Originally published – November 2016
Hi there fellow Goons and Sellers fans!
Here’s some recently discovered goodies you might not have come across before:
Michael Bentine
The Great Train Robbery –
The Golden Silents – Hair
Harry Secombe
Secombe unveils The Last Goon Show of All plaque –
Jet Storm starred Richard Attenborough and Stanley Baker. The film is notable for an appearance by Harry Secombe as Binky Medows and the cast also includes Marty Wilde, David Kossoff and Virginia Maskell. It was released in 2015, but has only just come to my attention.
at www.amazon.co.uk/
Spike Milligan
The Irish O’lympics –
Q5 – complete colour episode
Nuclear-free public service announcements 1976 – at www.nzonscreen.com
The Goons
Down Among The Z Men –
The Goon Show Live! –
Peter Sellers
An edition of the BBC’s The Good Old Days featuring Ted Durante and Hilda – at www.bbc.co.uk
As many of you will know Hilda was Hilda Parkin an early girlfriend of Peter Sellers to whom he wrote many letters. It was her family who owned the Holiday Camp in Jersey where Sellers found early employment.
Arturo Ui – Tony Garnett on a Private performance by Peter Sellers –
(This was eventually broadcast as The Gangster Show on BBC TV 23 May 1974 with Nicol Williamson)
Kubrick –
May Routh, costume designer on Being There –
Period Review of Being There by Bobby Wygant –
More on The Ghost of Peter Sellers (due in September?)-
For those of you who haven’t already heard Sellers’ excellent trailer that he made for The Ladykillers… Here its is! – on YouTube
A nice stack of photos of Michael Bentine with the Goons, some you may have seen before and some you may not! – at www.gettyimages.co.uk
Here are some nice pictures of the inside and outside of Peter Sellers Mini Hooper! – at maximummini.blogspot.co.uk
The hot news for Spike Milligan fans is the announcement of a DVD set of Q volume 1 which is due out on 21st November. It’s a 3 disc set containing Q5, Q6 & Q7 for a mere £23.89! – at www.amazon.co.uk
The BBC’s website contains a fascinating clip of Peter Sellers in Belfast in 1971 which comes from a BBC programme about pop music broadcast only in Northern Ireland. The film itself originates from a local BBC News programme at the time when Sellers was living in Southern Ireland. – at www.bbc.co.uk
You also might like to know that Camera Press have a wonderful archive which includes many photos of Peter Sellers rarely seen before as well as lots from his films. Take a look! – http://www.camerapress.com/
Of course you can search on just about any-thing including Spike Milligan and Tony Hancock!
In amongst all their large output of out of copyright reissues, Pickwick have recently reissued Peter & Sophia on CD. The CD has the same familiar running order with no bonus material, but does come with a completely new sleeve. The label’s other releases include Songs For Swinging Sellers, The Best of Sellers and Million Sellers. Releases of interest to Goons fans include Milligan Preserved, Michael Bentine’s It’s a Square World, The Goons Ying Tong Songs, The Best of The Goon Shows No 1 & No 2.
The Pickwickroup.
Finally I found this rare interview with Sellers in which he reveals the truth about how soon after his birth he was carried on stage and a lovely anecdote about a visit to the pub opposite the Windmill
My thanks to those of you keeping me fed with some of the above information so that we can share all the latest and greatest.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 