The Goon Show series 1
How it started
‘What exactly is a goon? Well, this is the answer Michael Bentine, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and I cooked up whenever people asked us to explain ourselves,’ wrote Harry Secombe in his newspaper column for the Glaswegian publication The Bulletin on Monday 24 June 1957. He then elaborated: ‘A goon is someone with a one-cell brain. Anything not basically simple puzzles a goon. He thinks in the fourth dimension and his language is one step past babytalk. Goonery is bringing any situation to its illogical conclusion’.
From 3.30pm to 4.15pm on Wednesday 26 April 1949, a trial recording of a new BBC radio comedy series called Tatters Castle took place in the silent, audience-free space of the Criterion Theatre in London. The lack of audience was the idea of the Paris-born producer Jacques Brown, a compere and actor on BBC radio before the war who had found success in the radio comedy Danger – Men at Work! and who had then started to produce shows such as Taxi!, Hi Gang!, Can You Beat It? and Oliver’s Twists. The format of the show was a strange mix of humour concerning the crumbling estate of an eccentric English earl, his butler and the rest of his staff who resided near Lower Sagging. The cast comprised some of radio’s newest talent who had been experimenting with a new form of ‘goon’ humour which they had developed since the war, making each other laugh at the family-run pub of Grafton’s on Strutton Grounds in Westminster. The landlord-cum-theatrical agent Jimmy Grafton had co-written the script under the pen-name ‘James Douglas’ along with his lodger, eccentric musician Terence ‘Spike’ Milligan. Impersonator Peter Sellers headed the cast along with rising comics Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Robert Moreton, plus Doris Nichol (a colleague of Jacques Brown’s from Danger – Men at Work!) and Bob Bain. Peter was Lord Peter, the twenty-second Earl of Sellers, with Robert as Mr Moreton the butler, Doris as Peter’s aunt Lady Lavinia, Harry and Michael as the crackpot wastrels Harry Secombe and the Great Mike Bentine, and Bob as planning representative T Mucksworld Quince. The script also featured flashbacks to Peter’s ancestors, and opportunities for Peter to impersonate stars of the day such as Robb Wilton and Kenneth Horne. Music was composed by established BBC pianist Jack Jordan, a veteran of Have a Go! and various musical shows, the melodies were conducted by Stanley Black, and Dennis Castle acted as the announcer.
The trial recording was studied by BBC Light Entertainment (Sound)… and rejected. But it was the first recording undertaken by the Corporation to combine the talents of four comparatively new performers whose strange new ‘goon’ humour would soon herald a new generation in British comedy.
The Goons
Spike Milligan
Born in 1918, Spike Milligan had been a jazz musician before being called up for World War II, where he was hospitalised with shell shock after being wounded in action at the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. After demob, he had returned to England and worked with the comedy music group The Bill Hall Trio from 1947; this included editions of BBC TV’s Variety produced by Michael Mills in July 1947. Spike had also met up with – and lodged with – a fellow soldier whom he had encountered during the war, Welsh singer and comic Harry Secombe.
Harry Secombe
Hailing from Swansea and three years younger than Spike, Harry had been a pay clerk before the war and had encountered Spike during their time in North Africa. The pair found that they shared the same strange sense of fun, and after demob, Harry started to perform on stage as a comic at the infamous Windmill Theatre from October 1946. He made his first television broadcast on Little Show in November 1946, soon followed by BBC radio spots on Variety Bandbox and The Carroll Levis Show in 1947. And while at the Windmill, Harry encountered another comic with a different view of the post-war world: Michael Bentine.
Michael Bentine
Born in 1922, Eton-educated, half-Peruvian Michael had overcome a stammer to develop an interest in theatricals when war broke out and he joined the RAF, ultimately working for British Intelligence. His improvisational nature with props led him to establish a stage act after demob, winning a place on the bill at the Windmill as part of the double act Sherwood and Forrest. Also a writer, Michael offered Harry some material for his appearances on Variety Bandbox and then introduced Harry to another writer, Major Jimmy Grafton (rtd) at Grafton’s; Jimmy soon became Harry’s agent. Seeing a fellow comedy eccentric, Harry quickly introduced Spike to Michael… and Michael was soon to experience success as part of the London Hippodrome revue Starlight Roof by late 1947.
In September 1947, Harry was appearing at the Hackney Empire and when Spike visited him there he was introduced to another comedy act, impersonator Peter Sellers.
Peter Sellers
Peter had been born into a theatrical family and had accompanied his parents on the variety circuit, working in the theatre and playing drums in bands during the war. He entertained the troops in the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) and joined the RAF in 1943, serving in the Far East. After demob, he continued to work as a drummer and impressionist. Peter (who shared the same birthday as Harry but was four years younger) was also quickly added to the Grafton’s mob where the former servicemen would get together in the upper room to engage in crazy banter, strange gags, and mess around with tunes around the piano.
A major leap forward for this new style of humour came with a trial recording for a show entitled Listen My Children at the Camden Theatre on Wednesday 24 March 1948. The cast included Harry and the producer was Pat Dixon, originally a writer on the pre-war show Give Me Air who had gone on to produce entertainment shows including Hoop-La! and Ignorance is Bliss. By April, the series had been confirmed, with eight shows to record from Saturday 8 May for broadcast on the Light Programme from Tuesday 1 June. The ambitious young Peter had approached the BBC for television auditions in January 1948 with an act consisting of his wide range of characters from favourite radio personalities of the day to regional caricatures of his own. He made his BBC TV debut in March 1948 on New To You and was soon acclaimed for his impersonations at the Windmill. A cheeky phone call to BBC producer Roy Speer – in which he impersonated Kenneth Horne, the star of Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh – got Peter work on Show Time in June 1948 which was followed by spots on shows like Variety Bandbox, Starlight Hour and Tempo for Today – a demanding schedule which he fitted in around touring in variety. Having spent autumn 1947 touring Europe, Spike and the Bill Hall Trio appeared on television in Rooftop Rendezvous (produced by Richard Afton) in August 1948. After a spell with the Ann Lenner Trio, Spike met up again with the Grafton’s mob and started to write a few gags for one of Jimmy’s clients, comedian Derek Roy who was appearing on Variety Bandbox. However, Spike felt that Derek was not a funny man and instead focussed more on messing around with his own routines with the mob at Grafton’s, soon known as ‘Them ruddy Goons!’.
