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ATTENTION PLEASE! Following the long service of our chairman, John Repsch, he has decided to take a break and pass the chair to somebody else. We need your help! We need a new chairperson to help steer the Society towards its main goal, to keep The Goon Show fresh and alive in people’s minds and…

Sad news to report from the world of the Goon Show. John Antrobus, the esteemed writer and honorary president of the GSPS, passed away on 15th December at the age of 92. John was probably the last remaining person who contributed directly to the Goon Show. He co-wrote the scripts to The Spon Plague and…

It’s that Christmassy-themed time again, and the final issue of our newsletter for 2025 is on its way to members. Things in this issue include: John Browell recalls the Last Goon Show Of AllMichael Bentine’s thoughts on comedyThe GSPS with Talking Pictures TV at Hebden BridgeThe GSPS Annual Meeting reportand many more articles, letters and…

Peter Sellers’ centenary celebrations are still going on. Those of you in the Birmingham area will have a chance to see a programme of Sellers material at the Midlands Arts Centre on Saturday afternoon, 15th November. The show, collated by the BFI, will feature a number of Sellers’ TV appearances, including interviews and performances featuring…

As the Radio 4 Extra Tuesday Goon Show series completes its airing of Series 8, the episode scheduled for broadcast on 11th November will be the last of the series, The Great Statue Debate. This show, script written by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus, was originally broadcast on 24th March 1958. This will be the…

Hambledon Productions, the theatre company which specialises in vintage comedy, has announced a new production which will tour in Autumn 2026. It’s a new adaption of the Spike Milligan and Ronnie Barker classic, The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town. The work was originally conceived to be a Goon Show revival project, but Peter, Harry…

The animated TV series based on Spike Milligan’s book Badjelly The Witch is set to appear for the first time in the UK on Thursday 16th October. The 13 part series was made in New Zealand and originally broadcast there. It features Miriam Margolyes as Badjelly. The shows will become available on ITV’s streaming channel,…

The annual meeting of the GSPS was held at Stephens House and Garden in Finchley on 13th September, our fourth visit to the venue. The roll says there were 13 members present, with another 9 tuned in on Zoom. The day started off with the AGM. To summarise: The main part of the meeting concluded…

Between 2005 and 2022, the Goon Show Preservation Society website was found at the address thegoonshow. org.uk. It was then replaced by this current site, and the earlier domain name eventually lapsed. We became aware earlier this year (2025) that the domain thegoonshow. org.uk had been bought by someone unknown, and it had reappeared on…

by Mark J Cousins So, what do you buy the star who is 100 years old and has everything? All you can do is help to breathe life into his memory and share it with those around you. Peter Sellers is very hard to pigeonhole. He was a comedy performer, although not really a stand-up…

As Peter Sellers 100th birthday approaches on 8th September, the BBC is airing a variety of programmes from the archives to mark the occasion. BBC2:Monday 1st September, 11.00pmThe Life And Death Of Peter Sellers, the 2004 biographical film based on Roger Lewis’s book. BBC iPlayer link BBC4:Tuesday 2nd September, from 9.00pmThe Peter Sellers Story, a…

In June this year, an episode of The Footage Detectives on Talking Pictures TV was a Goon Show Special which featured our own Mark Cousins and some rare bits of Goon Madness film featuring Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. You can catch up with that episode here on the TPTV Encore stream (free account required).…

After two separate Goon Show performances on stage in the North of England this year, we’re pleased to hear of another show being performed. This time it’s a bit further afield, though I suppose that rather depends on where you’re standing. The venue is the Allen Hall theatre in the University of Otago, Dunedin, New…

A progress report has arrived from the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, where the collection of the GSPS archives is being compiled. The keeper of the archives, Gary Brannan, has torn himself away from important work on the Galton and Simpson archive and started a first-stage catalogue. It covers 19 boxes…

Three Lost Sellers Shorts and Digital Restorations to be premiered at the British Film Institute and released in August Lots of “new” Peter Sellers material is to be shown at the BFI’s forthcoming Sellers season, including the long awaited “Lost Shorts” starring Sellers as Hector Dimwittie. Some of these titles will also be released by…

The finest Goon Show related podcast in our planetary system, Goon Pod, has reached the milestone of 200 episodes. Congratulations Tyler! Show number 200 was a look at the 1991 Radio 2 documentary, At Last The Go On Show. Guests on the podcast included that programme’s producer Dirk Maggs and the man who pulled together…

