The Goon Show series 2: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 21:59, 3 November 2022
The Goon Show: Series 2
January 1952-July 1952
In late 1951, producer Dennis Main Wilson was planning the new run of Goon programmes featuring Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Spike Milligan and assembled a document entitled The Goon Show – Second Series.
The listener reports had suggested that the performers needed to be identified more with the characters that they played, and he aimed to keep the pace of the shows akin to the last three editions of the previous run. A ‘running gag’ was to be introduced to run through each edition, leading to the final pay-off for each show. The characters of ‘Baron’ Bloodnok, Captain Pureheart, Abdul and Ellington would be retained while Harry Secombe’s opening spot would become Handsome Harry Secombe as he played a more heroic character who was really a ‘comedy coward’. Spike’s idiotic character Eccles would be retained, but the plan was to rename him as ‘Spike’ to identify him closely with his performer. Writers Larry Stephens and Spike Milligan planned that each edition would close with ‘a Goon History of the World’. In terms of music, harmonica player Max Geldray would continue in his current style, the vocal group Stargazers were moving their style closer to that of American conductor Mitch Miller, and the jazz-orientated Ray Ellington Quartet would engage in more ‘personality comedy’. The first sketch would close with Harry performing a popular song, as per the final show of the last run. Dennis concluded: ‘We hope that Planners will agree to bill the programme as The Goon Show rather than Crazy People. This is purely because everybody, both in and outside the business, refers to it as the Goon Show (or that Goon Show) but never as Crazy People (which quite frankly could be applied to almost any comedy show).’
As 1952 arrived, the Ray Ellington Quartet returned from Holland, the travelogue London Entertains (which had featured a recording of Crazy People) was certified for release by the BBFC, and an early amendment to the schedule for Crazy People was that the show would be pre-empted on Tuesday 26 February to make way for speeches from the Pilgrims’ Dinner. The Stargazers were also announced as appearing on the monthly BBC TV show Hit Parade.
The Goons on TV?
The Daily Mail indicated on Friday 4 January that thanks to BBC TV Head of Light Entertainment Ronnie Waldman the Goons were to make ‘an experimental television appearance’ after all, using the facilities of the Bedford Theatre. On Tuesday 8 January, Dennis noted that Michael was keen to transfer the Goons to television in a project concurrent with the new series and written by himself with the radio series editor Jimmy Grafton. Spike had reluctantly been talked into the project, feeling it was impractical at the same time as the radio show and was dubious about the availability of Harry who was still in the panto Dick Whittington at the Sheffield Lyceum. Peter was happy to go along with everyone else, but Harry was against the television show ‘on principle’. In conclusion about this jump to the new media, Dennis commented: ‘The whole thing boils down to the fact that Jimmy Grafton and Michael Bentine want to do the Television show regardless of anybody, and the other three Goons at present are not particularly interested […] there is no unity in the work of the Goons themselves with regard to their plans and policy for their own future.’
A show by any other name
On Thursday 10, The Stage announced that the Goons would return to the Home Service on Tuesday 22 January with a Light Programme repeat, and emphasised that Harry would be employing his ‘fine tenor voice’ in a straight song each week. Meanwhile, the television project moved ahead; Michael and Jimmy’s script was entitled Trial Gallop and was planned to air from 9pm to 9.30pm on Wednesday 13 February with Richard Afton (from Rooftop Rendezvous) as producer. Then on Tuesday 15 January, the cast were offered contracts for six radio shows to be recorded on Sundays from 20 January to 2 March (apart from 24 February) and aired two days later; an option for a further six shows could be taken up by the BBC before Monday 11 February. The same day, Dennis circulated the memo Crazy People Series Retitled, saying: ‘Would you please note that the former series Crazy People which is returning to the air […] has been retitled The Goon Show.’
The Stargazers were now getting a lot of work elsewhere and by mid-January indicated that they would be in Hamburg with Calling All Forces on Sunday 30 March, and so not available. Meanwhile, Spike had got engaged to June Marlowe when she suddenly suggested that they get married before she emigrated to Australia with her parents; she would then return later in the year to set up home with him.
They're back
The debut of The Goon Show was emphasised in the Radio Times with a short article entitled The Goons Again about the ‘newest and youngest comedy team’ in which it was noted that Larry, Spike and Jimmy ‘have been compiling for the new series a Goon Thesis on the History of England.’ Accompanying the text was a photograph of Dennis (armed with a mallet) and Jimmy watching Spike and Larry study the script while their three colleagues larked around in the background. In terms of programme billing, the show was now heralded as ‘The Goon Show with those crazy people’ and – as with the shows themselves – Peter now took top billing with Harry relegated to second place.