The Evolution
"Goon"
The word ‘Goon’ started to enter more public circulation when a piece about Michael entitled What is a Goon? appeared in the Picture Post dated Friday 5 November 1948. The word 'Goon' came from numerous sources, notably the character Alice the Goon, a strange creature which first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip in December 1933. Tall, bald, large-nosed and heavy-armed, Alice later was revealed to be part of a tribe living on Goon Island and her speech took the form of strange squiggles. Goon Island was then the setting for the animated 1938 short Goonland which chronicled the exploits of Popeye. The word had then been used during the war by prisoners of war as a slang term for their German stalag guards.
Failures
Listen My Children spawned a sequel in the form of Third Division – again produced by Pat Dixon – which was recorded from Monday 6 December to air on the high-brow BBC Third Programme. Michael Bentine and Peter Sellers were to join Harry Secombe in the line-up for the new show; Michael had approached BBC radio and television in 1947 and had made television appearances on Variety Express in May 1947 and more recently in Rooftop Rendezvous. Also in the cast were Robert Moreton and comedy actress Margaret Lindsay.
On New Year’s Day 1949, Harry and Michael appeared together on BBC TV’s Rooftop Rendezvous. Then Third Division was scheduled to air from Wednesday 26 January. It met with mixed success, while at Grafton’s – where Spike was now living and writing in the attic – the group started to mess around with a wire recorder, assembling surreal bits of sketches, mad characters and strange limericks or snatches of verse. Peter seemed to be particularly destined for success at this time, and so Spike and Jimmy developed a pilot script for a series around him which Peter then pitched to Pat Dixon to test the BBC’s interest. Entitled Sellers’ Castle, this would see Peter as Lord Sellers – and his ancestors – and feature others from Grafton’s. Alfred Marks, another Windmill success who had appeared in Stars in Your Eyes on TV and had worked with Peter on Starlight Hour for producer Roy Speer, was to play an impresario with Harry as his wandering minstrel singing protégé. Michael was to be a mad inventor. Spike enjoyed playing an idiot servant character, using a voice similar to Mortimer Snerd, one of the vent dummies used by American entertainer Edgar Bergen. Others present at the recording at the Gui-de-Buire studios on New Bond Street were Peter Butterworth (who had enjoyed success in Leave it to the Boys on the Light Programme), his wife Janet Brown (a Scots actress who had featured in revues and shows like Variety Bandbox), and Robert Moreton (who had featured regularly in Variety Bandbox since April 1948). The private recording was announced by Andrew Timothy who had been a BBC Home Service announcer since 1947.
Pat passed Jimmy’s recording of Sellers’ Castle to Roy Speer, a BBC radio producer since 1938 who had been in charge of shows such as Show Time and Starlight Hour. However, Roy felt that if the Corporation were to properly assess the programme, a new version of it would need to be recorded by the BBC itself. While producer Dennis Main Wilson – a friend of Harry's – was a champion of the new form of humour, he was felt to be too junior; as such, the project was passed on to Jacques Brown. Jacques in turn arranged the non-audience recording of Tatters Castle (the title referring to the 1942 film Hatter’s Castle) in April. This failed to appeal to BBC Light Entertainment… and earned the wrath of Jimmy who had insisted that the Goons needed to play to an audience.
During March 1949, Peter was signed to be part of the cast in a new radio comedy starring Ted Ray entitled Everything’s Under Control; this was soon renamed Ray’s a Laugh and after a trial recording on Thursday 31 March was immediately established as a full series. Peter conjured up a wide range of popular comic characters including the saucy charlady Crystal Jollibottom and dull schoolboy Soppy. Harry started to make appearances on the BBC Wales variety show Welsh Rarebit from May. In addition to Grafton’s, a more public stage to experiment with Goonery was the Nuffield Forces Centre behind St Martin-in-the-Fields where many of the gang performed and honed their material for radio and television under the gaze of talent-spotter Mary Cook. Things finally started to happen for Spike in July 1949 when – at short notice – producer Charles Chilton gave him a break in the first episode of The Bowery Bar on the Home Service. Shortly afterwards, Spike and Jimmy wrote the scripts for a new Light Programme series for Derek Roy entitled Hip-Hip-Hoo-Roy in which Spike would also appear. Starting in October, this was produced by Leslie Bridgmont with music from the Dance Orchestra conducted by Stanley Black. Spike played his Mortimer Snerd-style idiot, alongside Robert Moreton; Alfred Marks was billed in the first show only. Songs came from the Stargazers, a group formed only a few weeks earlier by singer Cliff Adams and pianist Ronnie Milne; they performed alongside Dick James, Fred Datchler and Australian singer Marie Benson who had arrived in the UK in 1948. The vocalists had broadcast since August in their own show on the London Home Service and also featured in Let’s Make Music. Spike and Jimmy dropped out of scripting before the end of the run, but Spike remained in the cast through to the end of the run in December.
It's not what you know, it's who you know
By the autumn, Peter had joined the non-commercial entertainment group the Limelight Theatre Club which also numbered BBC producers Roy Speer, Pat Dixon and Jacques Brown among its members. He also made his first successful appearance at the London Palladium. A piece about Alfred Marks in the Daily Mail on Monday 26 September noted that he was one of the ‘ex-Service comedians who call themselves “goons” and plan some day to unite in a crazy show of their own’; the piece referred to Michael Bentine, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. In November 1949, the journal Bandwagon discussed the ‘Goon’ cult that was forming at Grafton’s, and presided over by Jimmy in his capacity of KOGVOS (‘Keeper of Goons and Voice of Sanity’). The key players were Peter Sellers, Alfred Marks, Michael Bentine (who appeared on the bill of the 1949 Royal Command Performance), Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, former opera singer and RAF Gang Show comic Dick Emery and actress Paddie O'Neil (later the wife of Alfred Marks). By now, Peter had met Australian actress Anne Howe (who acted as Anne Hayes) who in turn introduced her best friend June Marlowe to Spike.
Harry became the resident comedian on Welsh Rarebit, a long-running variety show from the BBC’s studios in Wales, in January 1950. He also continued to appear on Variety Bandbox, developing the ‘Goon’ humour; indeed on the show of 29 January host Philip Slessor made reference to ‘professional broadcasting Goons’ including Harry who had attended the previous week’s show which featured Peter. Spike was away on a tour of military bases in East Anglia as a solo comic; when he returned to London, he moved in with Peter at the Golders Green flat of Peter’s parents and continued to write his new comedy material at Grafton’s. Spike also started to write with Larry Stephens, an ex-commando friend of Harry’s who had been writing for his friend Tony Hancock – another rising radio star – and who found Spike shared his taste in more off-the-wall material.
