During the lifetime of the GSPS, our quest to fully document The Goon Show and associated programmes has resulted in a vast collection of material. In past decades, we ran a tape and video library which members could access. However, borrowing cassettes/CDs/VHS tapes/DVDs and returning them after use is not the modern way. Nowadays, paid-up members of the GSPS can obtain a copy of The Encyclopædia Goonicus. It’s the world’s most comprehensive repository of information about The Goon Show and associated programmes, and is recommended reading for all students of the Gooniverse.
| To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Goon Show, the new, seventh, edition of Encyclopaedia Goonicus will be released on 28th May 2026. |
The Seventh Edition of The Encyclopædia Goonicus is three times the size of the Sixth Edition (more for your money, folks!), contains over 20,800 displayable pages, includes over 20,000 digital images and more than 2200 audio and 200 video recordings.
What’s new
The audio collection has been extended to include recent broadcasts from BBC Radio 4 Extra prior to the threatened demise of the channel. It is rumoured that there has been a woke-type clearout of inappropriate bits from old recordings and this collection will allow future research to identify what has been cut. The complete set (May 2021 to May 2026) of Goon Pod recordings is also included.
The video collection has been extended to include all films that feature at least 2 of the stars of The Goon Show. Documentaries about the Goons and individual stars are also accessible via the People section. Videos from GSPS Goonventions and other Society occasions are included. For those with an artistic inclination, videos of Sabrina are also available. This edition of The Encyclopædia Goonicus features 15 superior quality episodes of The Telegoons courtesy of BBC Technology & Media Operations – these being the only films that remain in the BBC archives.
More editions of Telegoon cartoons from TV Comic have been added in addition to transcriptions of all of The Idiot Weekly scripts that we have acquired.
The complete set (1972-March 2026) of Goon Show Preservation Society Newsletters and Magazines is included along with an index of major articles. This edition also contains many newletters from around the world, including the complete set of GOONNEWS, the monthly magazine created by the GSPS London Group.
The EG comes in electronic format and is sent out on a 128 gigabyte USB 3.0 silver metal flash drive. Yes folks, that is a whole lot of material in a terribly small package. The fee for this is 30 British Pounds.
Members are invited to pre-order their copy here.
The contents of Encyclopædia Goonicus also include:
GOON SHOWS – One of our major aims is to preserve a collection of the recorded Goon Shows which is as complete and unexpurgated as possible. All the recordings we have of each show are included, in a compressed MP3 format. There are multiple versions of many shows, taken from broadcast and commercial release sources. There’s even a recording of a never-broadcast version of The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler, recorded without Spike Milligan. We include a copy of the original script for each show (including the early series), and an easier-to-read transcribed text too.
The show’s listings also have detailed technical information. There’s a complete set of Goon Show related (1951 to 1974) Radio Times listing pages, and many pages of associated BBC documentation. Related audio files have also been added, including recordings of Goon songs and sound effects produced by the backroom boys.
Biographical information about many of the people that were an integral part of The Goon Show and The Telegoons is included. Many of the entries have audio and/or video sections, from which you can listen to and/or view recorded programmes. There are even some movies which feature at least two Goons. For more reading, there’s the reference work, The Annotated Goon Show, too.
What else? Well, there are extensive listings of the commercial recordings and books which have been released.
Other sections detail additional information on The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d., The Idiot Weekly, The Omar Khayyam Show, A Show Called Fred, Son of Fred, Best of Fred and Yes, It’s the Cathode Ray Tube Show.
And, there’s a new section which documents the post-war years leading up to The Goon Show.
GSPS
This section provides access to things produced by the GSPS and its regional and international groups.
The Goonsday Book is the Society’s collection of photographs, press cuttings and assorted papers, presented in chronological order (where known).
If you have material that is missing from this edition or have an uncle Ted who has a large collection of original, unprocessed programmes that can be used to fill the holes in this historical record, please let us know.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 