The first shows of the run were recorded back at Aeolian I at 7.45pm on Sundays, starting on 20 January; the script was now entitled The Goon Show and continued the numbering from Crazy People as ‘No 18 (2nd series)’. The programmes opened as before after the theme tune and cast announcements from Andrew Timothy with a short adventure built around Harry, now entitled Handsome Harry Secombe! (with a Handsome Harry opening theme composed by Wally Stott) and concluding with him singing a popular number (the 1951 chart hit Longing for You in the first edition). As with some subsequent editions, Harry found himself in pursuit of an oriental miscreant played by Michael – in this case Lo Hing Ding – and working with Peter’s Inspector Thud. After the Stargazers, Wally’s Pureheart Opening Theme heralded Captain Osric Pureheart being interviewed by Spike about his latest invention, the Suez Canal, with Flowerdew as Pureheart’s assistant. Following Max’s number, contemporary programmes were sent up in a glance ahead to what broadcasting would be like in 1999, with Harry taking on the role of idiotic northerner Fred Bogg. The Ray Ellington Quartet’s contribution came next, and the show concluded with Major Bloodnok in the Quest for the Abominable Snowman in which the Major was back with his batman Abdul Milligan, references to Lady Wilmington and Ray as Ellington the Butler. The character’s arrival was now heralded by Wally’s musical Bloodnok Motif. Spike remained a minor performer or straight man compared to the rest of the cast, feeling that he lacked the talent of his three cohorts and was there simply to play the fool in the form of Eccles.
Scheduled at 9.30pm on Tuesdays by the Home Service, The Goon Show was replacing Over to You with Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne from 22 January. However, the West and Wales Home Service instead opted for Anything Goes with Benny Hill and Swing Your Partners for the next few weeks. Just under two million listeners tuned in, commensurate with the end of Crazy People.
Big Wal's introduction
With the first edition of The Goon Show completed, Peter agreed to stay in the live broadcasts of Ray’s a Laugh through to the middle of July. On Saturday 26 January, Spike married June and – after recording the second show of the new series on Sunday 27 – grabbed a two-day honeymoon in a hotel on the Bayswater Road before June sailed for Australia. This second edition of The Goon Show had a last-minute cast change: Andrew Timothy was unable to attend, with his announcing work taken over by Wallace Greenslade. Born in Formby, Lancashire, Wallace – or ‘Bill’ as he was known – had been a purser with the P&O Ferry company and joined the BBC in 1945, reading the news for the European Service, announcing on the Home Service from 1949 and hosting various shows including Saturday Sports Review, Midday Miscellany and various other shows.
Solidifying the format
Spike took over as the villainous Ho Fu Chung in The Adventures of Handsome Harry Secombe and in the closing sketch, Major Bloodnok was introduced as the Goon’s military historian who then recounted the tale of one of his ancestors – Angus McBloodnok. Another character introduced in the show was Crun, an elderly teacher at England’s oldest school who featured in a sketch about education. Throughout the show a running gag was Harry as a character asking ‘Excuse me, is this the Bijou Palais-de-Dance and Cafeteria?’… until he was shot after the closing credits. This edition also introduced the notion of the Ray Ellington Quartet paying tribute to a musical star, starting with Gracie Fields and her song Sally while by now the usual play-out by Max, the Quartet and the orchestra after Stanley Black’s new closing theme tune was established as Crazy Rhythm, a piece written by Irving Caesar, Joseph Meyer, and Roger Wolfe Kahn in 1928 for the Broadway musical Here’s Howe.
Scotland also dropped out of the series on the second edition on Tuesday 29, although the General Overseas Service took the show at 6.30am, 3.30pm and 11.45pm on Thursday 31. An indication of how much the BBC valued the show and Harry in particular came when the Corporation agreed to pay his commuting fares from Sheffield for the weekend recordings.
An example of the BBC’s new, more detailed Listener Research Reports was prepared on the first edition of The Goon Show on Friday 1 February, summarising the 333 questionnaires that made up 14% of the listening panel in the areas where the Home Service had taken the show. The show had retained a similar audience to the later editions of Crazy People and attained an Appreciation Index (AI) of 54 … although regular listeners to Crazy People gave an average of 65. Many listeners still found it difficult to identify which Goon was which, but praised Harry and Peter in particular. Harry’s vocal spot had gone down badly and the panel had found the show ‘moderately amusing’ although many complained that it was noisy. Those who enjoyed the show described it as ‘distinctly different’.
The third show, recorded on Sunday 3 February, shuffled the order of the sketches, kicking off with Pureheart and then continuing with The Adventures of Handsome Harry Secombe, Bloodnok’s historical anecdote and closing with a sketch spoofing the Roman epic Quo Vadis which had opened the previous week. By the following day, the Home Service had decided to take up its option on a second batch of six shows, and indeed fix an option for six beyond that. Then two days later came the news that Britain had feared for months; King George VI’s health had deteriorated over the last year and he had died in his sleep on the morning of Wednesday 6. Most of the BBC’s scheduled radio broadcasts were removed and replaced by the same programme of orchestral music across each channel. Variety shows were removed until after the period of mourning which concluded with the royal funeral on Friday 15.
