Goon Pod

When Adam Faith and chums decide to make a fake Loch Ness monster they set off a chain of events too hilarious to describe. With a script by Terry Nation, What A Whopper! is a serviceable British comedy film of the early sixties slightly let down by rather colourless leads but lending solid support are the likes of Sid James, Wilfred Bramble, Charles Hawtrey and - you guessed it - Spike Milligan, who plays a tramp fishing on the bank of the Serpentine.Returning guests Tilt Araiza and Gary Rodger from The Sitcom Club mull over Scottish stereotypes, Terry Scott's potty mouth and rubber salmon. Also:Recasting Adam Faith as Harold Steptoe?Is Sid James the Paul Eddington of dirty old men?How does the film compare to Psycho?Is Terence Longdon a young Tommy Cockles?Who thought casting Freddie Frinton was a good idea?Is it a sort of sequel to What A Carve Up?And who brought along Eccles cakes?Tune in to find out the answers to all this and more!

Issued on BBC LP in 1979, The Rent Collectors is still often overlooked which is a bit unfair. Although given of a slight plot - not unusual for a Goon Show! - it has some marvellous set pieces and gags and an interesting guest performer in the shape of actor Bernard Miles. It also heralded the first official appearance of Little Jim whose catchphrase has delighted audiences ever since (it says here). We talk about Miles' appearance (which was very much last-minute), Sellers' ATV Saturday night specials scripted by Eric Sykes in which he portrayed the likes of Bloodnok & Willium, and we touch on Aldous Huxley, Marilyn Monroe and General Gordon (what a party THAT was!)This week's guest is performer and podcaster Ciarán Moffatt who posits that the episode is possibly two unfinished shows bolted together. Later the discussion turns to talk of inflatable dolls and manatees... something for everyone folks!

This week a slight departure as we go back forty years to the alternative comedy landscape of the 1980s and Tyler chats with Rowland Rivron, that difficult-to-define Swiss army knife of a man who has done a bit of pretty much everything: musician, comedian, actor, writer, voice-over artiste, panel game captain, television presenter, dancer and at least a dozen other things.  Rowland was partly responsible for one of the funniest hours of British television: The Comic Strip Presents Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, starring Rik Mayall & Adrian Edmondson. Tyler was keen to discuss this in particular with him in a conversation which also covered: Interviewing Spike Milligan Sharing a flat with Rik MayallRaw Sex and The Idiot Bastard Band Money for old rope voiceover workInterviewing Tony Blackburn in the middle of the ThamesThe Groovy Fellers and Set of SixWorking with French & SaundersWinning Let's Dance For Sport Relief doing Weapon Of ChoiceGetting drunk with Kevin McNallyShooting Stars & Jack and Jeremy's Real LivesCaravanning around Europe … And a whole lot more!

This week Tyler talks to Robert Sellers, author of a new book detailing the entire history of the Pink Panther/Inspector Clouseau film series from Peter Sellers to Steve Martin. There's loads of interesting stuff discussed - did you know:Peter Sellers was once upstaged by Richard Burton & Elisabeth Taylor at the premiere of Return Of The Pink Panther?The creator of Asterix tried to claim authorship of the plot of The Pink Panther Strikes Again?Blake Edwards broke his neck diving into a swimming pool?Carole Cleveland was almost totally cut out of a Panther film?Dudley Moore was supposed to play 'The Ferret'?Robert is also the author of many other books on comedy and popular culture and they also talk sitcoms, Oliver Reed and why 1971 was the greatest year in film.

This week we fire up a Wurlitzer and crack open an oyster as we celebrate one of the aspects of the Goon Show that made it so unique: the sound effects. Joining Tyler to talk about some of our favourites are Chris Smith and Graeme Lindsay-Foot and the idea for the show first occurred to Chris when he heard a news item on the radio several years ago. According to Chris: "They covered the recent creation of a "sounds archive", dedicated to preserving sounds previously very familiar butwhich are fast fading in popular memory, such as a steam train or bakelite telephone dialling tone (or its ring for that matter), or cine camera or film projector. The point being that the "lifespan" of familiar sounds is becoming shorter as technology and equipment changes - leading tothose sounds literally fading away from popular memory."Taking this as a starting point, they consider what effects in the Goon Show would totally baffle younger listeners today, before running through some of the greatest (and some fairly obscure) FX and GRAMS inclusions throughout the show's run, including many listeners' favourites such as Tom the piano-playing penguin, someone knocking on the door with a duck and the otherworldly Radiophonic Workshop effects used in 'The Scarlet Capsule'. There's also a salute to those unsung lads who made the magic happen!

We revisit some beloved children's television series from the seventies and eighties this week as Chris Diamond returns to talk about those occasions when Spike Milligan would pop up as a special guest in shows such as Super Gran, The Sooty Show, Pob's Programme, Jackanory, The Muppet Show, Number 73, Tiswas and The Ratties (which Spike narrated). Wiping a nostalgia-fuelled tear from his eye, Chris regrets the lack of original children's programming which has cut-through these days and warmly reminisces about other shows from the period such as The Wombles, The Smurfs and The Trap Door (with Willie Rushton). There's also time for a game of 'Which Major Celebrity Of The Eighties Didn't Guest Star In Super Gran?' and an attempt by Chris to remember the lyrics to that show's infectiously catchy theme tune. With huge thanks to the exceptional Roger Langridge for this episode's artwork!

