The following is a list of The Goon Show episodes. The Goon Show was a popular and influential British radiocomedy series, originally produced by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 and broadcast on the BBC Home Service.
Many of the earliest radio episodes no longer exist. When the first episodes were broadcast, recording technology was still expensive and primitive by later standards. Audio tape was not in general use, and any recordings were made directly on to acetate discs. These could be played back, but tended to wear out quickly and did not survive unless further processed to create a master disc, which was only done for recordings intended for sale. Only one episode from the fourth series was preserved in the BBC Sound Archive (as a tape dub from an acetate disc).
Other episodes from Series 2–4 have survived, sometimes in incomplete form, as off-air recordings of varying quality. Four episodes from Series 4 were released on CD as The Goon Show: Series Four, Part One (2010). A further seven episodes from Series 2–4 are included in The Goon Show Compendium Volume 13 (2017) along with the only surviving fragment of the Series 4 episode "The Giant Bombardon". Volume 14 (2018) includes all of the remaining Series 4 episodes, including those from the 2010 set.
The special episodes "Archie in Goonland" (1954) (a crossover with Educating Archie) and "The Missing Christmas Parcel – Post Early for Christmas" (1955) (a 15-minute insert in Children's Hour) are also believed lost.
Surviving episodes
Commencing with the start of the fifth series (in 1954), BBC Transcription Services began making copies for overseas sales, and even commissioned re-recordings of some key fourth series episodes for the "Vintage Goons" series, which was mainly intended for overseas markets. The Transcription versions were then cut to remove topical and parochial material and anything that might be potentially offensive. Later, Transcription Services releases had further cuts for timing purposes. For many years, these abridged versions were thought to be only surviving copies of many episodes.
In 1987, when BBC producer Richard Edis selected "The International Christmas Pudding" for a Radio 2 repeat,[1] he discovered the edited Transcription Services copy was too short for the intended slot. He consulted sound engineer and researcher Ted Kendall, who'd been working on rebuilding the BBC's Goons archive and had found a tape of the original transmission version of the episode in a collection made by dubbing mixer Peter Copeland. Kendall was able to restore the missing material.[2]
In 1991, Dirk Maggs brought Kendall onto the team for his documentary At Last the Go On Show, and Kendall informed him of twelve episodes whose commercial rights had been licensed to EMI, which had then released them in truncated form. The BBC therefore didn't have the rights to release them commercially - but they did still hold the broadcast rights. This prompted Maggs to commission Kendall to restore sixteen episodes, including the ones tied up with EMI, for two repeat runs. The first of these ran on Radio 2, starting with "The Lost Emperor" on 18 April 1992,[3] and the other was on Radio 4 starting with "The Call of the West" on 12 October 1992.[4][5]
In the years since then, a considerable amount of missing material has been found and restored to the Transcription copies. Kendall states in his sleeve notes to the Goon Show Compendium CD box sets that the episodes have been pieced together from sources including the BBC Sound Archive and Transcription Services master tapes and discs, unofficial copies made by engineers or other BBC staff, and domestic off-air recordings, using the best quality source in each case.
Kendall also notes that Transcription Services seem to have used the original broadcast tapes as the basis for their versions, making cuts as necessary. The cut material was often spliced onto the end of the reels in case it needed to be restored. When the "Vintage Goons" series began, episodes were recorded by TS at Maida Vale. Since these were performed on the same nights as Series 8 episodes, it made sense for Transcription Services to make their own simultaneous recordings at Maida Vale and it seems that this technique was also used on Series 9 and 10. These were then edited to match the broadcast versions before TS made its own cuts. However, it seems that in some cases the TS versions inadvertently preserved lines slated for deletion, meaning that longer cuts of these episodes can be reassembled.
Commercial releases
Parlophone, a division of EMI, released several discs of The Goon Show starting with The Best of the Goon Shows in 1959.[6] In all, EMI released twelve episodes, but for contractual reasons these were all heavily cut to remove musical interludes and other music cues.
BBC Records issued the first volume of Goon Show Classics in 1974 on record and tape, featuring "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler" and "The Histories of Pliny the Elder".[7] The Goon Show Classics label was used for several further records and subsequently a series of double-cassette collections containing four episodes each.[8] In 1996 this gave way to CD sets of remastered episodes,[9] eventually running to 30 volumes containing 120 shows, plus an additional CD set comprising The Last Goon Show of All and Goon Again.