In Character: Peter SellersThe British Film Institute season by Mark Cousins “For me, the most influentialactor in films was Peter Sellers”– Robin Williams Marking what would have been his one hundredth birthday, for their Sellers retrospective season the BFI’s Justin Johnson and Dick Fiddy have worked hard to choose performances which include his breakthrough roles,…

The BBC are broadcasting a radio play on Friday 4th July which should appeal to students of Goon Show history. 1977, by Sarah Wooley, tells the story of the composer Angela Morley in the years after she transitioned from being the Goon Show’s Wally Stott. In particular, it’s set at the time she was writing…

The 2025 annual GSPS member’s meeting is set for Saturday, 13th September. Once again, we’ll be gathering within earshot of the Spike Milligan Memorial Bench and the Lodge House which houses the Spike Milligan Archive. The venue, for the fourth year, is Stephens House and Gardens in Finchley, North London. The event will run from…

The video of the Galton and Simpson Archive talk at the University of York’s Festival of Ideas (we’ve mentioned it more than once) has been uploaded to YouTube. It includes Richard Usher performing one of the scripts which was written for Peter Sellers’ appearances on Midday Music Hall in 1954. Richard Usher’s performance of ‘Sherlock…

Don’t miss this week’s edition of Goon Pod. In it, Tyler talks to “the Grand Poobah” of the GSPS, Richard Usher and the University of York archivist Gary Brannan. As well as discussing the Galton and Simpson archive which Gary is working on, and scripts found in it which were written for Peter Sellers and…

Many members will be aware of The Footage Detectives programme on Talking Pictures TV, the show which features lots of archive clips recovered from days gone by, hosted by Mike Read and Noel Cronin. Next Sunday, June 15th, they’ll be running a Goon Show Special! Mike and Noel will share some interesting rare lost reels…

On 8th June, Richard Usher will be performing material written for Peter Sellers by Galton and Simpson in Goon Show style.There’s a link to book a (free) ticket in the text below. UPDATE: and here’s a BBC news item Press release Missing Goon Show Sketches Unearthed in Galton and Simpson ArchiveUniversity of York discovers lost…

There has been sad news in the world of the GSPS this week. Mike Coveney, our founder and honorary vice-president, passed away on 26th May. He was 92 years old. The story of the society being formed after Mike met other fans in a pub after the recording of The Last Goon Show of All…

The 28th of May is designated National Goon Show Day. This year, it’s the 74th anniversary of the first ever Goon Show being broadcast by the BBC. Here’s today’s special offer:To receive a quarterly magazine AND be able to buy our exclusive Encyclopaedia Goonicus, JOIN US TODAY, and get a whopping 25% off an e-membership.…

The current run of Series 7 Goon Show episodes being played in the Tuesday slot by the BBC has reached another episode which hadn’t previously had an airing in the digital era. The show scheduled on Radio 4 Extra for this week, Tuesday 27th May, is Africa Ship Canal, which was the 22nd episode of…

Our own Richard Usher will be performing rare Goon Show-inspired scripts in York on the 8th of June. He’ll be bringing back to life sketches written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson for Peter Sellers to perform in Midday Music Hall in 1954. Midday Music Hall was a Saturday lunchtime show on the BBC Home…

Recreating Goon Shows on stage seems to be in fashion these days. News has reached us that there will be a performance of Six Charlies in Search of an Author in Stockton Heath, Warrington on Thursday and Friday of next week (3rd & 4th April). Stockton Heath Methodist Dramatic Society are re-staging the broadcasts of two classic…

The weekly Goon Show on BBC Radio 4 Extra on Tuesday 25th March 2025 is an episode which the BBC hasn’t aired since its original broadcast on the Light Programme in December 1956. It’s episode 11 from series 7, The Telephone, the one where GPO engineer Neddie is sent to Africa to install a phone…

26th March is the start date for the new series of Goon Pod, the weekly podcast hosted by Tyler Adams which looks at all things Goon connected. The first episode will be a deep dive into the 1959 Oscar-nominated short The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film, directed by Dick Lester, and featuring Peter Sellers…

This year is Peter Sellers centenary, he was born on 8 September 1925. Our newsletter editor, Peter, is planning to include lots of content to mark the occasion and has made the following plea: Please can I have your writings, feelings and dealings with, Mr Peter Sellers, the well known centenarian of the late variety.…

News has reached us from deepest Cumbria that The Penrith Players calendar of performances lined up for 2025 includes re-enactments of three Goon Shows! Having gained the ‘go ahead’ from Spike Milligan Productions Ltd, the shows will take place at the Penrith Playhouse Theatre in Penrith, on Wednesday to Saturday, 16th to 19th April, 2025.…

