Goon Pod

Hosted by Tyler Adams, this podcast has been produced weekly since May 2021. (there’s a yearly couple of months break after New Year nowadays) If you haven’t listened to it yet, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

In each episode Tyler welcomes a guest to examine an actual Goon Show, a solo Goon project (films, TV, radio, books, albums etc) or practically anything within the Goon universe. They also talk about comedy in general – whatever direction the conversation takes!

To listen to this show, search for ‘Goon Pod’ and subscribe on Spotify, i-Tunes or whichever podcast app you habitually use. If you don’t habitually use any of those, then there are recent episodes at the foot of the page. Alternatively, click on the Goon Pod logo above to be taken to a suitable corner of the web where all the episodes are available.

Tyler is always happy to receive comments, requests or general feedback as it helps improve and develop the show. Goon Pod can be followed and contacted through Facebook and Twitter.

This Is Your Life: Spike Milligan – Goon Pod

“You call this a life?”This week we dip into the big red book and examine Spike Milligan’s two famously chaotic appearances on This Is Your Life — first in 1973 at an army reunion in Bexhill and again in 1995 in the wake of Spike’s infamous crack at Prince Charles at the British Comedy Awards. From bungled surveillance operations and surprise reunions to war memories, old squeezes, secret sons and unresolved tensions, these programmes offer an occasionally revealing — and sometimes unsettling — portrait of Spike at two very different points in his life.Joining Tyler this week is co-host of World Of Telly John Williams and the pair try to navigate the uneasy compression of a vast, contradictory life into television-friendly fare.Along the way we encounter Peter Sellers in Nazi garb, Robert Graves refusing retakes because “the milkman is part of life”, Harry Secombe on VT, Eric Sykes restoring some semblance of order to proceedings, Michael Bentine getting a warm reception, Roger McGough falling a bit flat and a surprise appearance from a reclusive billionaire. We also examine the differing styles of Eamonn Andrews and Michael Aspel – the former being all awkward and lacking spontaneity; the latter oozing affable charm and keeping the show on the rails. These two programmes, separated by 22 years, chart not just Spike Milligan’s public career but his private fractures — family divisions, emotional debts, and the limits of nostalgia. They also expose the clumsy mechanics of This Is Your Life itself: a format built for uplift struggling to contain a life defined by contradiction, pain, brilliance and refusal to behave.