A look at the men who acted as Producers of the Goon Show.
Before Series 1:
Jacques Brown (1900-1975)
Jacques (pronounced Jakes) Brown was a well established BBC comedy producer, best remembered for Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh and Beyond Our Ken. Working with Jimmy Grafton, he produced the first ever trial recording of the Goons, a programme titled Sellers Castle. Brown’s insistence on not having a studio audience (he disliked them), almost killed the show there and then. He later produced the Goons episode 7/SP3 The Reason Why
Series 1 & 2
Dennis Main Wilson (1924-1997)
Producer of the first two series of The Goon Show. He had been a programme announcer in the BBC German Region when in 1942 he was called up. In 1945, after the German surrender, he was appointed Head of Light Entertainment of Radio Hamburg with the mission to de-Nazify it. He replaced the daily diet of Goebbels propaganda, marching songs, Wagner, and Hitler with uncensored news and comedy and modern big band music.
In 1947, he saw Peter Sellers at the Windmill Theatre and got him his first BBC show. Wilson produced many variety revue programmes and was a part of the gang at Jimmy Grafton’s pub. After Jimmy Grafton’s first Goon Show pilot, produced by Jacques Brown, was turned down by the BBC planners, Pat Dixon and Dennis Main Wilson championed the second, successful attempt to get a show featuring the Goons on the air. The planners handed production duties to Wilson, who saw through the first two series before leaving, at the same time as Michael Bentine.
In 1951, Wilson introduced Tony Hancock to the writing team of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, a partnership that was to blossom into the highly successful programme Hancock’s Half Hour. Wilson produced the first four radio series. Then he moved on to BBC Television, where, along with Johnny Speight, he created Till Death Do Us Part. He also produced several series for Eric Sykes.
Leslie Bridgmont
Stood in for Dennis Main Wilson for episodes 11 to 14 of the First series. He’s better known for producing Much Binding in the Marsh (featuring Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne)
Series 3 to 6
Peter Eton (1917-1979)
After being wounded during the Dunkirk evacuation and invalided out of the Navy during World War II, Peter Eton wrote to the BBC saying, “Really, your programmes are rotten, and I’m sure I could devise better ones. I’ve got ideas – and surely you must employ somebody with ideas”. He was taken on and, after gaining experience in the Drama Department he moved to Variety and became Goon Show producer after Dennis Main Wilson left at the end of series 2.
Eton’s time as producer, from the third to the sixth series, was hugely important to the development and success of the show. He instilled a sense of discipline among the chaos, he taught the cast acting skills and microphone techniques, and insisted on scripts with a solid plot line. The Goon Show went from strength to strength under his direction.
Eton left the BBC to pursue a career in television and was soon in charge of the hit sitcom The Army Game. He worked with the Goons again in 1968 when he produced a recording of Tales of Men’s Shirts for Thames TV.
In 1976 Peter Eton attended a GSPS celebration of the 25th anniversary of the first Goon Show. Read what he had to say here.
Series 7
Patrick Kenneth Macneile-Dixon (1904-1958)
When Peter Eton left to work in television, it was Pat Dixon, known as the great backroom rebel of the BBC, who took over Goon Show production. He started with episode 22 of series 6, and went on to do most of series 7. Spike Milligan once said that Dixon was, “the only producer… who knows what the Goon Show is all about”. That would have been on a good day, Spike also had fallings-out with him, to the extent that Peter Eton returned for the first two shows of series 7.
Dixon had produced shows with Secombe, Bentine and Sellers as early as 1948. He is more important in Goon history than the producer of one series. Along with Jimmy Grafton and Dennis Main Wilson, he championed the nascent Goons and was heavily involved in getting the first series on the air.
Series 8
Charles Chilton MBE (1918-2013)
Chilton was a prolific talent, who worked his way up through the BBC to create two of the BBC’s classic 1950s radio serials, Riders of the Range and Journey into Space. Another of his major triumphs was as the originator of the stage show Oh, What a Lovely War!
His first involvement with the Goons was as producer of two Series 3 shows. Later he produced fifteen shows during series 8, along with seven of the Vintage Goons programmes which were recorded at the same time.
Charles Chilton, along with Bobby Jaye, gave an interview to the GSPS in 2007. Read the interview here.
Roy Speer (1932-2012)
There’s an often told story about a telephone call made to Roy Speer in 1948 by a “cheeky young sod” named Peter Sellers. Sellers did a convincing enough impersonation of the radio personality Kenneth Horne to earn an audition and get his break into radio. Speer produced eight shows during series 8, along with seven of Vintage Goons programmes. He was also the producer of Educating Archie, and ended up producing the programme “Archie in Goonland”, which was a merger of the two shows.
Tom Ronald
Producer of Goon Shows 8/15 and 8/16 and Vintage Goons programme V/8. Reportedly, he actively disliked The Goon Show, but was given the production reins for two weeks after the departure of Roy Speer. This was a bad idea, and he was replaced before he could do too much damage. He’s better remembered for producing a couple of series of Hancock’s Half Hour.
Series 9 & 10
John Logan Browell (1917-1997)
John Browell was the producer of the last two series of The Goon Show and oversaw its coming-to-an-end phase. He also produced The Last Goon Show of All. After the revolving door of producers during series 8, he brought much more discipline back into proceedings.
He had, in fact, been involved with the Goons longer than almost anyone, having been ‘the sound bloke’ during the second series and then the Panel Studio Manager for series 3, 4 and 5.
John Browell is another who gave a talk to the GSPS, this one from 1997, and many of his reminiscences are contained in our newsletter archive.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 