A Listener Research Report on the second edition was assembled from 305 questionnaires on Thursday 7 February; this was a brief affair which indicated the audience had been sustained and the Appreciation Index had risen to 58. Meanwhile, the knock-on effect of the national bereavement was that on Thursday 8, the pre-recording of The Goon Show planned for that Sunday was cancelled. Trial Gallop was also due to have been screened from 8.55pm to 9.40pm on Wednesday 13 with rehearsals from Monday 11. It had been promoted in the Radio Times as ‘An experiment in organised chaos’ in which Michael and Peter (pictured with the billing) were to have been joined by their chums Peter Butterworth and Graham Stark as well as commentator Leslie Mitchell, Leslie Randall of TV’s Music Hall and various others including Peter’s wife, Anne and choreography by Michael’s wife, ballerina Clementina Stuart. The article A Goon Prepares had carried comments from Michael who was due to appear as a witch doctor and a guide at an atomic plant. ‘I’ve tried to see the programme entirely in pictures,’ explained Michael, ‘This is not the crazy show to end all crazy shows.’ The show was formally cancelled on Monday 11, with the cast paid in full; The Limit of Human Endurance effectively replaced the broadcast, moved up from 9.40pm to 9pm.
On Tuesday 12, the Home Service edition of The Goon Show was replaced by The World Today and Everyman. Having lost a show due because of the mourning period, the cancellation of the Pilgrim’s Dinner meant that the Home Service now required a Goon show on Tuesday 26 February and this was arranged on Thursday 14. The third show of the run was briefly assessed on Friday 15 February when a Listener Research Report summarised the views of 196 listeners; the show continued to attract 5% of the audience who lived in the relevant regions and the Appreciation Index was now 57. The Light Programme then repeated the third edition at lunchtime on Saturday 16 as a replacement for a dance music programme. When the deferred fourth show was performed on Sunday 17, a rivalry in the opening Handsome Harry Secombe sketch between Harry and announcer Andrew Timothy was established and gave the show its catchphrase of the week (‘Put some more coal on Mr Secombe!’). Pureheart’s Triumph of Engineering was Croydon Airport, which developed various gags that reappeared in the 1957 episode Wings Over Dagenham, and Colonel Josh Slocombe from Crazy People reappeared in the final sketch. By now, the Eccles character was so well established that the script would refer to him as a cast member in the dialogue as ‘ECCLES’ alongside ‘SPIKE’, ‘HARRY’, ‘PETER’ and ‘MICHAEL’. Scotland joined the show on their Home Service with the fourth show on Tuesday 19 February, the same day on which it was decided that the option on the Stargazers – increasingly in demand elsewhere – would not be taken up for the further editions of The Goon Show. The rest of the cast were contracted on Thursday 21 February for six shows to record from 9 March to 13 April, and with an option for a further six to be taken by the end of March.
Ever onwards
For the fifth show performed on Sunday 24 February, Ray Ellington’s number had to be pre-recorded at the start of the evening for insertion into the main show which was now performed at the later time of around 9pm. With only three sketches (omitting a Bloodnok item), Max and the Stargazers combined their numbers. The Monte Carlo Rally, which had taken place in late January, was sent up with the return of the BBC commentary sketches; however, while Peter continued to appear as Jack Islott, Michael was now playing a commentator called Michael Bentine. Splutmuscle returned to the array of characters, joined by Harry as Fred Bogg.On Monday 25 came the good news that the Light Programme was possibly going to repeat The Goon Show to a wider audience from April through to May, and on Thursday 28 the Home Service agreed to take up the option for another six shows – giving a run of eighteen – with another option for six beyond that. In the meantime, the Welsh Home Service took The Goon Show again from Tuesday 26, but the Midlands transmitters now dropped out. This edition was also aired in the later slot of 10.01pm to allow for The Loss of the Birkenhead, a documentary about the steam ship which vanished a century earlier. The following day, Harry featured in Dick Turpin, a Light Programme broadcast produced by Dennis.The sixth show on Sunday 2 March was planned to have Harry pre-record Beggar in Love at 6pm for playback into the main show at 7.30pm, but this was cut. Bloodnok became even more dubious on his quest for the Golden Idol of Dennis Wilson in Africa, Fred Bogg returned and the BBC’s Dick Barton joined Pureheart in a space mission. Previewed with a 33 second extract from the Bloodnok sequence on the Home Service’s Programme Parade at both 7.10am and 8.10pm, this show was fully networked two days later and was the final edition to feature the Stargazers whose BBC broadcasts continued with series such as Calling All Forces, Home at Eight, Show Band Show, On the Beat, The Stargazers’ Music Shop, A Proper Charlie and Saturday’s Music Album. Recording through to 1960, the group enjoyed chart fame from February 1953 to June 1956 with Number One hits like Broken Wings and I See the Moon and also backed Dickie Valentine on his chart-topper The Finger of Suspicion in December 1954.
At the start of March, the Ray Ellington Quartet began a three month engagement at the Royal Dance Hall in Tottenham while Michael Bentine joined the first variety bill of the season at the Palladium. The Home Service decided to extend the run again by another six weeks, and on Friday 7, Dennis expressed to his superiors his concern that Anything Goes with Benny Hill from the West Home Service was ‘uncomfortably close’ to The Goon Show and indicated that he would like them to take action to ‘stop this purloining of ideas’.