A successful and rising star, Peter took over as the new resident comedian of Variety Bandbox from Sunday 16 April 1950. Spike toured with Derek Roy while Harry and Peter continued to work their way up various variety bills, aided by their radio exposure. By the autumn, Peter was heard on the Home Service again in the second run of Ray’s a Laugh, but already the massive demand for his talents meant that he was having to cancel some dates.
Despite the earlier setback of Tatters Castle, Pat Dixon did not want to give up on what he saw as the next exciting new wave of comedy fermenting at Grafton’s. Pushing for a show featuring the combined talents of Peter, Harry, Michael and Spike, on Wednesday 8 November Pat was given permission by the Head of Variety (Sound) Michael Standing to record another trial programme paid for the by BBC’s Experimental Fund. Also featuring in trial recording would be Margaret Lindsay, while early publicity shots of the four Goons showed them alongside Ian Carmichael, a comedy actor who had appeared with Alfred and Paddie on Don’t Look Now and was then training to be a television producer; however, Ian took no part in the series which was to follow.
Music
In terms of musical interludes for the pilot, these would be performed by the Stargazers (now with Bob Brown in place of Dick James) along with jazz from the Ray Ellington Quartet. Born in London in 1915 as Henry Brown, Ray Ellington had been in show business as a youngster and had joined Harry Roy and his Band in 1937 as a drummer and crooner, broadcasting regularly through to 1940 when he joined the RAF as a PT instructor. After demob he continued to play with Harry Roy but also by early 1948 had formed the Ray Ellington Quartet and was soon in demand on the variety circuit, as well as broadcasting on his own radio shows. From 1949, the group – comprising Ray with bass player/vocalist Coleridge Goode, pianist Dick Katz and Laurence Deniz on electric guitar – released recordings via Parlophone such as Boppy Soxer and had developed a blend of advanced bop, jive and jazz mixed with humour. During 1950 they had undertaken a major tour of Scandinavia and had returned to variety and broadcasting in August 1950.Two days later, contracts were sent out to book the cast to record between 5pm and 5.45pm on Tuesday 19 December in Studio 1 at Piccadilly when the pilot of The Junior Crazy Gang would be performed.
It's all in a name
Although the new stars wanted the word ‘Goon’ to feature in the show’s title, the BBC felt that this word was strange and confusing; instead the Corporation’s proposal associated the Grafton’s quartet with a sextet of British entertainers formed by the combination of three comedy double acts, who had been known as the ‘Crazy Gang’ since 1937.The BBC’s assumption was that the script would effectively be written by Spike and edited by Jimmy. However, while handling Michael’s booking, his agent Denis Selinger informed the BBC’s Variety Booking Manager Patrick Newman that ‘I understand from Mr Bentine that he will be responsible for quite a lot of material in conjunction with Mr Milligan.’
A few days later after consultation with Pat Dixon, Patrick wrote back to Denis and commented: ‘the producer does not agree with this view’. Only Spike was contracted to deliver the script. For Peter and Harry – who were used to performing routines written for them by others – this was not an issue. However, Michael was used to developing his own unique style of humour and creating all his own material. Meanwhile, three of the Goons were booked elsewhere. A comedy support film called Double or Quits had been written by John Ormonde (an author on the 1947 revue So What) and featured Harry as a foolish pools winner going on holiday to Brighton, Spike as his unlucky but smarter buddy, Peter as a rather dubious retired major also staying at their hotel, Alfred Marks as a counterfeiter, and Paddy O’Neill as a gold-digger. Made by Advance Films and directed by Tony Young, this was to be made at Brighton Studios over four weeks from Monday 27 November. Spike was also to work on the music with Jack Jordan. By now, Alfred and Paddy were going in their own direction, appearing on BBC TV in Don’t Look Now. ‘It was a self-defensive move,’ Paddy later said of the Goons in Sydney Morning Herald (18 March 1976), ‘Alfred didn’t stay long, because the BBC offered him another job and told him “This Goon Show will never get anywhere.”’The Daily Mirror announced the December trial recording of the Junior Crazy Gang on Wednesday 29 November… but already there was a problem with this session. Jimmy suddenly realised that Harry was booked elsewhere on Tuesday 19 and so the recording would need to be scrubbed. At the same time, the BBC was already discussing a three-year contract for Peter’s services with his agent, Montague Lyons.
Coordinating Everyone
On Wednesday 6 December, the BBC informed the cast of The Junior Crazy Gang that the trial recording had been moved to Sunday 4 February 1951. Meanwhile, Double or Quits had been completed early in Brighton and so as not to waste the studio time, sets or cast, a short item of music and sketches was hastily assembled for Adelphi Films and directed by Alan Cullimore under the title Let’s Go Crazy. Most of the items featured Peter as various comedy figures ranging from Groucho Marx to his characters from Ray’s a Laugh; Spike also took part in an uncredited capacity. 1951 meant that Harry was still busy on variety bills while being heard on Variety Bandbox, Welsh Rarebit and Music Hall while the Stargazers were in demand on Calling All Forces, Variety Ahoy! and Workers’ Playtime. Peter was similarly busy on stage and radio and the BBC were still considering locking this hot new talent into a two-year contract.
In the edition of The Stage dated Thursday 11 January, an advert appeared reading: ‘Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Norman Vaughn wish to thank Arnold Fringe for his continued guidance over the past number of years. Now in production: ‘The Fringe Frolics’. Business Manager: Harold Vest.’ With a budget of £125, the pilot for The Junior Crazy Gang was recorded on Sunday 4 February 1951. ‘The audience didn’t understand a word of it. God bless the band. They saved it. They dug all the jokes,’ commented Spike. News that the trial recording had taken place with the ‘Goon gang’ was welcomed by the Daily Mirror and Daily Express on Wednesday 14 February with readers informed that a Goon was ‘a crazy character from a Pop Eye [sic] cartoon’. This time, with an audience present, Pat Dixon’s pilot had been a success and the cost was now covered by the Home Service rather than the Experimental Fund. On Friday 2 March, Junior Crazy Gang was scheduled to run for six programmes – with an option on six more – and debut at 7.45pm on Monday 14 May.