"Ah, here is is Christmas Eve and still no offers of pantomime!"One of the best-known Goon Shows ever, Dishonoured - Again went out in January 1959 and before the year was at an end was commercially released (with Tales Of Old Dartmoor) on the LP The Best Of The Goon Shows. It was subsequently repeated more frequently than most Goon Shows and its script was published in a Roger Wilmut book.A remake (superior in every respect) of a Series 5 episode, due to Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens both being unwell and unable to produce an original script, it positively pops and the cast are clearly having a ball. Steve Hatcher joins us this week to talk about this very fine episode which somewhat gives the lie to the lazy belief that by this late point in the show's run the team were coasting and looking to their own individual careers and future success. As well as the episode itself they discuss Harry on stage in Large As Life, Sellers' major film commitments and Spike's rather muddled version of some tragic events.

This week we're turning our attention to Peter Sellers'penultimate film (if we disregard those pesky ‘flogging a dead Panther' posthumous farragoes), and the film for which he came closest in his career to carrying off a Best Actor Oscar: Being There from 1979.  Very much a passion project for Sellers, the film, directed by Hal Ashby (Harold & Maude) and based on the novel by Jerzy Kosiński, centres around the character of Chance, a gardener and late middle-aged ward of an elderly man whose death throws Chance's entire world into disarray, if he didbut know it. Chance has the mental age of a child and is cut off from the outside world; his limited understanding of anything outside his immediate surroundings is entirely informed by what he glimpses on TV.  Through a series of incidents, Chance (now rechristened Chauncey Gardiner after a misunderstanding) is thrust into the world of the American political establishment when he is invited to stay at the home of dying billionaire Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas) and his wife Eve (Shirley Maclaine). He meets the President (Jack Warden) and somehow he is assumed to be some sort of oracle, with people believing his every banal utterance to be invested with great truth and meaning.  Podcaster Antony Rotunno (host of Glass Onion podcast) joins Tyler to talk about the film and tries to work out quite why it gets under his skin.

Can you believe that for half a century student bars the length and breadth of the land have resounded to the excruciating cries of "Nii!"? Yes, the film the Spanish call 'The Knights of the Square Table and Their Crazy Followers' turns 50 and to mark the occasion here's a bonus episode with Tyler and writer, podcaster & performer Tom Salinsky in which they talk at length about the film. Tom thinks that Life of Brian has more to say but Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the most consistently funny of their films, with barely a moment left gagless, from the inspired opening titles to the demonic camp of Tim the Enchanter. They discuss highlights such as the cartoonish violence of the King Arthur vs Black Knight sequence; Brave Sir Robin and his minstrel Neil Innes; Gilliam the gatekeeper of the Bridge of Death (later rented out to William Friedkin for Sorcerer?); Dennis the mud-ridden firebrand decrying systems of government; Carole Cleveland as Zoot, Mistress of Castle Anthrax; the weakly insipid Prince Herbert and his overbearing dad; the witch trial; Brother Maynard and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and, of course, Frank the TV historian who suffers a violent slaying.Tom also talks of his love for the LP and compares the film to the script book – whither Brian the Wild from the final cut? – and reveals that parts of the original script were later repurposed for the fourth series of Monty Python. He also touches on Spamalot and springing from that there's an interesting overview of the recent Dr Strangelove production starring Steve Coogan.Also: the coconuts for horses gag – A Show Called Fred got there first! So that ticks the box marked 'Goon Content'!Tom is co-host of Best Pick podcast: https://bestpickpod.com/

"Do you want a taste of the lash?""No thanks, I've just had some cocoa."In 1974 the BBC issued the first Goon Show Classics LP. On one side was The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea and on the other side was the show we're talking about today: The Histories of Pliny the Elder, Spike Milligan's attempt to pen a sword-and-sandals Goonish epic.It has become one the most beloved Goon Shows ever, with some highly memorable gags and an end-of-term looseness about it. They all sounded like they were just having a lot of fun. Joining Tyler is returning guest James Page and as well as discussing the show itself pay tribute to a couple of the backroom boys, examine the difference between Cyril and Lew and give mention to Mark Kermode, Terry Scott and the Asterix books.

According to Peter Sellers: “It all started because Spike Milligan and I once said we wanted to experiment in visual humour. We got as many friends together as we could and went and found a field. That was all we had – friends, a field, a roll of film.”What resulted was 'The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film' (1959), directed by the up-and-coming Richard Lester, a friend and collaborator of Sellers and Milligan. The short film soon became a word-of-mouth hit and was even nominated for an Oscar. It helped pave the way for Lester to work with the Beatles several years later and Spike Milligan claimed that it was one of the very few true visual representations of Peter Sellers' sense of humour. Although accounts vary it has become accepted that the total budget for the film was £70 (including the rent of a field) and the entire cast was made up of - as Sellers says - friends. So we see Graham Stark, Leo McKern, David Lodge, Mario Fabrizi, Bruce Lacey and Johnny Vyvyan, as well as the two Goons themselves. This week film academic Dr Adrian Smith joins Tyler to talk about this highly influential 11 minutes of mayhem.