Now without the Stargazers, Harry’s pre-recorded music item for the seventh show was used to separate off his first Handsome Harry Secombe sketch from the Pureheart engineering report. Pureheart’s exploits continued with assistance from Peter as Flowerdew and Malfeasance and Spike as Eccles, the Bentine-Islott commentators were back with an item based around the Winter Olympics which had taken place in Oslo in late February, and Bloodnok again presented the exploits of one of his ancestors. When the cast were booked on Monday 10 March, it was for only five shows (the sixth scheduled being covered by the contract for the cancelled broadcast); these would record on Sundays from 20 April to 18 May, and the BBC could option six more by Tuesday 29 April. In fact, the Home Service extended The Goon Show through to mid-July on Wednesday 12 March (the same day that Peter and Michael appeared on the bill of the 31st Variety Ball at Grosvenor House).
Dennis' honing
In the meantime, Dennis took some time to comment on the shows and assembled a General Policy document for the series. Although the new shows were more ‘commercial’ he was wary that this approach might rob the programme of its wit; similarly he had concerns about ‘long build-up’ gags which were creeping in as they were difficult to sustain. He felt that the Pureheart items needed to be more of ‘a Goon action plot with subsidiary gags’ rather than a string of themed jokes. This and the Bloodnok item were at times getting too close in style to the ‘Secombe’ and ‘Gimmick’ spots. Of the four items in the show, he felt that Handsome Harry Secombe should be ‘gag comedy’ which built to ‘full blooded wild Secombe goonery’, Pureheart should be ‘more relaxed […] more movement and more clever plot [with] occasional satire’, the ‘Gimmick’ documentary would have a ‘strong theme’ as ‘the main outlet for Goon subtlety and satire’ and the climactic item with Bloodnok should offer ‘action and movement as in Pureheart but with broader, more direct humour’.
Aware of the complaints about noise from the Listener Research Reports, Dennis was delighted that Harry and Michael had brought their performances down a bit over the last two shows. He advised against ‘Gags out of context’ and although some of their ‘Running gags’ had been a hit, he was cautious of over-using them. He also wanted tighter ‘Structural continuity’ with regards to characters in the Pureheart and Bloodnok narratives. Dennis was concerned that they missed out on topical material; Olympic Winter Sports had been written ten days after the event finished while the Irish Bloodnok sequence was a week before St Patrick’s Day. The Home Service sketch show Take It from Here had beaten them to air with a spoof of the film The Greatest Show on Earth despite Dennis suggesting it to the writers weeks ago; hence they needed to plan ahead far more effectively.
Dennis followed this up with thoughts on the Construction of the Four Main Spots. Regarding Handsome Harry Secombe, while he liked Harry’s feud with Andrew Timothy he was aware of the danger of making the announcer a fifth Goon; he also noted that Harry had difficulty with tongue-twisting phrases which should be avoided in the scripts. Captain Pureheart had been created as an inventor but had degenerated into a feed for Malfeasance, Eccles and Flowerdew; he recommended looking at the Brabagoon and Goonitania items from Crazy People again to get this spot back on course. The Gimmick Spot had been very successful as per the 1951 shows – notably with topical items like the Monte Carlo Rally, thus the Boat Race and the Grand National were suggested for forthcoming shows. Finally, Dennis noted that ‘On the whole, Bloodnok has been our strongest spot’; the tales had improved but needed to avoid repetition of basic plots and possibly introduce a strong, permanent character to work with but contrast against Bloodnok, with this possibly being Michael’s posh subaltern.
Finally Dennis offered Additional Details & Suggestions dated Tuesday 11 March. Bloodnok could feature the Napoleonic Pierre Bloodnok, the dashing d’Artagnan Bloodnok, or the South American revolutionary Jose el Bloodnok with scenarios including Bloodnok the Empire Builder (for Empire Day on 24 May), Mutiny on the Goonty and Sir Henry Bloodnok – Scourge of the Seven Seas. The Gimmick Spot could also cover the Manx T-T Motorbike Races in June and Silverstone Grand Prix in July. The Pureheart Spot proposed ‘ideas mainly from Michael Bentine’ concerning the inventor’s own versions of the Russian MIG.15, a satellite town, the Boulder Dam and an atomic-powered submarine.
The Northern Ireland Home Service dropped The Goon Show from Tuesday 11 March for the remainder of its run, instead transmitting Fairy Faith (and later Here’s Your Chance). Nevertheless, on Wednesday 12 the Home Service extended the run of The Goon Show through to July.
Premonition of things to come
For the eighth show, recorded on Sunday 16 March, the script carried only a single sketch: ‘The Goons’ version of Rider Haggard’s She entitled Her’ which was presented ‘in four dramatic scenes’. This script was far closer to the structure of the later editions of the series, following the quest conducted by the Earl of Secombe, Major Bloodnok and Captain Pureheart accompanied by characters such as Carstairs, Malfeasance, Eccles, Flowerdew, Abdul and Ellinga (Ray Ellington’s ‘native’); there were also interludes to poke fun at the British politicians of the day. When this edition was scheduled in the later 9.45pm slot on Tuesday 18 (to allow for a special broadcast on Britain in Europe), Scotland failed to carry it. A detailed Listener Research Report on the sixth show was written up based on comments from 348 listeners on Thursday 20 March. The Home Service transmission attracted an AI of 58, rising to 60 for the Light Programme repeat; 51% of Light Programme listeners had already tuned in for the Home Service transmission. Asked if they liked this ‘crazy humour’, 70% of the Home Service listeners confirmed that they did, the share rising to 77% for the Light Programme; these sub-groups awarded AIs of 68 and 66. Home Service listeners enjoyed Harry the most, but Peter and Harry split the Light Programme vote. There was some dislike of the musical numbers, although Max’s spot was praised. Those tuned to the Home Service enjoyed Fred Bogg in the Army and Major Bloodnok’s Quest. All listeners enjoyed ‘the wit and speed of the show’. The familiar sketches of Handsome Harry, Pureheart, a gimmick item and Bloodnok’s adventures (in which he faced the Mad Mullah for the first time) returned for the ninth edition recorded on Sunday 23 March; Crun was now starting to appear as a politician. By the end of March, Harry’s panto run in Sheffield had concluded and he had returned to London. This meant that Harry, Michael, Spike and Max plus impressionist Janet Brown could appear on the same Goon-orientated bill at the East Ham Metropolitan in the last week of March.