In the early part of 1951, Pat Dixon had been producing two other Home Service comedy programmes, We Beg to Differ and Bedtime with Braden. He was then also scheduled to produce a third show, In the Blue of the Evening during March, meaning that the Junior Crazy Gang would have to be assigned elsewhere. On Tuesday 13 March, Michael Standing offered the project to junior producer Ian Messiter, indicating that the shows would have a budget of £240 each. Next on Wednesday 21 March, Jacques Brown was asked to produce the series working with Pat Dixon. In the meantime, on Wednesday 14 March, the Daily Mirror announced that Michael, Spike, Harry and Peter would broadcast the first edition of their new show on Monday 14 May with a special music spot for Ray Ellington. Meanwhile in early April, Peter started a run at the London Palladium and the Stargazers recorded their first record for Decca in the form of Rose, Rose, I Love You.
Finally, on Wednesday 11 April, the Goon series found its producer in the form of Dennis Main Wilson who would work on establishing the show in conjunction with Pat Dixon. Dennis had started producing with the Light Programme talent show Opportunity Knocks in early 1949, moving on to First House and The George Mitchell Glee Club on the Home Service.On Monday 23 April, the BBC offered Peter a radio contract to guarantee him a minimum 26 broadcasts a year from July 1951 to July 1953; Peter quickly signed, and soon had another two-month run at the Palladium from the start of May. Meanwhile, the gang continued to appear in variety, at the Nuffield Centre and on various radio spots, with Spike’s musical and comic talents harnessed by Joe Loss and his orchestra for their stage appearances. Double or Quits – now retitled Penny Points to Paradise – had been certified by the British Board of Film Censors in late February and made its debut at a trade show on Wednesday 25 April prior to its release in May. Let’s Go Crazy would be certified at the end of the month and similarly released during May. But back at the BBC, the two producers were having a difference of opinion on the scripts for Junior Crazy Gang as Pat Dixon informed Michael Standing on Friday 4 May: ‘I feel [...] that it is harmful for me to occupy a back-seat driver’s position in this matter [the script needs] extensive re-writing […] I think it best, therefore, that I withdraw from any position of adviser on this show.’
We're almost there
The cast were contracted for six editions of Junior Crazy Gang (with an option on six more) on Thursday 10 May. Peter and Harry were paid the most as they were established radio stars, with Michael on slightly less and Spike – a relative unknown – on around half as much. The projected shows would be taped weekly from Sunday 27 May at 6.15pm, with the programmes airing on the London Home Service from Monday 28 May. A few days later, Harry was booked by Roy Speer for another new radio series; this was Educating Archie, featuring ventriloquist Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews which was to debut in early June. The intention was that Harry would replace Robert Moreton for six shows from the start of August.Then on Tuesday 15 May, Spike was injured by a revolver loaded with blanks while appearing at the East Ham Palace of Varieties and had to have five stitches in his hand; this had been part of his comedy act where he shot his invisible little brother off-stage. The Goons’ new series was previewed by the News Chronicle and The Stage on Thursday 17 May; no secret was made of the fact that three producers had bowed out on the project before Dennis Main Wilson had taken the helm, and the new series was not referred to by title, only as the ‘Goon Show’ featuring the quartet. The Stage claimed that the scripts would be written by ‘a certain Arnold Fringe, known as the spirit of the Goons’ and translated by Spike Milligan; Fringe had been publicly thanked in various Goon-related trade adverts since late December. A couple of days later, the news that Harry was replacing Robert in Educating Archie was reported in the papers.
Although Spike had been established as the writer of the scripts, by Thursday 24 May he was asking for an ‘additional material’ fee to cover the costs of submissions by Larry Stephens; Spike and Dennis both felt that writing one entire half-hour show a week was too much. There was also considerable editing required which Jimmy was prepared to do since Dennis himself was to be too busy on Top of the Bill and other shows. The Radio Times for the London region billed the new series as ‘CRAZY PEOPLE featuring Radio’s Own Crazy Gang “The Goons”’ and carried photos of the four stars; the bearded Michael Bentine looked particularly crazy while his colleagues appeared rather handsome. The text accompanying this box-out referred to Spike Milligan compiling the ‘Goon Show’ material and commenting: ‘Now it remains to be seen what will happen when their differing brands of comedy are fused in the one show.’ More publicity appeared in the press in the lead-up to the first recording. The Stage on Thursday 24 highlighted the involvement of Margaret Lindsay and Spike explained that ‘Goon’ meant that ‘every one of the gags has an illogical conclusion.’ ‘The biggest BBC gamble in radio humour’ was how the Daily Mirror described the forthcoming recording at Studio 1 of the Aeolian Hall (a former gallery on New Bond Street turned into a concert hall and taken over by the BBC during the war) on Friday 25 which referred to catchphrases such as ‘Yackabakkakaa’ and emphasised that at 27, Dennis was the BBC’s youngest variety producer. ‘Unlike [the wartime radio comedy] ITMA, goon humour will not be relying on puns. There is no cross talk. We take several situations and develop them to their most illogical conclusion,’ explained Spike. ‘My main worry over this exciting experiment is the time of the broadcast. Six forty-five on a Monday night is no time for specialised humour of this sort,’ wrote the journalist, ‘I hope the Home Service will switch the goons to a nine-thirty airing.’
More music
The Ray Ellington Quartet had been busy in Milan during March and April but were present and correct for the first recording. In addition to the quartet and the Stargazers, another musician had been added to the mix in the form of harmonica player Max Geldray. Born in the Netherlands in 1916 as Max van Gelder, Max had settled in England at the start of the war and been wounded during the Invasion of Normandy. He had performed on BBC radio since 1941 on shows like Radio Rhythm Club and Bandstand, and while making a living on the variety circuit had started to appear on Variety Bandbox in October 1947 followed by work on shows like Show Time, Workers’ Playtime and appearances at the Nuffield Centre. By 1951, his act was referred to as ‘Max Geldray and his electronic harmonica’.