Volume 1 of The Goon Show Compendium, containing the first 13 episodes of series 5, was released on 7 April 2008, starting a comprehensive release programme of all extant Goons material. In 2015 three of the EMI-licensed episodes were included without the cuts, in their original chronological order, on The Goon Show Compendium Volume 11, indicating that the rights had by then reverted to the BBC. It was later confirmed that Volume 12, released on 3 November 2016, would include all of the remaining EMI episodes, plus The Last Goon Show of All and bonus features.[10]
Broadcasting
Archive episodes of The Goon Show are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra; previously they were occasionally repeated on Radio 2 or Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.
The ABCRadio National network in Australia has regularly broadcast The Goon Show since the 1960s. For many years, the series was broadcast every Saturday afternoon, just after the midday news bulletin. More recently, it was broadcast twice a week, on Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons. The network took the series off the air in January 2004, but following listener response to the cancellation, broadcasts of the show resumed in the Friday time slot in June. The ABC's broadcasts of the series have made The Goon Show one of the most repeated and longest-running of all radio programmes.[citation needed]
The programme has been broadcast in the United States. NBC broadcast The Goon Show as early as the mid-1950s.[11]Terry Gilliam of the Goon-influenced Monty Python comedy troupe recalled first hearing it broadcast on FM radio in New York City in the 1960s.[12] When Vermont Public Radio signed on the air in 1977 (as a single station which has since evolved into a statewide network), the first programme to air was an episode of The Goon Show.[13] The show was described as a "madcap radio comedy classic".[14]
Episodes
The following list of episodes of The Goon Show includes any "specials" and all episodes made for the BBC Transcription Service unaired domestically at the time (and therefore listed at the date of their recording).
Features Peter Sellers (as Dennis Bloodnok) singing Any Old Iron, a song Sellers recorded in 1957 as "Willium Mate", another voice he used in the series.
A Christmas episode. Featuring Valentine Dyall and Dennis Price. Also features many repeat jokes from 1954's 'Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest', also a Christmas episode.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet, orchestra conducted by Wally Stott. Announcer: Wallace Greenslade The following episodes were especially recorded for overseas stations only during the Eighth Series and were re-recordings of earlier episodes. Six of these episodes were broadcast prior to the commencement of the Ninth series, which is why the Ninth series was shorter. However, many of these episodes were not broadcast in the United Kingdom until the 1980s or 1990s. So for contextual purposes, the recording dates are listed alongside the original airdates in the United Kingdom.[23][35]
1 2 Different paperwork sources for episodes 12 and 14 of the Vintage Goons series are variously dated 9 March 1958 or 23 March 1958. The rehearsal material for "The Dreaded Piano Clubber" was recorded on the same day as Eighth series episode "The Great Statue Debate", which was 23 March 1958. However, along with "The Albert Memorial", it was issued out of chronological order.[35]
↑ The Goon Show Compendium Volume 12: Ten episodes of the classic BBC radio comedy series plus bonus features Audio CD – Audiobook, CD, Unabridged. ASIN1785294490.
1 2 Pixley, Andrew; Kendall, Ted (2009). The Goon Show Compendium Volume Three (Series 6 – Part 1) (CD). BBC Audiobooks. booklet 1, p. 9; booklet 2, pp. 8, 11, 14. ISBN978-1-4084-1044-8.
1 2 Pixley, Andrew; Kendall, Ted (2012). The Goon Show Compendium Volume Seven (Series 8 – Part 1) (CD). AudioGO Ltd. booklet 1, pp. 9, 11; booklet 2, p. 6. ISBN978-1445-891330.
↑ Pixley, Andrew; Kendall, Ted (2012). The Goon Show Compendium Volume Eight (Series 8 – Part 2) (CD). AudioGO Ltd. booklet 1, p. 4. ISBN978-1445-825601.
↑ "Episode Synopses". The Goon Show Compendium Volume Eight (Media notes). AudioGO. 2012. Booklet 2, p. 4. ISBN978-1-445-82560-1.
1 2 Pixley, Andrew; Kendall, Ted (2014). The Goon Show Compendium Volume Nine (Vintage Goons) (CD). AudioGO Ltd. booklet 2, pp. 2–6, 9. ISBN978-1471-331619.
↑ "The Missing 10 Downing Street". The Goon Show. Season Vintage Goons. Episode 3 of 14. 12 December 2023. BBC Radio 4 Extra. Retrieved 23 January 2024. BBC Debut. ... Re-recording from 1957.
