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The Goon Show: Spike Milligan
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Alongside the musical intermissions provided by the Ray Ellington Quartet and Max Geldray, the Goon Show was famous for its unique library of sound effects. The show's scripts often provided the BBC's sound effects department with such challenges as generating the audible equivalent of a piece of string, the sound of a wall/piano/ Christmas pudding being driven at high speed, the noise made by an idiot attempting to open a door in the wrong direction, various explosions, splashes, splatters, clatters, bangs, etc. Apparently, the BBC sound library, whose previous work had involved producing nothing more stimulating than "footsteps on a gravel path" or "a knock on the door" greatly appreciated the variety of challenges posed by the show's often surreal requirements. On one occasion, Milligan is reported to have filled a sock with custard from the BBC canteen in order to find a particular squelching noise.
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The Telegoons (1963–1964) was a 15-minute BBC puppet show featuring the voices of Milligan, Secombe and Sellers and adapted from the radio scripts. 26 episodes were made. The series was briefly repeated immediately after its original run and all episodes are known to survive (having been unofficially released on the Internet).
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Performed by Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, the Goon Show was an extremely popular comedy show on the BBC Home Service. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreality, puns, catchphrases and an array of silly sound effects.
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In Ying Tong, Spike Milligan is planning his escape from a mental institution dressed in only his pajamas so he can write The Goon Show to end all Goon Shows. After applying to the British Museum to get his marbles back, he starts to lose his grip on reality and threatens to kill Eccles, the most famous Goon character. Will his partners in Goon, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers, be able to stop him?
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Though owing something to such predecessors as the radio comedy shows ITMA and Much Binding in the Marsh, the Goons broke entirely new ground in their absurdist use of the medium. Bentine, whose intricate style of humour clashed with Milligan’s freewheeling approach, left the show after a year, but the other three complemented each other well. Sellers’s flair for characterization fed on Milligan’s cartoonish creations, while Secombe, temperamentally more stable than his colleagues, formed the solid centre of the team. The bulk of Goon scripts were written by Milligan, but major contributions were made by Larry Stephens and Eric Sykes, who lent narrative structure to Milligan’s wilder excursions.
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With some drama, Spike entitled the script The Last Goon Show of All. In fact there were hopes for more Goon Show reunions. BBC memos from the 1970s still existproposing various ideas including taking up Prince Charles' offer of performing afloat 5 to a 'ship full of Seagoons'! In the end The Last Goon Show Of All proved to be exactly that. Much more than a reunion. and magic.
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Spike Milligan