A darkly comic satire about an increasingly deranged leader of a Western power, tensions with Russia and the threat of World War 3 breaking out – sound familiar? That's the premise of Whoops Apocalypse, the 1986 feature film very loosely based on the sitcom of the same name, created by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall. Sadly where the film fails to imitate real life is the presence of a female President in the White House and she's the (relatively) sane one, while her British counterpart (played by Peter Cook) believes unemployment is caused by pixies and is quite happy to encourage those without jobs to leap to their deaths off Beachy Head. The film also features Loretta Swit (M*A*S*H), Richard Wilson, Michael Richards (pre-Seinfeld), Rik Mayall, Alexei Sayle, Ian Richardson, Herbert Lom and John Sessions. Last December for Goon Pod Film Club Tyler spoke to Renwick & Marshall at length about Whoops Apocalypse and how it all came about and he decided to share it with the general Goon Pod listeners as a bonus episode before world events rendered its plot totally tame and entirely plausible. Andrew and David talked warmly about the film and revealed how it was chiefly the lousy scheduling of their earlier television show End Of Part One which compelled them to write the Whoops Apocalypse sitcom, which in turn led to producer Brian Eastman proposing a big-screen repurposing, involving a new storyline and characters. They discussed the writing process, the challenges of casting, the difference between what made critics laugh and audiences laugh and things they wish had worked a little bit better. Goon Pod returns in late March. Goon Pod Film Club can be found here: patreon.com/GoonPod and you can sign up free for a seven day trial. Shows include Kind Hearts & Coronets, A Hard Days Night, Bedazzled (1967), Monty Python & The Holy Grail, Guest House Paradiso (aka the ‘Bottom movie'),Carry On Screaming, Billy Liar and, most recently, It's Trad Dad.

In 2024 we asked Goon Pod listeners to nominate their all-time favourite British comedy film. It didn't have to have a Goon in it - no, we wanted to put together a comprehensive Top 20 chart which covered all the bases. This week as we wind up the show this series Simon Meddings from Waffle On podcast joins Tyler to count down the list from Number 20 to Number 1. While there will be films you'd expect to turn up in a list like this there's also a number of surprises and even omissions. Will your favourite have made the final 20? Waffle On: https://waffleon.podbean.com/

A special Christmas bonus edition! As part of Goon Pod Film Club - www.patreon.com/GoonPod - every month Tyler and a special guest discuss a British comedy film and in August this year Tim Worthington came to talk about his favourite: Billy Liar from 1963. Here's the full episode for Goon Pod listeners to get a taste. As you'd expect from Tim the conversation takes many twists and turns – as well as analysing the film itself, its themes and ideas, its stars, its production, its position in the pantheon of British New Wave cinema, there are also nods aplenty towards popular culture connected with the film, including Ken Russell, the Four Yorkshiremen sketch and Saint Etienne! Tom Courtenay is the titular Billy Liar, or, more accurately, William Fisher, a grammar school boy on a scholarship from a working class environment who finds himself constantly at odds with distant parents, girlfriends expecting greater commitment, a mocking colleague and a rather foolish boss. He is a provincial dreamer with aspirations to better himself but is somewhat lacking the drive. Prone to lapsing into fantasies in which he is a big wheel in a fictional state called Ambrosia, Billy's doing a job he hates working as a clerk in a funeral directors firm. However, he almost finds a way out of it all,  a chance to escape and spread his wings and soar, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shake off the cloying ordinariness of his Northern town and leave it all behind. Other films covered on GPFC this year include A Hard Days Night, Carry On Screaming and Guest House Paradiso! For a free 7-day trial of Goon Pod Film Club head over to patreon.com/GoonPod

The man behind the Goon Show Compendiums, audio engineer extraordinaire Ted Kendall returns to answer your questions in this Christmas edition!

“For a shortened version of this programme, please read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and you won't find much resemblance.”   On 24th December 1959 the tenth and final series of The Goon Show got off to a thoroughly festive start with a show VERY loosely based on the classic Dickens story, in which Scrooge (played by Henry Crun) entrusts Eccles with a Christmas pudding full of gold threepenny bits. This attracts the attention of Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty and all manner of chaos ensues.   This really was the last hurrah for the Goon Show as Series 10 only ran for six editions – Sellers was already a film star, Secombe was in huge demand as a singer and performer and Milligan (beset with personal dramas) had grown tired of doing it. It was an excuse for Sunday larks but as 1960 arrived they were all ready to move on.   Leading up to the start of the series the BBC publicity department announced: “Christmas is expected to get off to a disastrous start in the Home Service on Christmas Eve. For at exactly 7:30pm announcer Wallace Greenslade will announce over the ether “This is the Goon Show” and for the next thirty minutes Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe will start a hilarious riot throughout millions of listeners' homes.”   The show lacked any structure or discipline and yet contains some of the funniest material the Goons ever broadcast, chiefly centred around Scrooge, Eccles and Ned Scratchit. Willium is appearing as Sewerman Sam and Max Geldray defiles the acting craft with a brief role as a Welsh spouse. It wraps up on a musical note for want of a neater ending.   Joining Tyler is Andy Bell whose Welsh-language podcast is Rhaglen Cymru - Andy can be contacted at rhaglencymru@hotmail.com.

Who were the key figures in getting the Goon Show to radio? Which people were pivotal to the Goons' success? Join Tyler and Roger Stevenson as they rank those within the Goon Show's orbit in order of importance and show their working. Roger took the brief seriously and put a lot of thought and care into his choices; Tyler slightly misunderstood the brief and went more down that 'Who was the Fifth Goon?' route. What resulted was an interesting mix of names, and increasingly desperate attempts by Tyler to justify his ranking system. Among the names bandied about are such worthies as Dennis Main Wilson, Valentine Dyall, Jimmy Grafton, Larry Stephens, Dick Emery and John Snagge.