The first show
On the day of recording, there was a band call for Stanley Black, the twelve piece Dance Orchestra and the other musicians at 1.30pm, a walk-through of Spike’s script (with the cast laughing joyously at the gags) at 2.30pm and then a run-through at 3.30pm prior to the audience being admitted at 5pm. The performance itself at 5.30pm – with sound effects performed live or from 78rpm discs – was recorded over landlines at Broadcasting House on a 33⅓ rpm coarse groove 16-inch disc. As ‘those Crazy People, the Goons’ were introduced by Andrew Timothy, the show’s opening theme – Goons Gallup composed by Arthur Wilkinson – was heard, over which an eccentric set of announcements introduced the participants. As with many early shows, Peter then introduced the show’s supposed writer Arnold Fringe… but the speaker was then Harry as Jones (‘My name is Jones’), a man who then told a tall tale of how he became a fugitive after opening a tobacconists. Following a number from the Stargazers, Peter became veteran BBC sports commentator Raymond Glendenning in an interview with a winning driver of the British Racing Motors car, Michael was Captain Pureheart; Pureheart was assisted by a young idiot called Ernie Splutmuscle, played by Peter (‘Er, did you want me n’at Captain?’). After a song from the Ray Ellington Quartet, Peter, Harry and Spike played the characters of Dick Barton, Snowy and Jock in a spoof of the BBC radio serial Dick Barton – Special Agent which had concluded in March 1951 after a five-year run. Max Geldray played a number before the first adventure for Peter’s Sir Harold Porridge who embarked on the Quest for Tutankhamen assisted by Harold Vest, played by Spike; Spike’s idiot character from Hip-Hip-Hoo-Roy also appeared as a character aboard a ship. Following another number from the Stargazers, the spoof documentary 1951: Salute to Britain! closed the show, with a few lines of dialogue intended for Margaret Lindsay (who did not appear in the show) delivered by Marie Benson; Dennis Main Wilson later commented that he felt the cast worked better being entirely male. With a playout of March of the Goons composed by Arthur Wilkinson, the appearances of Peter and Michael in variety at the London Palladium and Glasgow Empire respectively were advertised.
The following night, the programme aired at 6.45pm on the London Home Service only, with the West, Wales, North, Northern Ireland, Midlands and Scotland services generally taking local music programmes. This regionalised slot was earlier than usual because of a special programme with coverage of the Festival of Britain at 8pm; it would normally air at 7.45pm, effectively as a replacement for Variety Ahoy! On Wednesday 30 May, Harry and Peter recorded an edition of Henry Hall’s Guest Night for broadcast on the Home Service on Wednesday 6 June; Peter continued at the Palladium while Michael was at the Chiswick Empire, Spike touring with Joe Loss, and Harry had a summer show lined up in the form of Happy-Go-Lucky at Blackpool’s prestigious Opera House.
The reviews are in
‘The Goons got away to a fine start on Monday,’ wrote the News Chronicle on Thursday 31 May,‘but who wants to listen to this kind of specialized humour at 6.45 […] tucked away on the Home Service?’ The following day, it was decided that ‘Crazy People’ would also receive repeats on the Light Programme at 9.30am on Saturdays from the start of August. Furthermore it was hoped that the General Overseas Service would also take the series. The BBC’s own Listener Research Department reviewed the shows for the week and commented that ‘the Appreciation Index for the first of the new comedy series Crazy People […] was 54, below the current variety average of 65. It would be premature to take this rather adverse reaction very seriously for the show is of a novel kind. Listeners were ready to make allowances for this, but there were complaints about the over-exuberance of the studio audience and the visual character of the humour.’
The second show
For the second show on Sunday 3 June, the read-through took place from 10am prior to the rehearsals and the recording was now at 5.45pm. This was the first script edited by Jimmy with contributions from Larry. In the strange opening story from Jones, Harry’s character now spoke to Peter’s interviewer, Herschell. As with the previous week there was a spoof documentary (featuring Peter as a ‘George Sanders’ style doctor), and Splutmuscle returned to be interviewed in his capacity as a rat-catcher; Ray Ellington was given a few lines in this item and would increase his appearances in coming weeks. Sir Harold Porridge, now accompanied by Spike as Quagmire Vest and Harry as Harold Flugg, returned in a section of the show referred to as Adventure Unlimited. From now, the final music spot tended to be the Stargazers singing with Ray’s quartet. The following day, this second edition (which introduced the running gag of concluding with a fake trail for the following week’s show) was moved to the regular slot of 7.45pm and was now also taken by the Northern Home Service in place of Northern Orchestra. By Thursday 7 June, Michael Standing was asking Pat Dixon to establish if the BBC held ‘some solid rights’ in Crazy People since – already – the Corporation had received an application for the stage show rights. It was planned that from early July, the show would move to Thursdays at 8pm.
And so on…
The script for the third show also listed ‘Carl Boltnagle’ in the cast list and continued the heavy use of the nonsense word ‘Yuckabakaba’, appearances of Spike’s idiot character, offered a history of flight documentary in the style of the soon to be defunct cinema newsreel The March of Time, and in the Adventure Unlimited escapade Sir Harold was now accompanied by Captain Cloot Wilmington (Michael) and Major West (Spike).
Fine tuning
The options on the cast were taken up for six more editions on Monday 11 June, and on Monday 18 it was confirmed that the slot change would now take place on Thursday 2 August, whereafter the Saturday repeat at 9.30am would also be introduced. Shortly afterwards, it was decided that Peter’s long-term contract would be dropped and the BBC would now contract him as before. A new venture for him was a trial recording for a show called Bumblethorpe on Monday 25 June which was to be helmed by producer and talented cartoonist Peter Eton; this Peter had been wounded at Dunkirk while serving with the Navy, and after being invalided out had joined the BBC in 1941, producing shows like March of the Movies, Navy Mixture and Picture Parade in features and drama before transferring to the Variety Department in 1951.
By the fourth show – which Harry announced calling out ‘it’s the Goon’s Show’ – some of Spike’s favourite gags were starting to appear for the first time, recurring in subsequent editions over the years; the joke about tapping to communicate between prison cells heard in the 1955 episode The Sale of Manhattan appeared in the opening Herschell and Jones item. Peter also impersonated senior BBC broadcaster Richard Dimbleby in his Today in Parliament spoof, and the Porridge/Vest Adventure Unlimited quest introduced the idea of a comical list of bizarre equipment required by an expedition. Following the recording of this edition at the later time of 6.45pm, the Ray Ellington Quartet then pre-recorded two numbers for the next show which they were unable to attend. This fourth show was now also taken by the Northern Ireland Home Service.The fifth show (promoted in the Radio Times by a photo of the quartet) opened with Harry declaring ‘It’s the Goon Show’ and featured Peter again as a ‘Saunders’ type plastic surgeon in a health clinic sketch which saw Splutmuscle assisting Harry’s Dr Evan Evans. Michael’s character Pureheart – now Captain Osric Pureheart – returned as the designer of the Brabagoon (a reference to the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s Brabazon prototype) and was now assisted by Spike as Carstairs and Harry as Spalding. The script also saw Peter playing Crystal Jollibottom from Ray’s a Laugh and gags which would later appear in the 1957 episode Wings Over Dagenham. The closing Adventure Unlimited epic was a Western and was originally written for Peter to play a character called Major Bloodnok, although this was changed before recording to Major O’Shea; this also introduced Harry as the Native American Chief Wurree-Guts. This was the first of various shows to be occasionally recorded onto disc at 200 Oxford Street rather than Broadcasting House. On Wednesday 27 June, the Daily Mirror announced that Crazy People‘ will shift to the coveted Thursday night spot when Ray’s a Laugh closes’. Two days later, contracts for the six further shows (with options on five beyond that) were issued to the cast, covering recordings through to Sunday 12 August.
