The Goon Show Preservation Society

Six Charlies on Stage – review

Six Charlies in Search of an Author
a review by Richard Usher

There have been four professional UK stage productions of The Goon Show since 2014, and it is rare for amateur dramatic groups to gain permission to perform these classic shows, so it must have been a delightful surprise for the members of the Stockton Heath Methodist Dramatic Society when they got the green light to stage Six Charlies in Search of an Author.

The production was part of a double bill of classic radio shows adapted to stage performance, the first half being Orson Welles’ legendary War of the Worlds. These two shows might seem strange bedfellows at first glance, but as it turned out, they complemented each other rather well.

The stage set was extremely well-made and was a convincing backdrop for a vintage radio theatre, complete with CBS logo. The Goon Show offering made up the second half of the bill and was introduced by director Paul Thompson in a style that slightly echoed the John Browell and Dirk Maggs openings to The Last Goon Show of All and Goon Again. The entrance of a sound operator in a white coat and the request to take us from 1930’s America to Britain in 1956 added a lovely touch of the surreal to the proceedings, especially when he nodded and swapped the CBS logo for a plaque displaying a vintage BBC logo.

If you went along expecting to see a group of actors channel Sellers, Secombe and Milligan you would have been disappointed. What we got instead was the cast taking on the various roles the original Goons played in the show, and it worked a treat! Hazel Bradley bravely took on the Wallace Greenslade role and delivered her lines with true BBC announcer aplomb. Nonagenarian thesp, Bert Rigby, took on the roles of Jim Spriggs, the famous Eccles and Henry Crun and clearly had a lot of fun with the characters. The same can be said of Gill Murphy who gave us her best Grytpype Thynne and Bluebottle, and Alex Clarke erupting on stage as Major Bloodnok and doing his best to convey Moriarty. While Kevin Mottershead may not have had the well built and diminutive stature of Neddy Seagoon, he left you in no doubt that he was an equally energetic Charlie.

Musical contributions were few, and this production definitely owed a lot to the director’s love of the EMI Goon But Not Forgotten album version, and none the worse for it. The big plus was the array of spot FX, brilliantly performed live on stage and ably assisted by some terrific sound design from Mike Rigby.

This show was not a tribute act, nor was it trying to re-imagine the Goon Show of old. It was an enthusiastic, very well directed and energetically performed piece of theatre that proved beyond doubt that the script writing of Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens can transcend its original context and still get the laughs and applause.

Another Goon Show Performance – Warrington

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 radio shows, the aforementioned Goon Show, and the Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds which frightened Americans in 1938.

For more information and tickets, click this link.

‘The Telephone’ on Radio 4 Extra

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 for Henry Crun. It will be available to stream after the broadcast here. The episode has, of course, been available since 2010 on the commercial release, The Goon Show Compendium, vol 5, as well as on commercial streaming services such as Spotify.
Three weeks earlier, 4Extra played a recording of Personal Narrative which had only been repeated by the BBC once, on Radio 4 in 1983. here

Earlier this year, the series 6 recording of The Man Who Never Was had its first rebroadcast. For the obsessives among us, other regular series episodes which are waiting for their Radio 4 Extra debuts are:
05/12 – Dishonoured, or the Fall of Neddie Seagoon
05/13 – Forog *
05/26 – The End *
06/12 – The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu-Manchu *
06/13 – The Lost Year *
06/15 – The Hastings Flyer–Robbed *
07/18 – The Moon Show
07/21 – ’Round the World in Eighty Days
07/23 – Africa Ship Canal
07/25 – The Missing Boa Constrictor *
08/09 – The Policy
08/11 – The Stolen Postman *
08/15 – The Thing on the Mountain *
08/26 – The Great Statue Debate *
10/03 – The Chinese Legs *
10/04 – Robin’s Post *
* _{The ones with asterisks have never been repeated on any BBC channel.}

Meantime, we still expect that the long-term availability to stream many Goon Show episodes on BBC Sounds will end on 30th March. Furthermore, the BBC intends to make BBC Sounds unavailable outside the UK at a currently unspecified date in Spring 2025. It will be replaced by more restricted content on BBC.com/audio.
The available shows are listed here on BBC Sounds,
and our reference chart is here.

New Series of Goon Pod

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 and Spike Milligan.

If you haven’t listened to Goon Pod before, it’s available to download everywhere you usually find podcasts, or you can stream the latest episode through this page.

