The Goon Show series 10

Yes, that was it, the last of'em. So bye now.

In January 1960, announcer Wallace Greenslade signed off from the final regular edition of The Goon Show which, after almost a decade of pushing forward the frontiers of comedy, would now be vanishing from the schedules of the BBC Home Service. There were numerous reasons for the successful and much loved show concluding. First of all, the three main cast members - Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan - had become established stars, now offered lucrative, high-profile projects beyond the confines of BBC radio. Also, the strain of crafting the surreal scripts had become overwhelming for the show's main writer, Spike Milligan. The ninth series, part-way through its run at the start of 1959, was already proving difficult. While the BBC wanted to extend its shorter-than-usual run, the cast were reluctant. And in mid-January, Spike was again suffering from anxiety neurosis and barely well enough to record the twelfth show, The Call of the West.

Signs of it finishing

On Wednesday 21 January 1959, the American entertainment paper Variety declared that the 'Goon Show ... is now to be disbanded after a lengthy run.'This unexpected announcement came in a piece about Peter Sellers who had been offered a five-year movie contract with the Boulting Brothers and was casting his gaze at America. A couple of days earlier, producer John Browell had informed his superiors in BBC light Entertainment (Sound) that an extension of the current series by two weeks and a special non-audience show would not be practical. Harry would be out of the country, Peter had a film commitment and Spike was still recovering from illness.

Spike's problems with the scripts meant that John had approached Larry Stephens – Spike's original writing partner on the series – to provide a replacement script as he had done a few weeks earlier with The Seagoon Memoirs. Unfortunately Larry himself was unwell and so Spike made minor edits (removing Christmas references and updating some character traits) to a 1955 script entitled Dishonoured which could be remade on Sunday 25 January under the title Dishonoured — Again; the show closed with the usual musical combination of Alte Kameraden (Old Comrades) followed by a playout of Crazy Rhythm.

35 is too soon

The night that Dishonoured — Again was recorded, Larry and his wife Diana were due to have dinner with Spike. Larry collapsed in the car travelling to the restaurant. Admitted to Whittington Hospital in Highgate having suffered a stroke, he died aged 35.

George Chisholm makes a bob or two

On Friday 30 January, John Browell arranged for hospitality for the final recording of the series on Sunday 22 February and commented to his superiors that this might be 'the last extensive series of the Goons'. That Sunday's recording – relocated to the Paris Studios rather than the usual venue of the Camden Theatre – was a new script by Spike entitled The Scarlet Capsule. The story had been inspired by the popular BBC-tv science-fiction serial Quatermass and the Pit which had reached its climax on Monday 26 January. Spike had written a pre-recorded news announcement which he hoped could be taped, as in recent shows, by senior BBC announcer John Snagge, but instead was recorded by Andrew Timothy, the original announcer on The Goon Show through to October 1953. I Want to be Happy was used again for the closing theme followed by a playout of Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. Spike's script again over-ran and so several sequences had to be omitted, including a reappearance of Bluebottle's mother who had featured recently in The Call of the West. On Monday 2 February, Spike filmed a piece about his love of art for broadcast on BBC-TV's Tonight that Wednesday. His next Goon script was The Tay Bridge, inspired by his fascination with the awful 1880 verse The Tay Bridge Disaster by hopeless Scots poet William McGonagall; the Scots setting allowed a speaking part (and fee) for George Chisholm, the jovial trombone player in Wally Stott's orchestra. The much-married actress Rita Hayworth was name-checked, as was BBC bandleader Lou Preager in an ad-lib by Harry Secombe.

Pete's drinking caused a brouhaha

Harry's run in the successful revue Large as Life at Manchester concluded the following weekend. At the start of February, Peter Sellers indicated that he would not extend his contract for Brouhaha. He had been appearing in the stage comedy at the Aldwych Theatre since 1958 and was becoming increasingly bored with it. He was in the news again when he appeared drunk in the show on Tuesday 10 February, but had reason to celebrate when his comedy LP The Best of Sellers entered the British charts and remained there for almost a year.

The Gold Plate Robbery was recorded on Sunday 15 February and featured comments about the brandy consumed by the cast during the music spots. Topical jokes referred to the British Ambassador to France Sir Gladwyn Jebb, the X-rated movie of social ambition Room at the Top released at the end of January ... and a name-check for Spike's writing colleague Dave Freeman.

We'll gather lilacs, or there'll be hell to pay

On Monday 16, Spike was forced to withdraw from the Associated-Rediffusion show Alfred Marks Time because he was too busy for rehearsals. When Spike submitted his final script, The ₤50 Cure, John Browell was unsure about the cast signing off with a chorus of Ivor Novello's sentimental We'll Gather Lilacs. When John indicated that he would like to cut this, Spike responded on Wednesday 18, ‘It is just too bad if you don't see the point in it. Harry Secombe thinks that it is funny, and so does Peter Sellers ... I've spoken to [Assistant Head of Light Entertainment (Sound)] Jim Davidson about it and told him how I feel so I'd be grateful if you would understand quite clearly now that I don't want to cut it out of the recording. If it is I shall just kick up merry hell’.