The spoofs of March of Time continued with the sixth show for which Robert Busby and the Revue Orchestra deputised at short notice for Stanley Black and his usual team, and Walter ‘Wally’ Stott (who had arranged on shows like Band Parade) started to compose some of the music links in addition to those by Arthur Wilkinson. Ray’s quartet again pre-recorded their numbers for the following week. The script now credited Spike, Larry and Jimmy as writers. Michael played the director of MI6 in a spy spoof, assisted again by Spike and Harry as Carstairs and Spalding plus Peter as Saunders. Sir Harold Porridge was then back in Allan Quatermain-mode replacing the scripted Sir Hermes Clushboot in Adventures Unlimited.
The show and Harry Secombe – who had top billing – were so popular that the BBC agreed to pay some of his travel costs as he commuted between Swansea, Blackpool and the London recordings. Then on Wednesday 4 July, Variety reported that Michael had turned down a season in Miami due to the fact that Crazy People’s run had been extended. For the later-than-usual recording of Sunday 8 July, Robert Busby and the Revue Orchestra again deputised for Stanley Black. The documentary The History of Communications was to be reworked in later editions and featured a gag about police radios which would surface in the 1955 television film pilot, The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-horn. The show also introduced a serial initially entitled The Sun Never Sets which featured Spike as a character called Philip String who became involved in a bank robbery – a narrative that would form the basis of the 1954 episode Dishonoured. Pureheart was back as the designer of the Mergseygoon Tunnel, assisted as before by Spalding and Carstairs, plus Spike playing his idiot character under the name Chatsby and Peter as a character called Eccles who spoke gibberish. This edition aired in the new earlier slot of 6.30pm due to the broadcast of the inaugural concert from Bristol’s Colston Hall.The BBC Dance Orchestra was back for the eighth recording on Sunday 15, and for this show and the next two, Denys Drower – the presenter of the Home Service’s Midday Miscellany – took over as announcer from Andrew Timothy. The Sun Never Sets continued to chart the progress of Phillip String (now played by Harry) and Peter’s many voices were employed in a BBC skit where programmes were combined in an economy drive. Two ongoing commentators – Roger Fudgeknuckle (Michael) and Jack Islott (Peter spoofing sports reporter John Arlott) – were introduced in a piece about a funfair, and in Pureheart’s latest escapade with a speedboat called The Goonbird (referring to Donald Campbell’s Bluebird), Peter took over as Spalding, with Harry as Carstairs and Spike’s idiot character now christened as Eccles. This edition though was only carried by the London and Northern Home Services.
Snowballing success
By mid-July, it seemed that the BBC now wanted to take up the five-show option to give a run of seventeen editions through to mid-September. This meant that there was now a clash of commitments for Harry, so instead his friend Tony Hancock would be taking over on Educating Archie. Then on Wednesday 18, the Light Programme was given permission by the Home Service to take five editions of Crazy People from late August in place of a slot booked for Bing Sings. The plan was now that Crazy People would run until the end of September, after which Peter would resume his appearances on Ray’s a Laugh in October. Initially it was planned that the Light Programme would take the series on Tuesdays from 21 August, starting with the third, fourth and sixth editions.‘NOTICE: ARNOLD FRINGE wishes to state that he is in no way responsible for any debts incurred by HAROLD VEST who also wishes to state that he is in no way responsible for any debts incurred by ARNOLD FRINGE. GOON SHOW – HOME SERVICE – MONDAYS’ read an advert in The Stage on Thursday 19 July.
Back at the BBC, Dennis was due to go on leave at the end of July, and so on Friday 20 July it was confirmed that Leslie Bridgmont would take over in an uncredited capacity for five of the recordings from Sunday 29 July. The ninth show, recorded on Sunday 22 July, saw a film crew present from Edwin J. Fancey Productions, one of the companies involved in Penny Points to Paradise. The team were shooting a travelogue short entitled London Entertains featuring Eamonn Andrews which included a visit to the recording at Aeolian 1. The Sun Never Sets concluded String’s adventures prematurely when a subsequent instalment was cut, Peter continued to voice Dick Barton in a Splutmuscle sketch, and Pureheart continued be assisted by Carstairs, Spalding and Eccles on a space mission. Before going on leave, on Monday 23 July Dennis was told that his suggestion for a 45-minute Christmas panto performed by the Goons had been approved and that he could commission a script; this was formally requested from Spike and Larry on Thursday 2 August. The final Monday broadcast for Crazy People came that evening, and was also taken for the first time by the Midlands and Scotland Home Services.