This month I've had the pleasure of speaking to two of the finest comedy writers of the last fifty years – Andrew Marshall and David Renwick – specifically about their 1986 film Whoops Apocalypse, which borrowed the title, a few plot elements and a handful of cast members from their 1982 one-series sitcom of the same name. The film was inspired by the events surrounding the Falklands War and the ongoing tensions between East and West and starred Peter Cook as increasingly deranged British premier Sir Mortimer Chris, Loretta Swit as US President Adams (no relation), Michael Richards (pre-Seinfeld) as international terrorist Lacrobat and a whole host of familiar faces such as Richard Wilson, Rik Mayall, Alexei Sayle, Ian Richardson, Herbert Lom and John Sessions.  

On 4th December 1994 Jonathan Ross hosted the British Comedy Awards in front of an invited audience of the great and the good and Noel Edmonds. It was a good year for the likes of Steve Coogan, Michael Barrymore and the Drop the Dead Donkey team but almost from the off Ross was beset by problems, including announcing the winner of the wrong award, having to deal with an out-of-control Meatloaf whose sole intention, it seemed, was to reduce Wossy to a quivering mess, and, most notably, attempting to wrest back control of the room in the wake of Spike Milligan calling the future King of England a 'little grovelling bastard'. The reaction and fallout was to dominate the redtops for days and raised Spike's profile so sufficiently that his chatshow bookings and requests for interviews quadrupled overnight. Joining Tyler to talk about all that and examine the winners (and losers) of the evening are co-host of The Sitcom Club podcast Gary Rodger and the man behind Behind The Stunts, Jon Auty. There's clips aplenty and personal reminiscences from Clive Anderson and Jane Milligan. It's a fun stroll down memory lane and a useful reminder that there was a time when Michael Barrymore was the biggest name in showbiz and the likes of Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris were still considered 'the new boys'.

A rare straight acting role for Peter Sellers in 1960, Never Let Go starred Richard Todd as a man for whom life outside of uniform has never been easy, as he struggles to put food on the table and his problems multiply when his new car is stolen. The vehicle has been stolen to order by teen tearaway Adam Faith, who supplies local garage owner and all-round nasty piece of work Lionel Meadows (Sellers) with hot wheels which are subsequently re-plated and sold on. John Cummings (Todd) is determined to get his car back and in doing so risks his own life and that of his family. Sellers was rightly lauded for his portrayal of the sociopathic Meadows, although life off-screen was hardly harmonious for his wife and kids as he took the character home with him every evening after filming. Joining Tyler to discuss this important film is Scott Phipps, co-host of the Reel Britannia, Stinking Pause & Talking Pictures TV podcasts.

In 1979 Peter Sellers released Sellers Market, an LP of all new material which was recorded mostly in Paris and included contributions from the likes of Alan Clare, June Whitfield and Irene Handl.   While it failed to reach the heights of his previous hit records The Best of Sellers and Songs For Swinging Sellers, Sellers Market does contain some good stuff – notably The Whispering Giant (featuring Irene Handl on top form) and The Eaton Square Blues.   Perhaps most intriguingly is what wasn't included on the album – a couple of tracks Sellers recorded as Fred Kite up against June Whitfield's Margaret Thatcher. Fearing her displeasure, Sellers nixed these tracks as he hoped the real Mrs T might confer upon him a knighthood. As it was, he was dead less than a year later.   Joining Tyler to talk about the making of the LP and what works and doesn't work is returning guest and Sellers expert Mark Cousins, who thinks it could have been a much better album had more time and effort been devoted by all involved; as it was it was a bit of a rush job and comes across a bit baggy and unfocused.

Released 69 years ago this week, The Cockleshell Heroes was a heavily fictionalised account of the real-life WW2 Operation Frankton, in which a group of marines, headed by Herbert ‘Blondie' Hasler, covertly entered Bordeaux Harbour in kayaks (or ‘Cockles') to sabotage German cargo vessels. The film starred actor/director Jose Ferrer and Trevor Howard, with Anthony Newley and… drum roll… DAVID LODGE providing solid support as Marines Clarke & Ruddock respectively.   Although The Cockleshell Heroes was a hit with audiences and looks gorgeous in Technicolour it doesn't tend to get talked about as much as other similar WW2 films of the period and perhaps this was partly down to the almost anti-climactic third act. However, thanks to shameless plugging by David Lodge on a frequent basis some two decades later as part of Spike Milligan's Q series the film is still regarded affectionately by some people, particularly listeners to this podcast, and it seemed a nice idea to put it under the scrutinising gaze of your host and his special guest this week.   Joining Tyler is Warren Cummings, host of The Cinematic Sausage podcast and someone with a very direct link to the true events which this film depicts – his grandfather served alongside the ‘Cockleshell Heroes' in WW2.   It's a great chat with tons of fascinating factual information about Operation Frankton and how the film reflected the true events, plus there's a long-deserved tribute to David Lodge, without whom this podcast would be poorer.

"In the little Essex hamlet of Great Bardfield, a tiger with influenza is mounting guard over a mysterious white box. What is the secret of the box of Bardfield—does it contain the dreaded International Christmas Pudding or is it really full of priceless Essex snow?" So ran the Radio Times listing that week for the show we are discussing, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the International Christmas Pudding but has everything to do with selling snow to Sudan. It's Tyler's favourite Goon Show of all, the third he ever heard and one which had been 'trailed' to him in a way by his father as he was growing up. His dad would occasionally mention the plotline of The White Box of Great Bardfield without naming it specifically; he merely considered it a quite genius idea for a comedy plot. Joining Tyler to try and unpick it all is returning guest Molly McDade who thinks it's a show you should never expose to a newbie and was looking forward to seeing Coogan in Strangelove - which, by the time this goes out she will have done!