There’s a spin-off podcast too, GoonPod Film Club. It looks at British comedy movies which don’t feature and Goon Show connection. The next episode will be covering Shaun of the Dead with special guest comedy writer Jon Canter.

GoonPod Film Club is available to Goon Pod supporters on Patreon. For more info, visit patreon.com.

Peter Sellers – writings wanted

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. I’m looking for articles of interest relating to him.

Original writings please, from any member / reader who has something to write. Maybe about the time you met him, the time you spoke on the phone to him, or the time you didn’t. Possibly just an exploration of an aspect of his work as a Goon or film actor, musician, RAF man, photographer or megaphone speaker.
Thank you: contact link here.

Deadline 3rd May please. For use in June or September issues.

Goon Shows on stage – April 2025

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.

The three episodes awaiting their transformation to the stage are:
The Canal
The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea
The Treasure of Loch Lomond, aka The Treasure in the Lake

It will be a ‘musically interluded Radio-Show-on-Stage with live sound effects.’ But it does beg the question: ‘What does a man who tied concrete blocks to his feet and jumped into a canal sound like?’

The publicity continues: ‘… and all your favourite characters brought to life, this hilariously madcap show is for young and old alike. ‘Whether you remember when The Goon Shows were live on your wireless, or whether your parents or grandparents fired up their cassette players in the car on road trips – this nostalgic, surrealist nod to post-war Britain is sure to leave you with a smile on your face, but hopefully no batter puddings!’ And it ends: ‘Warning: may cause uncontrollable laughter.’

Go seek tickets at: penrithplayers.org.uk

Goon Show News no 188

Grams: fanfare
The 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, a 70-year-old article on the future of TV by Eric Sykes and an even older profile of Harry Secombe.
There’s more too, see the list of contents below.

The newsletter is published quarterly and sent to all of our members. If you’re not getting it, why not join the GSPS. You won’t be disappointed.

BBC Sounds Update

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 shows which have been played on the three-times-on-Tuesday slot on Radio 4 Extra during the previous thirty days. (except, see below)

My count is that a total of 124 of the at least 149 episodes for which there are recordings available have been aired on Radio 4 Extra, and then been available to stream. At the beginning of February, 103 of these episodes were still live.

What will be left after 30th March? There’s a little bit of good news. A batch of shows, from episode 8 of series 5 (The Marie Celeste) to the first of series 6 (The Man Who Won the War) have escaped this cull. Their expiry date is set for 15 February 2026. So it will be those sixteen meantime, plus whichever four have been on 4 Extra during the past thirty days.

At least that’s my reading of the situation. Check back at the end of March to see if anything’s changed.
The available shows are listed here on BBC Sounds,
and our reference chart is here

The Man Who Never Was – on Radio 4 Extra.

On 7^th January, BBC Radio 4 Extra played a previously unrepeated edition of the Goon Show, episode 27 of the 6^th 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

The show is available
on this compendium too.

Well, yes indeed, but no. That story, adapted by Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens from World War Two’s real Operation Mincemeat, was actually recorded three times by the Goons. The version the BBC has carried up until now was the 1958 recording from series 8.

This repeat is of the 1956 version, which had pretty much the same plot, but there are a few differences. So, if you want to spot them and, for one thing, hear Eccles singing about how he’s ‘young and foolish’, then give this earlier version a listen.

The first recording of the story was made in 1953 as the main part of episode 20 of the 3^rd series. It was quite historic, in that it was the first time Harry Secombe’s character was called (Lord) Seagoon, and also the first time the Peter Sellers character was referred to as Bluebottle. There is no available recording of that show, or of any others from series 3.

As Goon Shows played on 4 Extra no longer have the privilege of long term availability on the BBC Sounds app, the series 6 show will be available to stream for 30 days only, here.

Indeed, the calendar is still ticking over on all those Goon Shows which have been available on BBC Sounds for years. Their availability, alas, is due to expire at the end of March. After that, it appears, only shows broadcast during the previous 30 days will be available.

The Man Who Never Was was the first ever subject of Tyler Adams’ GoonPod podcast, back in 2021. You can look listen to it here:
part 1 – part 2

A Fiendish GSPS Quiz

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 a sheet of paper and write down your answers. Can you do better? No cheating though.

Award one point for a correct answer:

Part 1 – Which Goon Show is this clip from?

Part 2 – Name that Movie featuring a Goon

Part 3 – General Knowledge, with some tenuous connection to the Goon Show. (These questions also appeared in our December 2024 newsletter)

and after a suitable pause….