Dennis Main Wilson was still credited as producer on the tenth show on Sunday 29 July, although Denys Drower commented at the edition’s conclusion that he had ‘deserted’. This recording at Aeolian I again dropped back to 8.15pm (the general time for the rest of the run) and one of the music numbers – featuring the Stargazers singing with Ray’s quartet – was now dropped. Eccles was now appearing in numerous sketches and Pureheart’s exploits now often featured special ‘Bentine’ equipment. Harry now joined Michael’s Fudgeknuckle as fellow commentator Jasper Crake and the extended closing adventure sketch featured Peter as Colonel Slocombe (described in the script as an ‘American Bloodnok’) up against Chief Wurri-guts and aided by Michael’s Captain Blade. A Home Service concert was now introduced on Monday evenings, and so Crazy People and other shows were moved to Thursday nights now that Ray’s a Laugh had concluded, with the Goons airing to London and the Midlands only at 8pm on 2 August. However, the entire Home Service could now catch the series in a national slot at 9.30am on Saturdays, and it was also agreed that rather than take selected editions, the Light Programme would also repeat the final four projected editions later the same week. Furthermore, the General Overseas Service was due to take the series in three slots from mid-September. Leslie Bridgmont continued to stand in for Dennis (who ‘has not been heard of since’ according to Andrew Timothy) on Sunday 5 August. The opening Herschell (one of the characters whose name was often spelt differently from script to script) and Jones routine was a semi-autobiographical piece from Spike about growing up as the son of a soldier in Poona in India. The BBC commentators dropped in on the Admiralty where one of Peter’s camp characters was now named Flowerdew. Major Bloodnok – played by Peter – finally appeared in the last edition of Adventure Unlimited, with Ray as his batman and Harry as the Irish Sergeant Major Rick O’Shea (resurrected from an earlier edition). This edition aired to listeners in London, the Midlands and Wales.The Critics, a Home Service arts review programme, turned their attention to Crazy People at lunchtime on Sunday 12 August, apparently suggesting that the characters needed catchphrases. In the twelfth edition of the series recorded that evening (and aired in London next day), Flowerdew returned again as a colonel who was Pureheart’s uncle and the major adventure set-piece which concluded the show was now extended across the last half of the programme, bridging Ray Ellington’s number. This would be the final appearance of Sir Harold Porridge, this time sent on a quest to find the missing Professor Cloot Wilmington by Mrs Cloot Wilmington (played by Harry). Michael again played Captain Spalding and O’Shea returned in a tale which included gags that would later feature in episodes such as The International Christmas Pudding and The House of Teeth.
Some variety theatres were now starting to book members of the Goons at the same time; the second week of August saw both Peter and Michael on the bill at the Leeds Empire. There was also the news on Monday 13 that Crazy People would be carried by the General Overseas Service in the final quarter of the year. Larry Stephens even had a little dialogue in the thirteenth show as a character in The Story of Colonel Slocombe which filled the last quarter of the show taken by London and the Midlands. Leslie Bridgmont’s final supervision of Crazy People came on Sunday 26 August which opened with a spoof of The Lives of Harry Lime, a syndicated radio series spin-off from the 1949 movie The Third Man which had debuted on the BBC Light Programme at the start of August. Following their review on the real programme, the Goons then sent up The Critics with another Dick Barton spoof after which Mrs Selina Crutch (Michael) suggested that Crazy People could do with a catchphrase such as ‘More coal, Larry’. In the final half of the show, Bloodnok was now becoming more of a scrounger in his period adventures and was now generally found in the company of Mrs Wilmington (Harry)… despite the fact that his wife had featured in his debut appearance! Spike later noted that his conception of Bloodnok was inspired in part by the womanising, drunken and embezzling army officers he recalled during his youth in India, and also the character of Captain Foulenough from the By the Way column in the Daily Express since 1936.
Michael and Peter again appeared together in variety at the Newcastle Empire from Monday 27 August and the next day Crazy People made its Light Programme debut at 7.30pm in part of a general rescheduling for the channel’s Tuesday nights. Attracting a far larger audience than the Home Service because of its blend of music and comedy, the Light Programme meant that the Goons were heard by almost six million listeners compared to their existing catchment which had never topped a million. The Listener Research for the week’s radio noted that despite the larger audience than on the Home Service, ‘the Appreciation Index, 54 against 53, did not suggest that the programme appealed much more to Panel members who were mainly Light Programme “patrons” than those who inclined to the Home Service. There are still many among its audience for whom the “crazy” type of humour and its accompanying “noisiness” has no attraction. For another section of the audience however this was, they said, an amusing and original show.’
With Dennis Main Wilson back at the helm for the fifteenth show on Sunday 2 September (and also producing All Star Bill for the Light Programme), the meaningless ‘More coal, Larry’ catchphrase was sprinkled liberally through the script. The opening Herschel and Jones sketch was then amended by hand, dropping the character names and rechristening the speakers simply as Sellers and Secombe (‘My name is Secombe’). Pureheart’s new venture was the SS Goonitania (referring to the ill-fated RMS Lusitania torpedoed in 1915) and the closing two-sketch tale, The Quest for the Ring-Tailed Yakkabakaka! had been written for Sir Harold Porridge but was now performed by Bloodnok who was accompanied by familiar characters such as his batman (Ray), Captain Spalding (usually Michael), Mrs Wilmington, Sergeant Major O’Shea (Harry), Captain Osric Pureheart and Eccles, with Spike often appearing as Abdul (first heard in the sixth show as Porridge’s aide). Again, rather than being cut to disc at Broadcasting House, this week Bush House was used. Following the Light Programme exposure, over a million listeners in London, the Midlands, the North and Northern Ireland now tuned in. And now he had returned to the recordings, Dennis also arranged for the delivery of the dialogue to be slowed down marginally to make the rapid humour easier for the listeners to understand.
At the start of September, Peter was booked for another three months in Ray’s a Laugh from the start of November. In the penultimate Crazy People (where the Revue Orchestra again deputised for the Dance Orchestra), Pureheart salvaged the sunken Goonitania from the previous week and Bloodnok’s cowardice was being expressed in jokes that would resurface in shows like Shangri-La Again. The weekly demand for mad material seemed to be taking its toll and the third sketch of the edition was a new performance of a court case built around sound effects heard in the third show. The Light Programme repeat of the previous week’s show was promoted in the Radio Times by a shot of the crazy stars studying ‘Goon hieroglyphics’ in their script. Also, Tuesday 11 September saw the debut of Crazy People on the General Overseas Service, running from the eleventh show at 7.30am on Tuesdays, 3.15am on Thursdays and 2.15pm on Fridays.Almost two million listeners tuned in for the last two editions of Crazy People around the regions. Then on Saturday 15 September, Peter married Anne in a ceremony covered extensively by the press.
Unfortunately, Max Geldray had undergone an operation during the previous week and was still in hospital recovering on Sunday 16 September when the final show of the run was recorded in his absence with Marie Benson of the Stargazers performing an extra number. Also the Skyrocket Orchestra under Woolf Phillips deputised for Stanley Black and his musicians. Harry’s serious musical talents were emphasised in the opening sketch which allowed him to sing opera and perform a number of his own, with another appearance from Michael as his mother. Two sketches from the fifth show were then recycled, and the series concluded with another escapade for Major Bloodnok of the 3rd Prickly Heats, signing off by promising that next week listeners could hear the craziest broadcast of all: the General Election.The Light Programme declined to take the final edition, bowing out with four million listeners tuning into the sixteenth show on Tuesday 18 September, after which the slot was given back to the popular series The Adventures of PC49. London, Scotland and the North took the final edition of Crazy People on Thursday 20, following which the slot was taken over by a concert as PC49 moved to the Home Service in the early evening and a music recital filled the Saturday morning slot.