Grams: fanfareThe March 2025 issue of Goon Show News has been to the Post Office, and it’s now on its way to member’s letterboxes. Along with lots of news items, there’s an article looking back to the day Spike visited the GSPS, features on the Q TV series’, the (almost) mythical Lyme Bay Goons Books,…

We reported previously that long term availability of Goon Shows to stream from the BBC Sounds app and website appears to be coming to an end. The countdown is continuing, and it looks like the 30th of March will be the last day many episodes will be available. After that, there will only be the…

On 7th January, BBC Radio 4 Extra played a previously unrepeated edition of the Goon Show, episode 27 of the 6th series, The Man Who Never Was. What, what, what, what, what, what? you say in your best Seagoon voice. I’ve heard The Man Who Never Was many times. An excellent show it is too…

Here’s something to get us through the Christmas week. One of the things we got up to at the GSPS annual meeting in September was this Goon Show Quiz, which was devised by Richard Usher. With limited time to think things through, the best team of two scored 34 out of a possible 59. Take…

December has arrived and, for our members, the December issue of Goon Show News will arrive soon too. Highlights this quarter include a look at the Radio Series Danger! Men at Work! which was an influence on the formation of the Goons, and memories of Spike Milligan by Bexhill journalist John Dowling. There’s lots more…

Time appears to be running out for the Goon Shows which have been available to stream from the BBC Sounds website for years. It’s a great resource, used by many Goon Show lovers, and if it ends it will be missed by many. Most programmes on BBC Sounds are available for 30 days after broadcast,…

For those who take an interest in these things, Spike Milligan Productions have a new Instagram account where a fascinating selection of Spike related content is being posted. Take a look at http://www.instagram.com/spikemilliganproductions/

The P in GSPS stands for Preservation, and part of our reason for existing is to collect and save original material relating to the Goon Show. Until now, our collection of material has been lovingly kept by society members, but this isn’t sustainable in the long term. We’re delighted, therefore, to be upping our preservation…

This year’s GSPS annual meeting will be held on Saturday, 14th September atAVENUE HOUSE at STEPHENS HOUSE & GARDENS17 EAST END ROAD, FINCHLEY,LONDON N3 3QE PROGRAMME*• 10am – Arrivals with Tea & CoffeeIntroduction by Richard and summary of AGM Voting and Minutes Discussion• 11am – The Big Goon Quiz with Prizes including the new Goon…

The September edition of Goon Show News is being pushed through letterboxes. It’s a hefty 40 pages, and it left a dent when it hit my floor. Among the articles, there’s:an appreciation of Telegoons’ puppeteer Ann Perrin who passed away in May,exciting news about preservation of the GSPS’ archives, an origin story about Minnie Bannister,…

Sad news has reached us at the GSPS of the passing of Ann Perrin on 24th May this year. Many members will be aware of Ann’s involvement with the Goons as one of the puppeteers who made the Telegoons films.Others will remember Ann’s attendance at several GSPS London meetings, usually accompanied by her Eccles puppet.…

A date has been set for The Annual Gathering! 14th September, 2024Gather at 10.00am and enjoy the meeting until about 5.00pm. As a trial this year, there’s a slight change in procedure. It’s not being called the AGM any more, which means that the annual casting of votes and hunt for persons to take up…

June has arrived and, right on time, the June issue of the GSPS newsletter is arriving in our members’ letterboxes, mailboxes and wherever else they like to keep it. It’s a bumper 40 page issue with articles on the Windmill Theatre, the Goonist Movement, Wallace Greenslade, various bits of news, and a super new strip…

Our own Neddie Seagoon returns to the airwaves this month in a newly rediscovered and restored recording. It’s an episode of Hancock’s Half Hour which was originally broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 10th May 1955. The history is that, as the second series was about to begin, Tony Hancock fled to Italy while…

March 10th this year marked the centenary of the birth of the Goon Show’s musical maestro, Angela Morley, born as Wally Stott in 1924. In the latest issue of Goon Show News, we ran a tribute to mark the occasion. BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast the documentary Musical Variations: The Life of Angela Morley of…

Since early in the days of the GSPS we’ve been aware that there was the Goonist Movement, a Goon Show fan club in the 1950s. However, apart from getting a glimpse of one newsletter years ago, no one had ever tracked down any information. And yes, we did try using Google…. In a last ditch…