By now, plans for a tenth series of The Goon Show were underway. Jim Davidson asked John Browell to commission six scripts from Spike to broadcast from Christmas 1959 – ideally stockpiling recordings prior to transmission. Spike was due to have joined Harry in his ATV show Secombe and Friends on Saturday 21 February, but Harry went down with mumps. The show was cancelled and Harry could not attend the recording of The ₤50 Cure at the Camden the next day; Kenneth Connor again deputised at short notice as he had done on Who is 'Pink Oboe'? a few weeks earlier, this time taking on the role of Neddie Seagoon. Spike's script featured Lonnie Donnegan's current chart success Does Your Chewing Gum lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight while barbs were also aimed at Minister of Transport Harold Watkinson in the wake of the new Preston motorway being closed due to bad weather in late January. Because of the rumours that this would be the end of The Goon Show, a film crew from BBC-TV's Tonight programme was present to shoot footage of the proceedings.

‘I hope you will be fit enough to get on that boat,’ wrote John to Harry on Monday 23 February, ‘I have asked Spike to write six more scripts and we have some ideas that they may be perpetrated somewhere around Christmas so we'll all be meeting again for our Sunday battles!’ The same day he wrote to Spike, ‘I have left your We'll Gather Lilacs in, so that we end up the series with a feeling of sweet violets and all that ... Hope you have a pleasant trip to Australia.’ The ₤50 Cure brought The Goon Show to an end on the Home Service that night, after which the slot was occupied by a music programme; the Light Programme replacement was Eric Barker's new comedy show, Barker's Folly. Planning the next series, Variety Booking Manager Patrick Newman noted on Tuesday 24 February that while the BBC wanted to stockpile six shows for broadcast, Spike wanted the programmes made as close to transmission as possible, with recordings from Sunday 27 December - while the Home Service preferred a Sunday 20 December start. Patrick felt instinctively that some undefinable problem was looming, and so suggested issuing contracts to see what happened ...

On Friday 27, John Browell commissioned Spike for six scripts to be delivered by Saturday 14 November. On Friday 27 February, a recovered Harry recorded a documentary about his career, The Harry Secombe Story, broadcast by the Home Service on Thursday 16 April; he then started shooting the film Jet Stream (later Jet Storm) at Shepperton. Brouhaha concluded its troubled run to declining audiences on Saturday 28 February, and Carlton Browne of the FO with Peter as second lead was released in early March. The cast contracts to record six Goon Shows from Sunday 20 December were issued on Wednesday 2 March, with Patrick Newman noting, 'With normal people one would record this on paper, but they are a strange lot (particularly Milligan), and if he gets hold of any sort of comment in the shape of a letter he seizes on it as an excuse for going into print with some zany opinions.' The following week, Spike's agent Beryl Vertue responded to say that Spike could not deliver all six scripts by mid-November, so would continue to deliver them on Monday before the Sunday recording. Over the summer, Spike prepared a book of verse - Silly Verse for Kids - and then had another Australian visit lined up. Although the film shot for Tonight was not used, Spike was booked to appear live on the programme on Monday 9 March, mainly because of a bizarre small ad he had placed in the newspapers on Tuesday 3 ('Spike Milligan wants a tall Chinaman to start a rumour').

An Audience Research Report on The £50 Cure gave John Browell feedback from 339 listeners on Thursday 12 March. While a minority continued to dismiss the series as 'nonsensical rubbish' a large group of fans found it 'completely enjoyable' with a Bank Clerk commenting, 'The script was magnificent. Its originality, its many off-beat irreverences, its unpredictable distorted logic, combined to make a fitting and memorable end to the series.' Some listeners had found the show disjointed, and generally attributed any short-comings to Harry's absence. The report was longer than usual and covered several other aspects, noting 'Rumours that this might be the very last Goon Show of all caused great dismay among a large proportion or the sample' with a Clerk/Typist commenting, 'Steam Radio without the Goons is like Christmas cake without the icing.' Amongst the usual negative comments however, it was noted that 'This series was frequently compared unfavourably with those of several years ago.' The report concluded with seven extended quotations from listener's reports, many of which echoed the same theme. 'Six years ago this was probably the most original, most topical, wittiest show on radio. Year by year it has deteriorated to its present level. Occasionally in this series, it has produced some of its former sparkle, but all too seldom,' wrote a Photo-Process Engineer. The end of the series was also marked by a letter from Henry O'Brien of London in the Radio Times on Friday 13 March: 'It is not only the uproarious comedy that makes the Goon Shows so fabulous. It is also the completely unexpected things that occur in them ... for the Goon series to finish is not just the end of a brilliant show; it is the end of a host of strange characters that have become our friends, very dear friends.'