A quick Listener Research Report on the eighth show assembled from 238 questionnaires on Friday 28 March revealed an Appreciation Index of 58. With the tenth show recorded on Sunday 30, Spike’s Miss Banister appeared as ‘Auntie Bannister’ to Captain Pureheart while in the commentary for the Grand National – due to be run the following Saturday – Peter appeared again as Raymond Goondenning (spoofing Raymond Glendenning). This edition aired in the later slot of 9.45pm on April Fool’s Day because of the discussion Governing London. It also gained a substantial audience when repeated in a new slot on the Light Programme at 7.30pm on Thursday 3 April; almost five million listeners had tuned in for The Goon Show when it replaced Anything Goes, while ballet music was placed in its vacated slot at Saturday lunchtime.
‘Without Spike Milligan who is away with influenza,’ announced Andrew Timothy at the start of the eleventh show which was recorded on Sunday 6 April. Various of Spike’s roles such as Eccles and an upper class officer were divided out among the cast for the recording, and the Pureheart sketch had a rare appearance of Sir Harold Porridge while Clara Wilmington (Harry) reappeared in a sketch where Crun acted as a critic for a love scene. Colonel Slocombe was also back, complete with his own theme, in place of the closing Bloodnok item.The Goon-themed variety show next opened at the Chelsea Palace on Monday 7 April while Peter formed part of a new bill at the prestigious London Palladium. A detailed Listener Research Report assessing the reaction of 199 listeners to the ninth edition was issued on Tuesday 8 April. The Appreciation Index had risen to 63, with 77% of the audience indicating that they liked this ‘crazy humour’. Many of those reporting were now firm fans and the more mixed views came from newcomers to the series. Some found the show very noisy, while others felt that ‘they were missing a lot by not being able to see the Goons.’ Criticism was mild. Harry was enjoyed the most (including his song) followed by Peter, Max and Ray. There was little comment on Spike or Michael, ‘perhaps because listeners were not sure which parts they played.’ One specific comment indicated that the ‘Survey of Britain’ sketches had been a weak point, opinions varied as to whether the tempo was ‘too quick’ or just right, and the report concluded with a ‘Miner’s Wife’ declaring: ‘This show is a delightful example of pure radio and it is a relief to hear a programme which does not echo several others.’
With the recording of the twelfth show on Sunday 13 April, the pre-recording of Harry’s number was abandoned… as was his solo spot. Max’s number was moved up to follow Harry’s opening escapade (which now tended to drop the Handsome Harry Secombe announcement although it retained the theme) and instead the ‘gimmick’ spot tended to conclude with a parody song assembled by Jimmy Grafton. Bloodnok faced the Mad Mullah again and Splutmuscle returned as one of Pureheart’s assistants.
The New Empire in Cardiff was the next to receive the Goon-filled variety bill from Monday 14 April, while the Midlands Home Service dropped the Tuesday 15 broadcast for one week only. The next edition of The Goon Show saw the recording relocated from the Aeolian Hall to the Playhouse, the former Royal Avenue Theatre on Northumberland Avenue which had been taken over by the BBC in 1951. This thirteenth show of the run included a joke about senior BBC announcer John Snagge which would later turn up in 1955’s Foiled by President Fred, a gimmick sketch about the USA presidential election to be held in November, and also the final appearance for some years of Colonel Slocombe. The Kingston-upon-Thames Empire saw the return of Harry, Spike and Michael’s show to England on Monday 21 April, and parts of the show featuring Harry and Max were broadcast on the Home Service’s Vaudeville from 7pm on Tuesday 22… just before the next edition of The Goon Show which attracted almost three million listeners. The same day, Peter was booked for Ray’s a Laugh through to mid-July, and then on Friday 25 the cast of The Goon Show were contracted to record from 25 May to 13 July, with yet another option for six additional programmes which the BBC could take by Friday 27 June. However, by the following week the BBC indicated that this option had been an error, and the Home Service would be happy for the show to close after 25 editions.
