(a response to this Guardian article from 22 October 2017)
by Chris Smith
Organiser, A Weekend Called Fred
Roy Bainton has re-shaped the events of that day in order to suit a short narrative focused purely on Harry, who he pays tribute to (quite correctly) as genuinely warm, thoroughly engaging and generous with his time in an interview on that day in Bournemouth.
It grates, however, because of the disrespect to the actual atmosphere of A Weekend Called Fred (so far as I remember – I was busy having my nervous breakdown at the time). When Harry was introduced to everyone, there was a wonderful cheer of greeting and applause which took him quite by surprise and set a warm tone for the whole afternoon.
Harry did sign a good number of autographs but also spent time seeing the whole environment of the King Arthur’s Court conference room and all the displays of Goon memorabilia, including Bill Nunn’s Shop table. After that, he sat on stage with John P. Hamilton and Dennis Main Wilson to talk about the Goon Show for a good long hour, to everyone’s clear delight.
Nobody dashed on to stage to grab the microphone from Dennis. Roy Bainton didn’t actually do anything at that point. I was the one who had to do something.
Harry, Roy and myself were in the stage side passageway, next to the small stage but concealed. Dennis was in full flow on the small stage area and I did not know just how good he was at talking endlessly and relevantly! (Apparently Tommy Cooper, who was once on a rail journey with a group that included DMW, had once disappeared to the loo as Dennis was talking and vanished for ages. Tommy eventually came back to the group (then without Dennis), and said “has he stopped talking yet?”) This was my problem… How to interrupt such an eminent TV producer? I’ve got Harry Secombe standing behind me!!
In the end, I seized on a word Dennis was saying in mid anecdote – he said “suddenly”, leading up to a punchline – and jumped out from the passageway, shouted out “Suddenly, folks, it’s Ned of Wales!” to which there was the huge response I just described. Roy Bainton had nothing to do with this and Harry didn’t blow any raspberries. Check out the video recording.
Although Roy seemed a nice guy to talk to and be engaged by during the Convention – he was, after all, there with a job to do – I’m disappointed by the more dismissive way he wrote about GSPS in this article. It’s unfair to the atmosphere of the Convention itself; GSPS had come together for the first time in 16 years at a residential event to meet, talk and ‘chew the fat’ about a favourite comedy show (in a sense, no different to anybody reacting to programmes on the BBC now down at the pub) and the mood of the event was buoyant and good natured. Just look back at the Convention write-up and feedback.
More importantly, Harry got this. Roy Bainton’s tone in writing does not convey this at all. Harry stayed all afternoon. He did talk at length with us all – and, afterwards, helped to encourage Spike to join us for Son of Weekend Called Fred in 1997. This, in turn, led to both Harry and Spike agreeing to be honorary Vice Presidents of GSPS…. They didn’t have to, and it must have been because they enjoyed the experience of those Society events.
Roy Bainton may not have known about those latter events, but it’s not hard to find GSPS online as the old website carried key bits of information and those facts can be easily found. Just look at the response and interest to the Website’s relaunch.
Yes, of course we did troop off down to the beach (the following day!) for a Batter Pudding Hurling Competition, but that was part of the fun and our celebration of a big well-known Goon Show plotline…. It was a nice bit of Goon Show daftness which was part of our whole hommage to the Show itself, but we had planned much more than that.
The other thing that Roy reports was Harry’s initial reservations about attending (“they’re barking mad… don’t leave me with them”) and then Roy attempts to shape the rest of his write-up so as to ‘prove’ Harry’s misgivings – when in fact Harry’s mind was to some extent changed by events on the day, for the reasons I’ve illustrated.
You’re always treading carefully with celebrities. Harry was relatively straightforward (ever tried to ‘manage’ Spike Milligan??) I think our 1995 Fred experience with Harry was fairly lengthy and mutually appreciative. It’s a shame that this is not the story that people in the media want to portray.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 