Here’s a challenge to fill a little time over the festive period. This quiz first appeared in our Newsletter no. 121. There were wonderful prizes to be won, but the closing date was 31st January 2008, so it’s too late to enter now.
How many can you get without checking Google, Bing, Ask Jeeves or the Encyclopaedia Goonicus? Make a note your answers, then check the answers page linked at the bottom of this page. How did you do?
1. Name the producer of the Ying Tong Song.
2. Who produced A Christmas Carol? (Besides Charles Dickens!)
3. In A Christmas Carol, what was the name of the character played by ‘Mate’?
4. Which Goon Show scriptwriter was born in 1923 and died in 1959?
5. George Martin was the producer for which record label?
6. Grytpype’s voice was inspired by that of which film actor?
7. With which street was a certain fireball associated?
8. Spike’s full name was . . .?
9. In which series did Eric Sykes collaborate?
10. What was the title of the Goons’ first attempt for an audition at the Beeb?
11. How many ingots were there in Leadenhall Street?
12. A song, which may well have been the inspiration for Monty Python’s Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, contains the phrase “When you’re standing on the gallows at the dreaded break of day”. Name it.
13. In which song does a character express dislike at being “drownded, nutted, deaded and wetted”?
14. Name the town in which Spike was born.
15. Ying Tong Song reached No.2 in the Top 20 in 1957. True or false?
16. Who wrote the Peter Sellers biography “the Mask behind the Mask”?
17. Who was born in Dan-y-graig Terrace?
18. Besides producing Goon Shows, Charles Chilton devised and wrote an anti-war musical called . . .
19. Name the series’ first announcer.
20. In which film is a priceless Ming vase bought at Woolworths?
21. Who played ‘Dr Longdongle’?
22. What does Longdongle do with false teeth?
23. In one episode, The Goons merged with another popular comedy show. Which?
24. In Tales of Old Dartmoor, Her Majesty’s prison is moved where?
25. Which episode was recorded without an audience?
26. It included a character, the Duchess Boil de Spudswell, who sounded like which celebrated figure?
27. In which show does Valentine Dyall insure Neddie against being embedded in concrete?
28. What was Wallace Greenslade’s fan club called?
29. Minnie Bannister played Maid Marian in Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest. True or false?
30. George Orwell’s 1984 inspired which episode?
31. A train crash in November 1956 caused which episode to be postponed?
32. In which show does Neddie insure the English Channel against catching fire?
33. Colonel Chinstrap of ITMA was an influence on Major Bloodnok. True or false?
34. The Africa Ship Canal was inspired by the closure of which waterway?
35. What was the first name of Sellers’ mother?
36. Spike is believed to have acquired his name from which jazz trumpeter?
37. Name the scoutmaster who was an influence on Bluebottle’s character.
38. What was the name of the 3-piece band in which Spike played before The Goon Show?
39. Which Goon had a shaving act?
40. Name Bentine’s captain/professor character.
41. Complete the phrase: “A fair trial and a fair…”
42. In whose esteemed watering hole did The Goon Show blossom?
43. Who ran London’s Windmill Theatre?
44. Which Goon started with a stage act based on a broken chair back?
45. Sellers was descended from a famous eighteenth century bare-knuckle fighter. Who?
46. Despite a bad start with them, Jacques Brown later produced some Goon Shows. He had previously produced an equally crazy programme called…
47. What do the letters KOGVOS stand for?
48. On what date was Crazy People first broadcast?
49. Which rising took place in ‘74?
50. How many episodes were there in the tenth and final Goon Show series?
ready for the answers?
The Goon Show Preservation Society 