The Goons consider celluloid
From April, the Goons spent two weeks on their first combined film venture. The support feature Stand Easy had been written by Jimmy Grafton and one Francis Charles, and with Jimmy as executive producer was to be made by EJ Fancey Productions at Kay Carlton Hill Studios in Maida Vale, Pepys House near to Grafton’s, and on location in the vicinity of Denham in Buckinghamshire. Harry played the nominal hero, Harry Jones, a shop assistant with dreams of becoming a private eye who becomes caught up in a plot when one of his customers, Professor Osric Pureheart (Michael), turns out to be an atomic scientist on a camping holiday who is being followed by two spies, played by Andrew Timothy and Graham Stark. Much of the action took place at Warwell Atomic Research Station where security was handled by Colonel Bloodnok (Peter) and his men including Private Eccles, played as ever by Spike. Also starring as an MI5 agent was Carole Carr, a singer and actress whose radio career had begun during the war on shows like Variety Bandbox and who had worked on Listen My Children; by now she was a regular on Calling All Forces and the Western serial Riders of the Range. By the time the film was underway with director Maclean Rogers, the title was changed to Down Among the Z Men and an appropriate song formed part of the score written by Jack Jordan.
The fourteenth show recorded on Sunday 27 experimented with a new closing adventure with neither Bloodnok nor Slocombe, but concerning the Mexican bandit El Gato (Harry). Comedian Stan Stennett then joined the bill of the Goon variety show when it opened at the Brixton Empress on Monday 28. The fifteenth show performed on Sunday 4 May saw Bloodnok appearing in the Pureheart sketch while the final narrative was a French revolutionary item. Harry was now also playing an idiotic northern character called Bass, Peters’ ‘Sanders’ character was featuring more prominently, and the opening sketch saw fun poked at the BBC Head of Variety and the department’s reliance on Listener Research Reports… By Wednesday 7 May, plans were being made to reschedule Trial Gallop to air from Lime Grove Studios at 8.30pm on Wednesday 2 July, with the cast required for rehearsals and pre-filming on Wednesday 18 June. The producer was now Michael Mills, a variety producer who had been at the helm of Turn It Up! and Picture Page. Meanwhile, an advert in The Stage on Thursday 8 May announced that ‘NUGENT THUNDERBONCE joins HARRY SECOMBE, MICHAEL BENTINE and SPIKE MILLIGAN in thanking EMMANUEL BEESWAX for a successful season on the Arloo Circuit.’
Is it the end?
The Home Service took a firm decision on The Goon Show on Friday 9 May; the current run would conclude on Tuesday 15 July, but already another series was being commissioned to commence in mid-November. For the next show recorded that Sunday, the four sketches were shuffled around late in the day and a ‘gimmick’ item about mixing up the BBC radio stations was dropped. A character of Harry’s in a few sketches was referred to as ‘Simple Simon’ and the concluding item was a longer adventure in which Pureheart was now joined by Professor Crun, Major Bloodnok and Eccles. More new characters were also tested in High Goon, a spoof Western sending up the iconic movie High Noon which had been released at the start of May.
The Goon variety show opened at the East Ham Hippodrome on Monday 12 May, the same day that a brief Listener Research Report revealed that 285 members of the Listening Panel had awarded the fourteenth show an AI of 59. However, the audiences on the Light Programme had been falling, and only around four million tuned in for that Thursday’s repeat.
The seventeenth show of the run was recorded on Sunday 18 May and again saw Crun working with Pureheart, another rare appearance of Sir Harold in a send up of the Third Programme, and a closing narrative using Harry in the lead role of a Welsh chieftain from history.
Spike's a daddy
En route for Australia, June Milligan had been suffering from morning sickness. While Spike was thrilled by the idea of becoming a father, he was deeply concerned that he did not have a home for his family. He was working flat out on writing material for The Goon Show while learning more about structure from the experienced Larry Stephens. Friends and family took him in until he relocated to a flat in Kensington in mid-May.
At last it's the last
The date of the final recording for the current run was amended on Thursday 22 May; two shows would now be taped instead on Sunday 6 July. By now, Dennis was also producing the Vera Lynn series We’ll Meet Again for the Light Programme in addition to his Goon duties. The eighteenth edition of The Goon Show was performed on Sunday 25; this saw the return of one of Bloodnok’s ancestors in the closing sketch, and also the first pairing of the ‘Miss Bannister’ character with Crun (now named Henry) when Pureheart was informed that they were man and wife.
Blowback to originality
Having studied the original script for Trial Gallop, Michael Mills commented to BBC copyright on Wednesday 28 May that ‘I am using very little of the original material’ in his revised version which was now entitled Goonreel. There was similar analysis of the team’s radio work in the Variety (Sound) Department. ‘I think the Goons are in danger of being submerged by the very qualities that have helped them to success, namely their own gusto and extreme eccentricity,’ wrote Michael Standing to Dennis Main Wilson on Thursday 29 May. The Head of Variety was concerned about ineffectual endings to sketches and indistinct shows, feeling that ‘the cast have got somewhat out of control at the microphone, out of balance, and more than once out of audibility range. I do not expect them to perform within the dramatic limitations of [the daily Light Programme soap] Mrs Dale’s Diary but I do expect them to give an exclusively microphone performance without pandering, as they frequently do, to the studio audience. If these tendencies are not arrested very quickly the show may well collapse like a pricked balloon.’