A little taster of this month's edition of Goon Pod Film Club, Guest House Paradiso, starring Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Simon Pegg, Bill Nighy & Fenella Fielding. With our very special guest Jeffers from Podcasto Catflappo! www.patreon.com/GoonPod

Everyone at Goon Pod Towers is very excited this week as this is the first time we've ever covered a Best Picture Oscar winner on the show, and this one features everybody's favourite beadle Harry Secombe who's in fine voice for this tremendous 1968 film based on the hit Lionel Bart stage musical! Joining Tyler are those incorrigible urchins Chris Webb & Robert Johnson from Still Any Good podcast and among other things they discuss: The magnificent Ron Moody The novel vs the film Harry hits it out of the park That villainous Bill Sikes The wonderous Oliver! set Jack Wild's tragic life Max Bygrave's nice little earner The songs they dropped Carol Reed's Flap! Fagin puts in his 10,000 hours Leonard Rossiter's drunken turn Corrie does Oliver! Bullseye the dog in makeup Mark Lester's gift to Jacko Brucie as Fagin? Catflap's nod Plus much much more! Consider yourself entertained! STILL ANY GOOD: https://stillanygood.buzzsprout.com/

In 1975 David Dimbleby conducted an interview on television with Spike Milligan, and as the Fates would have it Spike was in the perfect frame of mind for such a probing and personal interrogation. They talked about his childhood, the war, his career, his mental health, the breakdown of his marriage in the fifties, his hopes and regrets and even touch on (then) contemporary events - the boy he shot in his garden and the fallout which resulted in him being dropped from several animal charities. The conversation is punctuated by a series of filmed sequences in which people who knew Spike well give their views on the ex-Goon, such as his fellow ex-Goon Peter Sellers, writer and collaborator John Antrobus and old friend and mentor Jimmy Grafton. As indicated, Spike takes it all largely in his stride, with only very occasional flashes of annoyance or irritation and the odd bemused frown and it remains one of the most insightful and honest portraits of the great man we have. Our guest this week is actor & writer Lee Moone who previously has adapted Milligan's Phantom Raspberry-Blower of Old London Town for the stage.

Young Ned Seagoon, walking the streets of London during a particularly thick 'pea-souper,' accidentally knocks over a Miss Selina Clutch. Her strange behaviour mystifies young Neddie until a chance meeting with Dr. Rheingold Fnutt puts him on the track of an underground terrorist organisation led by the reckless 'Overcoat Charlie' intent on wrecking the capital's commercial life by blanketing London with an artificial foreign fog that makes people think nothing but the best of each other. Professor Crun is called in by the Government to find an antidote to 'Forog' but not before Professor Moriarty and Commercial Attache, Grytpype-Thynne, nearly succeed in bringing London life to a standstill. So runs the synopsis to this week's edition but as is usually the case the actual show itself bears little relationship to Spike Milligan's fevered precis. Instead, we find an increasingly manic Ned Seagoon hell-bent on solving London's fog problem, conversing with statues and getting all xenophobic over atmospheric conditions. Joining Tyler this week is James Page who loves Forog... but can our host say the same?

"There once was a beautiful moon, "It was up in the sky, chum, "When he said “What's the time?” "They replied ‘What?' "And the horse departed leaving spon." With poetry like that it's no wonder we lost the Empire. And it stands out as one of the most memorable bits of a Goon Show episode which is rather unfairly overlooked: The Moon Show from January 1957. Neddie is a tramp poet, who buys a poetic licence from those chiselling spivs Grytpype Thynne & Moriarty and through further trickery believes himself to be the rightful owner of the moon. Then he realises that the moon is a forgery and pursues the villains across Europe. Joining Tyler this week is Ian Winick, co-host of the Lord Of Adders Black podcast: https://shows.acast.com/lord-of-adders-black

A little taster of this month's edition of Goon Pod Film Club, featuring Andrew Trowbridge & Lisa Parker from Round The Archives podcast! We're talking about the 1966 Hammer horror homage Carry On Screaming, starring Harry H. Corbett, Kenneth Williams, Fenella Fielding and Peter Butterworth. Go to patreon.com/GoonPod for the full 90 minute show! Free trial available.

Take three Pythons, a Goon, the father of modern satire, some Mel Brooks regulars, a Young One, a rock legend, a couple of stoners and a host of familiar British character actors and put them all into a comedy pirate film and what have you got? Arrrrrnswers on a postcarrrrrrd please. Joining Tyler this week to discuss Graham Chapman's ambitious if undercooked 1983 film is writer and performer Adrian Mackinder: http://www.adrianmackinder.co.uk/

"... Sellers is very funny. Unfortunately, the movie's general approach to hippiedom is what we've come to dread. Hippies wear funny clothes, sleep on the stove, don't wash, read the Los Angeles Free Press, bake pot brownies, put up posters everywhere and operate with a sort of mindless, directionless love ethic. So the movie becomes conventional after all. If they'd dropped Sellers into a real hippie culture, we might really have had a movie here." (Roger Ebert, 1968) Despite the misgivings of the exalted Mr Ebert, I Love You Alice B. Toklas is a pretty good film generally. This week's guest, the writer John Williams, and Tyler both had fun watching it and talking about it, and were particularly impressed by Peter Sellers' winning turn as lawyer Harold Fine who undergoes a mid-life crisis and embraces the patchouli-scented hippy lifestyle. With solid support from the likes of Joyce Van Patten and Leigh Taylor-Young, the film is a fine showcase for Sellers' talents and despite dated fashions more or less holds up. So turn on, tune in, drop out and enjoy Goon Pod this week!