One of those listening to Crazy People was a young comedy writer called Eric Sykes, who wrote for Frankie Howerd in Fine Goings On. On hearing the show while recovering from mastoid surgery in the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, he was impressed and wrote a letter of appreciation to Spike and Larry. The writing duo went to visit him, and Spike discovered a lifelong friend who shared his sense of the absurd in terms of comedy scripting.
On Friday 21 September, Peter entered into discussions about Peter Eton’s Bumblethorpe series with Michael Standing, explaining that he didn’t like the scripts and that he was too busy with Ray’s a Laugh. However, he instead suggested that Spike and Larry had an idea for a new show which Leslie Bridgmont could produce. A couple of weeks later, he also told BBC TV’s Head of Light Entertainment Ronnie Waldman that he would like to perform material by Spike and Larry, and by mid-October, The Stage announced that he had a new stage act written by the duo in which he would be abandoning his impersonations. As his successful Blackpool show drew to a close, Harry heard that he had been selected for the Royal Command Performance. Michael Bentine meanwhile was trying to crack the American market and appeared on CBS’ The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday 14 October and Sunday 4 November, and had made the short film Cookery Nook.
Plans for The Goons Pantomime continued at the BBC during October with Michael Standing feeling that a 45 minute slot would suffice. The Head of Variety also informed Peter that the ‘useful vehicle’ proposed by Spike and Larry would be considered in the New Year because of his work on both Ray’s a Laugh (which started pre-recording on Wednesday 24 October) and also his other series which was now finally referred to as The Goon Show. Meanwhile, Dennis used Peter on All Star Bill to record on Tuesday 6 November for broadcast eight days later.
Harry featured prominently on the bill of the Royal Variety Performance held on Monday 29 October at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London. Later that week on Thursday 1 November, Ray’s a Laugh returned to the Home Service and Dennis scheduled the Goon Pantomime to record on Sunday 18 December with transmission on Boxing Day.
Peter Eton drafted in Spike and Larry to join Peter Ling as writers on Bumblethorpe which now starred Robert Moreton with Avril Angers, Valentine Dyall and Kenneth Connor and recorded weekly from Monday 12 November with transmission later the same day on the Home Service. Spike joined the cast the following week along with Alfred Marks and Graham Stark (an old mate of Peter’s from the last days in the RAF who had featured in Happy Go Lucky), and Peter Sellers also appeared, replacing Valentine who had gone missing while holidaying in France. Valentine returned the next week, but Spike remained with the cast. On Thursday 15 November, Dennis was told that Crazy People would start again from the last week of January 1952, but the producer was concerned that Spike and Larry would not be able to write new Crazy People scripts at the same time as Bumblethorpe. It was decided that Bumblethorpe would be limited to eight editions, allowing the writers time to script new editions of Crazy People which was guaranteed a six-week run. The recordings would commence on Sunday 20 January 1952 and air on Mondays at 8.15pm.
At the start of December, Harry, Peter and the Stargazers took part in a pantomime for servicemen recorded by Leslie Bridgmont for the Forces Broadcast Service at the Nuffield Centre. The Goons’ own Boxing Day panto was then announced as Goonderella in The Stage on Thursday 6 December; Harry would be Buttons, Peter would play the Baron, Spike would team up with Graham Stark as the Ugly Sisters, and actress/singer Lizbeth Webb would be Cinderella herself. Lizbeth had enjoyed West End success in Oklahoma! and was then appearing in the revue Gay’s the Word at the Saville Theatre; she had also appeared on Dennis’ All Star Bill during the autumn and was then broadcasting on Leisure Hour. The cast were then contracted by the BBC the following day, and Michael made another appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday 9; by now, he had been offered a chance to do a four-week season at the Gilded Cage in New York.
Pantomime
On Friday 14 December, it was decided that the new run of Crazy People would be moved to 9.30pm on Tuesdays. The Goon Pantomime was recorded at the Aeolian Hall on Sunday 16. Since the end of the series, the Ray Ellington Quartet had been broadcasting on BBC TV’s The Eric Barker Half-Hour from October and Bob Duffy had joined as bass player in time for a Dutch tour for Christmas. The Stargazers had also been busy on the radio show Two-Style Rhythm. The festive show itself was a single plot spoofing the much-loved fairy tale, and allowed for a number of music spots including items for both Harry and Lizbeth. Peter played Baron Bloodnok and Splutmuscle, Graham was the prince, Michael was fairy godmother Captain Osric Pureheart, Peter and Spike were Pureheart’s assistants Flowerdew and Spalding, and Spike also voiced the prince’s elderly mother using the character of Miss Bannister whom he had developed in Bumblethorpe. Jimmy Grafton also contributed a parody of Johnny Mercer’s The Waiter, The Porter and the Upstairs Maid which was performed by Peter and Spike with the Ray Ellington Quartet. Even Max Geldray was blessed with a few lines of dialogue… and demonstrated that acting was not one of his strengths… Promoting the Christmas special, the Radio Times claimed that ‘there was a conspiracy by writers and cast to call their show Goonderella, but this was firmly resisted’. The small article noted that it was now eight months since the Variety Department ‘essayed a bold experiment […] There have been no regrets […] there is room on the air for at least one show of this kind - and three weeks after Cinderella, the “Goons” reappear in their new 1952 series.
Peter was also one of the stars featured in the Light Programme special Christmas Crackers on Christmas Day, an item which he recorded on Sunday 23. Cinderella aired on the Home Service – except in Wales or Northern Ireland – at 8.15pm on Boxing Day and drew an audience of just under two million. As 1951 drew to a close, Spike made his final appearance in Bumblethorpe on New Year’s Eve while Harry was appearing in Dick Whittington at the Sheffield Lyceum, Peter performed more variety engagements and Michael appeared on BBC TV’s Music Hall. The team were now looking forward to the New Year and their chance to deploy Goon humour on the air, free of the Crazy People trappings …
Series One episodes
Notes
Programme research and booklet notes by Andrew Pixley (taken from BBC's The Goon Show Compendium Vol 13).