Since the Dance Orchestra was on leave on Sunday 1 June, Dennis had arranged for the music to be provided by Robert Busby’s Revue Orchestra instead; Jack Jordan was now contributing incidental music for the shows. This script mixed the format a little with the opening cross-talk between Harry and Andrew setting up a sketch for later in the programme. The robbery of a mail van in London’s Eastcastle Street on Wednesday 21 May had inspired a Pureheart adventure involving Special Branch, and Dr Henry Crun now graduated to the lead character of the show’s closing sketch – the first of a two-part trip up the Amazon.
Michael Bentine says I’m a genius
The Ray Ellington Quartet embarked upon a three-month tour of the UK for Mecca starting on Monday 2 June which meant that they would have to fly back for some recordings from venues such as Glasgow and Belfast. The Goon variety show had now effectively broken up, but Harry and Michael appeared on the same bill that week at the Chiswick Empire. It was apparently during this week that they were approached at the stage door one night by the eccentric figure of Ruxton Hayward, a six-foot-two, red-bearded scoutmaster with a bicycle who – in a high-pitched voice – announced that he wanted to be a Goon. Bemused by Ruxton, Michael told him to find Peter Sellers over at the Finsbury Empire and present himself by saying: ‘Michael Bentine says I’m a genius’… with Ruxton unaware that this was a signal to Peter that he might find the scoutmaster worthy of incorporation into his act… and ultimately the inspiration for his Bluebottle character. By now, the Goons’ characters were taking on a life of their own for the cast. Peter had letterheads representing the solicitors’ firm of Whacklow, Futtle & Crun in Lincoln's Inn Fields printed to send joke correspondence to Spike; this exchange of missives between figures such as Crun, Bluebottle, Grytpype-Thynne and others would continue for a couple of decades.
A silly, childish situation
A strong AI of 62 was the verdict of 172 listeners whose opinions were collated in a Listener Research Report for the seventeenth show on Friday 6 June. The same day, Dennis replied to his boss’ earlier memo and noted that the start of the Goons not exclusively performing for the microphone coincided with their move to the Playhouse. This new venue was structured so that the laughter for a pay-off gag would be lost in the auditorium dome and not heard by the performer on stage. ‘It is for this reason that there has been an atmosphere of near-panic in the last Goon Shows,’ wrote Dennis, explaining that the cast were convinced their material was falling flat … while in the control room the audience reaction was strong. ‘When the Goon Show moves to the Paris Cinema on Sunday, I am sure that the show will get back to normal,’ he assured. However, he agreed with Michael’s comments on the scripts and explained ‘there has been a rift between Milligan and Stephens who instead of working together on all four comedy spots, are now writing two apiece as solo efforts […] Milligan is an excellent gag and ideas man with little or no sense of pure wit, construction, line or situation. Stephens is a good situation and character writer […] but he has a weaker sense of purely gag comedy. Added to this, we lost quite a lot of headway on scripts when Milligan was away ill for two weeks some while ago.’ Dennis noted that he hoped to bring the two writers ‘to their senses’ shortly to resolve the ‘silly, childish situation’.
Another relocation
The Goon Show relocated from the less-than-ideal Playhouse to the Paris Cinema, a former cinema on Lower Regent Street, on Sunday 8 June. In the second of the show’s two Handsome Harry-style items, Harry was visited by his agent, the Honourable Terence Blatt – a new Jewish agent character played by Peter who would manipulate his client each week for the rest of the run. Crun’s wife – the ‘Miss Bannister’ character – also kept tabs on her husband as he concluded his Amazonian adventure from the previous week.
From Monday 9 June, Peter and Max were on the bill at the Finsbury Empire, while Dennis was now producing another radio show; this was All Star Bill for which the scripts came from Jimmy Grafton and the music was performed by Robert Busby’s Revue Orchestra. Michael Bentine was taken ill and unable to attend the recording of The Goon Show on Sunday 15; Pureheart was omitted from several sections of the script at short notice, with the bulk of the programme – all except the opening Harry/Blatt item – being a spoof of the 1933 novel Lost Horizon which featured Major Bloodnok and Harold Secombe discovering the secret of eternal life in Shangri-La. This would form the basis of the episode Shangri-La Again in 1955. When broadcast on Tuesday 17, this show was not taken by Scotland which instead scheduled Scotland Sings.
Bloodnok the Cosmopolitan
Filming of inserts for Goonreel began on Wednesday 18 June while the next edition of The Goon Show was recorded on Sunday 22 June and again used Bloodnok as a character in the Pureheart venture of the week with appearances from ‘Sanders’, ‘Simple Simon’ and ‘Bass’. The following week, Harry topped the bill when he opened in Show Time at the Southsea South Parade Pier on Thursday 26 June. In the Daily Express on Friday 27 June, Leonard Mosely eagerly looked ahead to the Goons’ television experiment the following week, noting that the group had ‘added a new word to the language – Goonery.’ Two editions of The Goon Show were recorded on Sunday 29 June; the first at 4.15 would air second and was performed without the Ray Ellington Quartet who were not available until the evening and who would post-record their tribute to Fats Waller for later insertion. ‘Sanders’, Carstairs, Splutmuscle, Flowerdew and Eccles helped Pureheart in his battle to find a cure for Lurgi in a tale which spanned the second and third parts of the show. Then in the evening edition, Harry made direct references to Michael Standing and how he wanted to get elected to BBC Variety (‘Standing for Standing’), Bloodnok acquired the Christian name of Cosmo (which he would retain into the next series) in a spoof of Moby Dick, and the Goons looked at the supposed hopefuls then in training for the Helsinki Olympics which would be staged the following month.