In 1966, at the height of World Cup fever, an unassuming little British comedy film came out and caused nary a ripple despite a stellar cast of well-known faces. Michael Bentine stars as Horace Quilby, the titular Sandwich Man, who walks the streets of London and seems to know everyone he passes. Without anything so distracting as a plot the film meanders somewhat and is essentially a series of sketches loosely linked together, an indication perhaps of Bentine's lack of experience in long-form storytelling, having come off the back of his hugely successful television series It's A Square World. The film features a host of well-known figures from the world of comedy including Norman Wisdom, Terry-Thomas, Bernard Cribbins, John Le Mesurier, Fred Emney, Harry H Corbett, Stanley Holloway and Ron Moody and has possibly the most incongruous ending to a film ever! Joining Tyler this week are Rob & Guy of the podcast Britcom Goes To The Movies, a show in which they examine big-screen spin-offs of small-screen comedy series and characters - ko-fi.com/britcomgoes

This week a slight departure as Chris Diamond returns to take a leisurely meander through the world of British comedy, randomly choosing from a selection of topics (such as Who Was The Fifth Goon?) and pondering upon the genius (or otherwise) of such performers as Kenneth Williams, Michael Bentine, Bob Monkhouse, Arthur English, Hinge & Bracket, Bernard Manning and Spike Milligan, plus shows such as 15 Stories High, The Good Life, One Foot In The Grave, Blackadder, Nearest & Dearest, French & Saunders and Rising Damp.

Sixty years ago the Beatles smashed onto the silver screen in living black & white! With the coming-together of so many perfect elements - a Goonish director, a writer with an intuitive ear for dialogue, a superb supporting cast and of course a willing and capable quartet as yet unburdened by cynicism - A Hard Day's Night remains the greatest musical comedy ever committed to celluloid! Writer Eddie Robson is this month's guest on Goon Pod Film Club - head over to patreon.com/GoonPod to sign up and listen instantly - in the meantime, here's a preview of some highlights from this month's show!

Seven years after the publication of Vladimir Nabokov's scandalous novel Lolita Stanley Kubrick brought it to the big screen, having adapted the author's screenplay sufficiently, assembled a fine cast and applied the directorial flourishes that would come to mark his films out as unique. As Humbert Humbert Kubrick cast James Mason, who portrayed the predatory intellectual with just the right amount of creepiness, while allowing his character enough vulnerability and weakness that audiences, while not rooting for him by any means, weren't wholly repulsed. His antagonist, and the shadow that hangs over the entire film, is Clare Quilty, played with aplomb by Peter Sellers in his first collaboration with Kubrick. Although his actual screen-time is limited, Quilty is a ubiquitous presence, a quietly menacing threat to Humbert's happiness and ultimately the agent of his downfall. Most people know the story and it wasn't for nothing that the tagline for the film was 'How did they make a movie of Lolita?' Through masterful direction, insinuation and nuance Kubrick managed to do it, and did it well, and while we can feel disgust towards some of its themes there's no denying that it's a powerful film. Joining Tyler to talk about it is actor Patrick Strain, who puts up a spirited argument that it is one of Kubrick's best.

Sean Gaffney returns to talk about a favourite Goon Show episode from 1956 - Six Charlies In Search Of An Author, loosely based on a play by Fred Pirandello. Was it a cry for help from Spike? A thinly-veiled portrait of a man whose life was beset by the weekly demand for a funny script, pouring scorn and contempt upon the very characters he created? Or was it just a neat idea for a particularly shambolic (and funny) episode? We shall see. Plus: an AI-generated 80,000-word examination of Series 7 of The Goon Show which leaves a LOT to be desired!

Fred Nurke is missing! An over-ripe banana in a deserted Cannon Street shipping office is the only clue to his whereabouts. Inspector Ned Seagoon follows the trail to a British Embassy in South America. Why are Senor Gonzales Mess and his gang trying to cut down the only banana tree in the Embassy gardens, and what is the connection between Fred Nurke and the over-ripe banana?  Find out (maybe) by listening to this week's edition of Goon Pod, in which Tyler is joined by Jonathan Roberts! They also examine the wider usage of the word 'nurk' (in its various spellings), wonder at a major US news anchor referencing this particular show and discuss the Guatemala revolution of 1954. Larry Stephens gets some well-deserved props too and they even manage to squeeze in Ed Wood's Bride Of The Monster!

Best known to audiences around the world as Lt Gruber from 'Allo 'Allo! Guy Siner joins Tyler this week to talk about the show, his career and his brand new podcast - Listen Very Carefully - in which he and friends & colleagues Kim Hartmann (Helga) and Richard Gibson (Herr Flick) look back fondly and drink gin. Before landing the role of Gruber Guy had appeared in Genesis of the Daleks up against Tom Baker and had a brief role in Secret Army - ironically the very programme which inspired 'Allo 'Allo! Post-'Allo 'Allo! his career has flourished and as well as films (such as Pirates of the Caribbean) and television (including Seinfeld) Guy is (possibly) the only person to have appeared in all four major sci-fi franchises: Dr Who; Star Trek; Babylon 5 and Star Wars (he did voice work on the game Star Wars: TIE Fighter) We talk briefly about the Goons and the Kenneth Connor connection but this episode is very much given over to focusing on Guy and 'Allo 'Allo! in particular - both shows share a silliness and sense of the absurd so there should be a big crossover of fans. Listen Very Carefully (Guy's new podcast): https://podqp.podbean.com/

A chaotic naval lieutenant, who cannot be discharged due to his connections, is transferred from the Admiralty to a mothballed destroyer whose crew is running dodgy Bilko-esque money-making schemes. David Tomlinson stars as Lt Fairweather and Peter Sellers, with a whiskery Irish brogue, plays Chief Petty Officer Doherty. Returning guest Graham Rinaldi discusses Val Guest's 1958 comic romp - does it still hold water after all these years?

