The first series of the Goons was generally listed as “Crazy People, featuring Radio’s Own Crazy Gang, the Goons”. This was, at least, an improvement on “The Junior Crazy Gang” which the BBC planners wanted to call it.
There were 17 shows in the series, which were untitled as they had a music hall format of short comedy sketches rather than a full story. They were broadcast on the BBC Home Service on Monday evenings between 28th May and 20th September 1951. The series was followed by a special episode, a ‘reworking’ of the pantomime Cinderella, which was broadcast on Boxing Day.
The performers were Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe. The announcer were Denys Drower and Andrew Timothy. The producer was Dennis Main Wilson, for whom Leslie Bridgmont stood in on four occasions.
Scripts were credited to Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens, edited by Jimmy Grafton, though Michael Bentine certainly contributed too.
Incidental music was by Arthur Wilkinson, and occasionally Wally Stott.
The musical interludes were performed by the Stargazers, the Ray Ellington Quartet, Max Geldray and Harry Secombe. Orchestra duties were shared between the BBC Dance Orchestra conducted by Stanley Black and the Revue Orchestra conducted by Robert Busby.
Other than a short excerpt from episode 9 which was derived from the film London Entertains, no recordings of this series are known to exist.
Synopses of the shows, derived from the scripts, are available here.
Encyclopædia Goonicus has many more details, including the full text of all the scripts.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 