute of Archives
• 2.30pm – Goon Show Script Read (just for fun folks!)
• 3.30pm – Screening of Spike’s Holiday Home Movie followed by various Goon related bits & pieces
• 4.30pm – Farewells and Custard Pie Throwing
*Subject to change and the whims and wishes of…well, everyone!

CAFE ON-SITE for coffee, tea and lunches.
BY BUS
Buses 13, 125, 143, 460 and 326 stop nearby.
BY UNDERGROUND
Nearest underground station: Finchley Central on the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line. On leaving the station walk up to Regents Park Road, turn left and, at the a504 junction, turn left again into East End Road. The house is on the left.

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The September edition of Goon Show News is being pushed through letterboxes. It’s a hefty 40 pages, and it left a dent when it hit my floor.

Among the articles, there’s:
an appreciation of Telegoons’ puppeteer Ann Perrin who passed away in May,
exciting news about preservation of the GSPS’ archives,
an origin story about Minnie Bannister,
the story of Spike Milligan growing up (as told in the 1969 Judy for Girls annual!)
and lots more interesting history.

The newsletter is published quarterly and sent to all of our members. If you’re not getting it, why not join the GSPS. You won’t be disappointed.

Sad news has reached us at the GSPS of the passing of Ann Perrin on 24th May this year.

Many members will be aware of Ann’s involvement with the Goons as one of the puppeteers who made the Telegoons films.
Others will remember Ann’s attendance at several GSPS London meetings, usually accompanied by her Eccles puppet. Or her story, as part of Telegoons issues of our newsletters. Indeed, she had been due to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Telegoons at our meeting last September, only to be thwarted by a rail strike.

Our condolences go to Robin and all the family.

Take a look at Anne’s websites – blog – puppethouse – YouTube – to get a flavour of her puppetry, poetry and much more

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Anne’s funeral will be at 1pm on Monday 17th June 2024 at the Downs Crematorium in Brighton, followed by a celebration of her amazing life at The Downs Hotel in Woodingdean.

A date has been set for The Annual Gathering!
14th September, 2024
Gather at 10.00am and enjoy the meeting until about 5.00pm.

As a trial this year, there’s a slight change in procedure.
It’s not being called the AGM any more, which means that the annual casting of votes and hunt for persons to take up committee positions is being taken online and will take place prior to the September meeting. The results will probably still be announced at the meeting and formally minuted.
If you don’t think we have your email address, please send it in.

The venue is the same as the last couple of years, Stephens House and Gardens, Finchley, where you can sit and have a chat with a bronze Spike Milligan and share his bench. We shall also ask whether his daughters might be available to show you around ‘The Lodge’ and Spike’s archives rescued from his offices in Bayswater.

Speakers etc to be announced in September issue.

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Saturday 14th September 2024, 10:00am to 5:00pm
in the Stephens Room at Stephens House and Gardens,
Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Lunch is available to buy at Inky’s Stables Café on the premises.

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June has arrived and, right on time, the June issue of the GSPS newsletter is arriving in our members’ letterboxes, mailboxes and wherever else they like to keep it.

It’s a bumper 40 page issue with articles on the Windmill Theatre, the Goonist Movement, Wallace Greenslade, various bits of news, and a super new strip cartoon – The Adventures of Seagoon! – by Hunt Emerson and Ian Fraser.

The newsletter is published quarterly and sent to all of our members. If you’re not getting it, why not join the GSPS. You won’t be disappointed.

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