newsfeed

Our annual meeting took place at Stephens House and Gardens, Finchley, on 30^th September. Unfortunately it coincided with a rail strike, which restricted the number of members who could make it.

One pleasing note from the AGM was that membership of the GSPS has risen by about 25% since last year, which is encouraging. The other notable point is that John Repsch has stood down as Chairman. John has been filling that role since 2004, and deserves all of our thanks for his contribution over those 19 long years, and indeed from before then too.

Clearly we can’t go too long without having a replacement chair, so if anyone thinks they could contribute to the post, or knows someone who could, please contact the Secretary.

We’re particularly grateful to Associated London Scripts stalwart Brad Ashton, who braved the traffic and spent the afternoon talking to us about his life in comedy. Brad has been our guest several times before and, at the age of 92 he was still on great form. No matter which comedy performer’s name we brought up, Brad came in with anecdotes about them. He had stories to tell about Spike Milligan, Groucho Marx, Dick Emery, Ernie Wise, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd, Tony Hancock, Terry Thomas and many more.

…… yes, Goonists. We are making one last effort to gather together as much information as possible about The Goonist Movement, the erstwhile “official” Goon Show fan club. We know it had its own magazine and it was in touch with Spike and the others in the 1950s, but little more than that really.

Any stories about the group, information, artefacts (yes, any surviving magazines or bits of magazines) would be very welcome. Photos would be brilliant, but cameras weren’t cheap in the 1950s and private photos rare and small. It may possibly be something to ask parents or grandparents about if any of them were fond of the Goons as well !

We already know of an Australian newspaper article which mentioned the Goonists, and there’s this:

If you have any news or tip-offs, please send a message to the website in the first instance, and we can pass goodies on to the dozens of GSPS researchers ready to follow up any leads……

There’s an update to this story here

Please use this form to send a message

This year’s GSPS annual meeting will take place on Saturday 30th September in the same location as last year, folks. That’s Stephen’s House and Garden in Finchley, North London, where the Spike Milligan Memorial Bench sits just outside in the park.

One order of business will be holding the Annual General Meeting and, with our chairman determined that this will be the end of his stint, it may be significant. Besides that, if the plan works, we’ll be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Telegoons with the original puppeteer, Ann Perrin, while the Associated London Scripts comedy writer Brad Ashton will be another guest to entertain us.

Saturday 30th September 2023, 11:00am to 5:00pm
in the Stephens Room at Stephens House and Gardens,
Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Lunch is available to buy at Inky’s Stables Café on the premises.

Car parking is limited. There is on-road available, but please note:
The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has grown since last year. As we understand it, it will cover the area within Harrow to Enfield to Havering to Bromley to Kingston-upon-Thames to Hillingdon and back to Harrow again.
Please be aware! You can pre-register with no fee now and if you enter within they will only then charge you. Your car may be exempt from charges.

It’s still only August, but the September issue of our newsletter is on its way to members already. That’s a clue to there being advance news of a member’s meeting in September.

The big feature is a celebration of the Telegoons 60th anniversary, and there’s much more.

If you’re not a member, why not join today? It’s not too late to get your copy of this magazine along with all the other benefits – membership details here.

The Colin Murray show on BBC Radio 5 Live on 7^th August dedicated its third hour to a celebration of the life and work of Spike Milligan (so actually it’s from midnight going into the 8^th). The guests were Jane Milligan, GSPS Secretary Richard Usher, poet Henry Normal and war historian Professor Lucy Noakes.

You can listen to it here through the BBC Sounds website (jump to the third hour of the programme.) It’ll be available for the next 30 days or so.

16th July marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Larry Stephens, who, on his own or co-writing with Spike Milligan or others, contributed to the scripts of no less than 131 episodes of the Goon Show.

Larry was part of the Goons from the very beginning, brought in to complement Spike’s work as the scriptwriting task would have been too much for one writer. His first period on the show lasted until series 4. If he hadn’t been there, the Goon Show might not even have survived beyond those periods when illness prevented Spike from writing. Larry returned to the Goon Show towards the end of the 6th series and was there through the 7^th and 8^th. His last script was for The Seagoon Memoirs from series 9, co-written with Maurice Wiltshire. It was just a few weeks after that when, after attending a Goon Show recording, Larry died suddenly. It was 26^th January 1959 and he was only 35 years old.