Dennis passes the baton to Peter
A Listener Research Report concerning the twenty-first show was compiled from 157 questionnaires on Tuesday 17 June and awarded The Goon Show an AI of 65 – a new high for the series. Harry was ‘considered the outstanding performer’ and the combined talents of the team made ‘an amusingly slick, delightfully daft and refreshingly original entertainment.’ A minority felt the series was falling into a stale ‘set pattern’ ,while many others enjoyed it but found it noisy. The bottom line came from a ‘Civil Servant’: ‘enormous fun and very witty – the quick fire wit left me gasping.’ Rehearsals for Goonreel took place at Lime Grove Studio G on Tuesday 1 July, ready for the live transmission from 8.45pm to 9pm the following evening. Joined by compere Andrew Timothy, Graham Stark, Sam Kydd, Robert Cawdron, choreographer Clementina Stuart, Jack Hayes and ‘Mr Emanuel Beeswax’, the quartet’s show was promoted in the Radio Times with a shot of the Goons larking around. The show was apparently ‘Devised, presented, directed and produced by Mr Claude Boote, assisted by Michael Mills’ and music came from Jack Jordan. Some of the material – such as the story of the BRM and the spoof of The Waiter, The Porter and the Upstairs Maid – was familiar to radio listeners, with the script assembled by Spike, Michael and Jimmy. The day that Goonreel hit the screens, Michael Standing wrote to Peter Eton: ‘After honorable service as producer of the Goons programme Dennis Wilson would like to stand down for the next series starting in the autumn and I would like you to take over the production.’ Peter was a good choice to inherit the Goons, having a good relationship with all the cast, particularly Spike; at the time Peter was producing Arthur’s Inn, a vehicle for Arthur Askey. He was informed that The Goon Show would return on its usual slot of Tuesdays at 9.30pm from mid-November.
Michael Bentine was now feeling increasingly frustrated at being unable to contribute more material to the scripts. He was also pushing to move into television, aiming to create a series of short television films which would feature his own strange, idiotic creatures – the Bumblies. BBC Television were interested in his talents, with Ronnie Waldman noting on Friday 4 July: ‘I am now convinced that Michael Bentine is the man we have for so long been needing to put more inventiveness and wit into our shows. I have almost talked him into making a fortnightly series for us in Jan-Mar.’ As such, Michael was looking to move on.
The final recording of the series took place back at the Playhouse on Sunday 6 July. As with the end of Crazy People, this last show saw the recycling of earlier Handsome Harry items, but was then followed by largely new material. Bloodnok acquired a daughter, Felicity (Michael), in the Goons’ version of The Story of The Green Eyed Little Yellow God, and the BBC commentators eavesdropped on the annual BBC Bridge Contest featuring Michael Standing and three junior producers (plus an appearance from Peter as Nugent, a schoolboy like his Soppy character in Ray’s a Laugh), before Crun and Pureheart signed off the series with a quest for a rare African White Carnation.
The day after the final recording, Peter Eton indicated that after talking to Spike, Jimmy and Larry they would start writing again after a short rest, noting that it would ‘be a real benefit to the show if money were made available well in advance to commission, say, the first six scripts’. On Wednesday 9, the Home Service committed to twelve shows with an option for twelve more and – taking Peter’s advice – commissioned half a dozen scripts. Following the final broadcast of the run The Goon Show was replaced on the Home Service by Rogues’ Gallery (a series of comedies featuring Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) and on the Light Programme by a selection of Danny Kaye records. Peter Sellers concluded his current run of Ray’s a Laugh on Thursday 17 July. Following a broadcast in Up the Pole on Friday 18 and a recording for Calling All Forces on Saturday 19, he departed for a long ‘out of town’ tour, while Michael Bentine was also on the road, opening at the Glasgow Empire on Monday 21.
The Goons had established themselves as a radio success with innovative material and also attempted to transfer this to the visual media via film and television. But a change to the familiar four-man line-up was looming …
Second series (1952)
Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine, The Ray Ellington Quartet, Max Geldray and the BBC Dance Orchestra, conducted by Stanley Black. The Stargazers were present for the first six shows only.
Announcer: Andrew Timothy.
The shows were all recorded on a Sunday, except episodes 24 and 25; all episodes were broadcast on Tuesdays.[1] Only three episodes are known to survive as truncated, off-air recordings.
Notes
The programme titles given to this series – where available – are as written on the BBC Archive copies after production and are often grammatically challenging! The shows generally consisted of four different sketches separated by musical items. Scripted subtitles are given in single inverted commas where available and titles announced on-air presented in italics based on the available scripts. Programme numbering continued directly on from the first run of Crazy People.
Programme research and booklet notes by Andrew Pixley.
References
- ^ Farnes 1997, p. 189.