A quick preview of this month's edition of Goon Pod Film Club - Billy Liar (1963) with special guest Tim Worthington. More: patreon.com/GoonPod

John Rain & Paul Litchfield join Tyler to discuss Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 1978 adaptation of the classic Sherlock Holmes story, an attempt to make a hit mainstream comedy but which failed to find an audience. Mostly owing to it not being very good. Directed by American Paul Morrissey this was the first major film project he made without the involvement of Andy Warhol. Rather bizarrely Morrissey was a fan of the Carry On films and he was keen to bring that sort of humour to the screen, enlisting Kenneth Williams to play Sir Henry Baskerville and stuffing it full of familiar faces from the world of British comedy. The result was a bit of a mess, with indoor fog and urinating dogs small compensation for proper belly laughs but there is still plenty to talk about and some titters among the dross. It's not a complete dog of a film. And why are we covering it on Goon Pod? Why, for the small scene-stealing cameo from Spike Milligan as a policeman. Enjoy! Many thanks to the wonderful Jonathan Roberts for this episode's artwork! There's also a taster of August's edition of Goon Pod Film Club, in which Tim Worthington talks Billy Liar! Head over to www.patreon.com/GoonPod

It's 50 years since Spike Milligan recorded an LP version of his children's story Badjelly the Witch, with music by Ed Welch. The story is simple and hilarious. Two children, Tim & Rose, go in search of their lost cow Lucy and along the way have adventures with characters such as Binklebonk the tree goblin and his grasshopper Silly Sausage, Mudwiggle the worm and Dinglemouse, a former banana. Peril is just around the corner however, as they are captured by the terrifying witch Badjelly who wants to eat them up for breakfast! The record was a huge hit with kids in New Zealand, thanks to radio broadcasts in the seventies and eighties, and even today the mere mention of the name 'Badjelly' will elicit broad grins of recognition across generations, yet oddly it barely registers with people in Britain. Hoping to put this right is cartoonist and writer Roger Langridge (who also designed this week's delightful artwork) who chats to Tyler about the history of Badjelly and shares favourite moments. There's also a lovely return visit from Jane Milligan who talks warmly about the baddest witch in all the world and hints at what the future holds.

In early March 1958 the elderly actor A.E. Matthews staged a protest outside his cottage in Bushey Heath – he sat on a chair over a hole the council had dug with the intention of erecting a lamp post there. A minor squabble which quickly caught the ear of the media, Matthews' stand against his local council became a cause célèbre and he was interviewed on television. Spike Milligan liked the cut of his jib and within a week the Goons were recording The Evils of Bushey Spon, all about the erection of a lamp-post. Matthews himself makes a guest appearance in the closing minutes and everything perfectly falls apart.   It was such a slight story on the face of it, only attracting interest due to an octogenarian celebrity being involved, and would have been very quickly completely forgotten had it not been for the Goons - as such, it remains a tiny ‘and finally'-type news story immortalised for the ages.   Joining Tyler to talk about it is returning guest Chris Diamond, who also takes the opportunity to pay tribute to the late great Donald Sutherland.

At last the Ted Kendall show! In 2022 Tyler spoke with genius sound engineer Ted Kendall about his career with an emphasis on the work he did in lovingly restoring Goon Shows to their original broadcast length and best possible quality. For a number of technical reasons this interview lay in the Goon Pod vaults for the longest time but finally it can be heard! Ted talks warmly about his career and displays a forensic knowledge of Goon-related minutiae. He worked closely with Dirk Maggs in the early nineties to bring about At Last The Go On Show and subsequent R2 & R4 seasons of fully-restored Goon Shows, but it is his work on the Goon Show Compendiums for which we fans should adopt the position and intone "We are not worthy!" A fascinating exploration of audio restoration which will enthral all radio enthusiasts.

The first edition of Goon Pod Film Club has dropped - and here's a taster plus huge thanks to all those who have supported it already! Head over to www.patreon.com/GoonPod to sign up and receive every month a brand new premium episode in which guests discuss their favourite British comedy films!

60 years ago the Labour Party won the UK General Election, booting the Conservatives out of office after thirteen years. It is not known if Harold Wilson listened to the LP 'How To Win An Election (Or Not Lose By Much)' but even if he had it is highly unlikely he would have found it instructive. Leslie Bricusse brought together Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe to record this album one afternoon in early 1964 after a lunch in which vast quantities of wine had been dispatched. Peter Sellers recorded his parts a number of weeks later and very soon after technically died (he did, however, recover). This week Brett Tremble - @agnes_guano on Twitter - joins Tyler to tell the tale behind the making of the LP. The conversation includes predictions about the forthcoming General Election and as such could leave them with red faces should opinion polls turn out to be wrong! ******** Sign up for Goon Pod Film Club here: www.patreon.com/GoonPod - first episode on Kind Hearts & Coronets out Saturday 6th July! **********