Larry’s loss was a huge tragedy, he packed so much into his 35 years. During WWII he’d undergone the gruelling commando training course (where do you think the phrase “It’s all in the mind” comes from?) and fought in SE Asia. He was an accomplished jazz pianist, a cartoonist, and after the war his scriptwriting talents developed, not least when writing material for his close friend and flatmate Tony Hancock. He wrote for many shows throughout the 1950s and was working on the popular TV sitcom The Army Game when he passed away.

If Larry had survived and worked on, he would surely now be remembered as one of the great British comedy scriptwriters. To help keep his memory alive, his relative Julie Warren researched and wrote a biography – It’s All In The Mind: The Life and Legacy of Larry Stephens. It’s a fascinating read and a must for anyone interested in 1950s entertainment or even WWII history. Copies are becoming hard to get, but Julie has a few paperbacks still available. You can buy one through eBay.
eBay link

GSPS members might also like to search through their collection of newsletters, or their Encyclopaedia Goonicus, for issue no 105 from 2002, which was a Larry Stephens special.

_{From a press release:}
The Goon Show will be making a triumphant return to the stage at this October’s Birmingham Comedy Festival.

The one-off performance sees the festival marking the centenary of the birth of Goon Show writer Larry Stephens – who was born in nearby West Bromwich and raised in Quinton, on the outskirts of the city.

Two 1958 scripts written by Stephens and Maurice Wiltshire will be recreated – The Seagoon Memoirs and The Moriarty Murder Mystery. The night will also include a Q&A section featuring Stephens’ biographer, Julie Warren. She will delve into the life of the scriptwriter who famously wrote for flatmate Tony Hancock. He also collaborated with fellow Goon scribes Milligan, Eric Sykes and Jimmy Grafton on other high profile radio projects.

The event is set for Sunday 8 October 2023 at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Tickets are on sale now – click here.

Birmingham Comedy Festival were the first company to produce an officially sanctioned stage production of The Goon Show, performing a sell-out run of The Canal and The Phantom Head Shaver (of Brighton) in 2014. They returned in 2017 with The House Of Teeth and The Jet Propelled Guided NAAFI. The 2017 shows were described as “absolutely, utterly, 100% unmissable!” by The GSPS’s Chair, John Repsch.
“Shut your eyes for a moment and you are suddenly at home listening to it on your Bakelite wireless set.” he continued. “Open your eyes again and you are catching what listeners missed.”

The cast for the 2023 performance include Richard Usher (Sellers), Mark Earby (Milligan) and Jimm Rennie (Seagoon) – who were all involved in previous productions – plus musician Jim Wynn.

Producer/Director Dave Freak, from Birmingham Comedy Festival, said: “We had initially planned to do this, back in 2020, around the publication of Julie’s book – It’s All In The Mind: The Life And Legacy Of Larry Stephens. But the lurgi got in the way. So we tried again in 2021 for The Goons’ 70th anniversary (and the festival’s 20th). And again, that damn lurgi got in the way. But with this year marking Larry’s 100th birthday, and with us all now being inoculated against both The Spon and The Nadger plagues, the opportunity represented itself, so we decided, why not?

“Larry’s role in the development of British comedy deserves to be better known.”

Birmingham Comedy Festival presents: The Goon Show is at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on Sunday 8 October 2023, at 7pm. For tickets and more information, see:
bmusic.co.uk
bhamcomfest.co.uk

We often remember the significant anniversaries of the talented people who contributed to the making of the Goon Show. Today it’s a pleasure to acknowledge one man who’s still with us and can celebrate his birthday.

Happy birthday to John Antrobus, 90 years old today (born 2nd July 1933, and living well in Chelsea, sometimes in Nice but, seemingly, always working).

As a scriptwriter, John collaborated in 1957 with Spike on two Series 8 Goon Shows, The Spon Plague and The Great Statue Debate. Later on, he and Spike co-wrote the stage play The Bed Sitting Room and the radio programme The Dinosaur. He wrote, and performed in (along with Spike) the series The Milligan Papers.

John Antrobus was interviewed by the GSPS in 2007. Read the article here. Also, check out his book Goon But Not Forgotten.

The most recent GSPS newsletter has an article describing what John has been up to in recent years.