Sir Harry Donald Secombe was a Welsh actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme The Goon Show (1951–1960), playing many characters, most notably Neddie Seagoon. An accomplished tenor, he also appeared in musicals and films – notably as Mr Bumble in Oliver! (1968) – and, in his later years, was a presenter of television shows incorporating hymns and other devotional songs.
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg.
The Goon Show is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show.
Bluebottle is a comedy character from The Goon Show, a 1950s British comedy radio show. The character was created and performed by Peter Sellers.
Max van Gelder, professionally known as Max Geldray, was a Dutch jazz harmonica player. Best known for providing musical interludes for the BBC radio comedy programme The Goon Show, he was also credited as being the first harmonica player to embrace the jazz style.
Henry Pitts Brown, known professionally as Ray Ellington, was an English singer, drummer and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960. The Ray Ellington Quartet had a regular musical segment on the show, and Ellington also had a small speaking role in many episodes, often as a parodic African, Native American or Arab chieftain.
Neddie Seagoon was a character in the 1950s British radio comedy show The Goon Show. He was created and performed by Welsh comedian Harry Secombe. Seagoon was usually the central character of a Goon Show episode, with most plots involving or revolving around him.
The Telegoons is a comedy puppet show, adapted from the highly esteemed and successful BBC radio comedy show of the 1950s, The Goon Show produced by Tony Young for BBC television and first shown during 1963 and 1964. Two series of 13 episodes were made. The series was briefly repeated immediately after its original run, and all episodes are known to have survived. Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan reprised their original voice roles from the radio series and appeared in promotional photos with some of the puppets from the series. Among the puppeteers were Ann Field, John Dudley, and Violet Phelan. The original radio scripts were adapted by Maurice Wiltshire, who had previously co-written a number of radio episodes with Larry Stephens.
The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town was a 1971 episode of LWT's Six Dates with Barker that was written by Spike Milligan and later adapted by Ronnie Barker for The Two Ronnies sketch show in 1976. Set in Victorian London, it featured a Jack the Ripper–style madman who stalked the streets and killed or stunned his victims by blowing them a raspberry.
This is a list of running jokes and catchphrases in the 1950s British radio programme The Goon Show.
The Idiot Weekly (1958–1962) was a radio program made by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
The Omar Khayyam Show was a 1963 BBC radio comedy programme, written by Spike Milligan based on six episodes of his The Idiot Weekly made for the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1958–1962.
"The Fear of Wages" is an episode of the British radio comedy The Goon Show, written by Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens. As the 25th episode of the sixth series, it was first broadcast on 6 March 1956 and was among the shows first repeated in the 1970s following the success of The Last Goon Show of All in 1972.
The Last Goon Show of All is a special edition of the BBC Radio comedy programme The Goon Show commissioned as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the BBC. Simulcast on radio and television on 5 October 1972, the performance reunited Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe as well as other contributors to the programme's original run. It was later released as a long-playing record and on compact disc. The video recording of the television broadcast was also released on VHS and later on DVD, although with some omissions. In early October 2007, 35 years after the original broadcast, a full unedited version was broadcast on BBC 7, the digital radio channel dedicated to re-runs of classic shows.
The "Ying Tong Song" is a novelty song written by Spike Milligan and performed by the Goons, usually led by Harry Secombe. It is a nonsense song, consisting of small verses interspersed by a completely nonsensical chorus. The origin of the title is said to have come from Harry Secombe's mispronunciation of the name of Milligan's war-time friend and fellow jazz musician, Harry Edgington. When Secombe repeatedly called him "Edgerton", Milligan replied, "it's Edgington, Edgington" and emphasized the point by saying "Yington, Yingtang".
The BBC Transcription Services started life in the mid-1930s as the London Transcription Service to license BBC Radio programmes to overseas broadcasters who were authorised to broadcast the programmes for a set period, usually two or three years. The programmes sold to overseas broadcasters in this way covered every part of the BBC's output, including all types of music, drama, religious and children's programmes and comedy. It is now called BBC Radio International.
James Douglas Grafton was a producer, writer and theatrical agent. He served in World War II as an officer in the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment and was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during Operation Market Garden.
Patrick "Pat" Kenneth Macneile Dixon was an English radio producer for BBC Radio.
Peter Randolph Eton was a producer for BBC radio and television. He was invalided out of the navy after being wounded during the Dunkirk evacuation and joined the BBC.
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