“Then I submit, Inspector Ballon, that you arrived home, found Miguel with Maria Gambrelli and killed him in a rit of fealous jage!” The Pink Panther received its world premiere in Italy in December 1963 and was officially released in the US in March 1964. Despite David Niven topping the bill, the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau - played by Peter Sellers - stole the film. Just three months later, in June 1964, Inspector Clouseau returned and this time in the lead. A Shot In The Dark was brought forward for a summer release, to capitalise on the success of The Pink Panther. It would be released in the UK in January 1965. A Shot In The Dark was adapted for the screen from an original French play and changed almost beyond recognition, thanks to the combined talents of Blake Edwards and William Peter Blatty (who would later go on to pen The Exorcist). Maria Gambrelli, a maid employed in the service of the millionaire Benjamin Ballon, is accused of murdering chauffeur Miguel Ostos. Clouseau is assigned to the case and almost immediately is smitten by Maria. A series of subsequent murders occur and even Clouseau himself becomes a target. What we get is an almost perfect comedy film, with Sellers at the peak of his powers - just months away from his series of heart attacks in Hollywood - and crisp, tight direction by Edwards. The film also marks the first appearances of Herbert Lom as Clouseau's long-suffering boss, Commissioner Dreyfus, André Maranne as Dreyfus's assistant François and Burt Kwouk as Clouseau's devoted manservant Cato. So, as it is the 60th anniversary of ASITD's release what better excuse than to talk about it at length for Goon Pod? It's your host's favourite Peter Sellers film of all time and he spends what seems like the show's entirety giggling and chuckling so it falls on this week's guest - newly published novelist Adam Leslie - to inject a bit of professionalism to proceedings! Lost In The Garden can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Garden-Adam-S-Leslie/dp/1915368480

Hi folks - normal service resumes tomorrow when the usual weekly edition of Goon Pod drops but here's a bit of extra rabbit from me explaining about forthcoming bonus content: Goon Pod Film Club! Head over to patreon.com/GoonPod

Johnny Speight, creator of Alf Garnett, had a long friendship with Spike Milligan, stretching back to the mid-fifties and the Associated London Scripts days. Speight wrote Till Death Us Do Part which delighted and shocked television audiences in equal measure, with Garnett given to frequent outbursts against what he perceived as society's ills: immigration & foreigners in general, socialism, young people, increasing secularism, homosexuals, lack of due deference to the Royal Family and the ruling elite, feminism and anything else that he didn't really understand and felt threatened by. In the mid-1980s Speight wrote a follow-up series to Till Death Us Do Part called In Sickness and in Health, which reintroduced audiences to Alf, now older but hardly any wiser. From the second series Alf was a widower (after the death of his co-star Dandy Nicholls) and there gradually grew a new set of characters to antagonise and exasperate him. In the third series Spike had a guest appearance as Fancy Fred, squaring up to Alf at a tea dance and later bickering over where he parked his van. It's not a huge part and Spike wasn't aiming for any Bafta awards, but it's an intriguing cameo and one which we thought was worth talking about this week on Goon Pod - as well as talking about the Alf Garnett universe in general. Joining Tyler is comedian John Dredge, currently riding high with a new series of his sketch show The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show - which can be found HERE: https://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/john_dredge_show/

"... Must admit he was very funny. I laughed. I laughed a great deal. Thought I was going to cry. I did." A Visit to Swansea was the fourth episode of the second series of Hancock's Half Hour and was originally broadcast on 10th May 1955, two days before Tony Hancock's 31st birthday. It was long considered one of the missing Hancocks until it was discovered last year by Richard Harrison of the Radio Circle and came from the same collection of recordings as The Marriage Bureau – the only episode of HHH to feature Peter Sellers and one we covered on Goon Pod previously with the guys from the Very Nearly An Armful podcast. It's intriguing as this is another formerly missing show to feature a Goon – in this case Harry Secombe in a cameo, and it followed on from the three previous episodes of HHH in which Secombe stood in for Hancock who had undergone some sort of breakdown and gone off to Italy. Naturally it warranted an evaluation on Goon Pod and who better to talk all things Hancock than friend of the show Scott Phipps, host of such shows as Reel Britannia and the Talking Pictures podcast.

"Being the account of the hole, the wonderful way it was filled, and with what. Written for the wireless by Spike Milligan." On the 12th August 1957 a Daily Mirror reporter encountered Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan larking about around Cleopatra's Needle on London's Embankment: ""This is 1887!" yelled Spike Milligan, standing on the base in a pair of rust corduroy trousers, green shoes, a tail coat - and a topee. ""We've just brought this back from Africa, a well-known place." "Alongside him were Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers in tail coats and toppers. Harry screeched (and ducked): "Look out - pigeon!" then started to sing a song about "Lord Palmerston I love you..." "Having all convinced themselves that they had just brought the needle back across the seas, Harry announced: "I now declare this needle well and truly threaded!" "Then they sang: "There'll always be an England" and gave three hearty cheers for the Empire." Some three years after the interesting experimental edition of the Goon Show called The Starlings which was performed more as a radio play without an audience, in August 1957 the Goons reconvened ahead of the 8th series to record The Reason Why in a similar fashion. It purported to tell the story behind the transportation of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London but through a typically Goonish filter. Produced by Jacques Brown and also featuring Goon Show rep company player Valentine Dyall, The Reason Why was not quite as successful in its execution as The Starlings, but still a fascinating curio and this week Phil Shoobridge joins Tyler to talk about it.