Agent Denis Selinger phoned Patrick Newman on Monday 16 March indicating that Peter Sellers would be happy to sign a contract for an increased fee as long as The Goon Show remained in 'the same format' ... by which it was presumed he meant the presence of music performers Max Geldray and the Ray Ellington Quartet; 'Because you remember the trouble we had last time, don't you old man?' added Denis, recalling how a few months earlier Peter refused to sign his contract until Max had also been booked. However, when Denis visited Patrick on Tuesday 31, he explained that Peter no longer wanted to do The Goon Show - irrespective of money or 'format' - and 'wanted to escape from the "Goon" label.'

Peter and Spike had spent a couple of Sundays shooting a short, silent, surreal comedy film entitled The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film in collaboration with director Dick Lester who had handled their earlier television ventures for Associated-Rediffusion. Spike agreed to his contract to appear in and write the six new Goon Shows and also attempted to interest the BBC in purchasing his Australian radio show The Idiot Weekly; 'not up to standard of our Goons' was the Corporation verdict on hearing tapes of the ABC show. Under the name 'Alan Mills', Spike set sail for Australia at the end of April, having agreed a contract with Grosvenor Films to allow them to shoot a series of television and cinema films of The Goon Show. The company was run by Lionel Bamburgh-Young (known as Tony Young) who had earlier been involved with the 1950 film Penny Points to Paradise which featured Spike, Peter and Harry.

Harry starred in another edition of ATV's Secombe and Friends on Saturday 25 April; he too signed the BBC contract, with Patrick noting on Wednesday 13 May, 'He told me that, regardless of what his agent might ever say, he himself would always do The Goon Show whenever it was offered to him!' Harry starre􀂶 in the BBC-tv special Secombe at Large on Saturday 30 May, after which his tour of Large 􀂷s Life continued at the Liverpool Empire.

The success of Peter Sellers' Parlophone album encouraged record producer George Martin to enquire about the possibility of releasing editions of The Goon Show on long-playing records, and as early as Friday 29 May, John Browell was corresponding with regards the issue of Dishonoured -Again and an earlier show from the Peter Eton era. By mid-July, George had selected Eton's final regular show Tales of Old Dartmoor from 1956 to accompany the more recent episode.

Meanwhile, after almost three months Peter had still not returned his contract and the BBC were considering instituting the 'returned to us without delay' caveat concerning the agreements. Thankfully, on Wednesday 3 June, Patrick Newman was able to confirm that all three stars had now signed. Peter then headed up to Scotland for location filming on The Catbird Seat (latterly The Battle of the Sexes).

In mid-June, the various comedy producers were asked to select examples of their shows to be repeated in a new strand provisionally entitled Pick of the Tops; John Browell responded on Thursday 25 June with his nomination of Dishonoured -Again. At the end of June, Harry suspended his tour and departed for a week's holiday in Majorca . Meanwhile in Sydney, Spike wrote and appeared in a second run of ABC's The Idiot Weekly which aired on Tuesdays from 30 June to 22 September. Peter was then profiled in Close Up on Peter Sellers screened by various ITV regions on Wednesday I July with his starring film The Mouse That Roared released a couple of weeks later.

Harry took Large as Life to Brighton for the summer, and Peter received great acclaim for his role in I'm All Right Jack which was released in mid-August; 'I've just seen Peter Sellers finally escape from the Goons!' wrote Leonard Mosley in the Daily Express.

On Monday 17 August, Jim Davidson informed John Browell that following the six new shows to run from Christmas, the Home Service would like seven repeats to form a run of thirteen. The first show would air on Christmas Eve at 7.30pm and The Goon Show would then remain in this slot, as with the 1956/7 season. The Camden was booked from Sunday 20 December, with Ray Ellington and Max Geldray contracted on Wednesday 26 August. Max had now recorded his first EP with Parlophone; entitled Goon With the Wind, this was released in September and comprised new recordings of melodies which he had performed in The Goon Show.

The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film was received with great acclaim at the Edinburgh International Film Festival from late August while Dishonoured -Again was rerun on The Best of the Best (as the series had been rechristened) on the Light Programme on Monday 31 August. Peter then filmed the comedy Nothing Barred (later Two Way Stretch) from September to November. The Harry Secombe Story aired at 9pm on the Light Programme on Sunday 6 September and Harry was on cinema screens again in Jet Storm which was released a couple of weeks later, after which he again fronted Secombe and Friends for ATV on Saturday 26 September before departing to entertain British troops serving in Cyprus and East Africa and record some Forces shows.

By early October, Spike was back in England. His personal life had suffered a major blow. Just before leaving Australia, he had received a letter from his wife, June, to say that their marriage was over; the years of living with a driven creative depressive had taken its toll. She would be taking their three children with her. During the voyage, Spike attempted a barbiturate overdose and had his stomach pumped by the ship's doctor. Unable to face loneliness in his Finchley home, he started to live at the offices of Associated London Scripts and discussed his plight in an article entitled My Wife Has Gone in the Daily Mail on Tuesday 20 October.

Parlophone released The Best of the Goons Shows (PMC 1108) in October; this offered Tales of Old Dartmoor and Dishonoured-Again (referred to here as Dishonoured) with various edits and the removal of the musical numbers from Max and Ray. Peter recorded another comedy LP for Parlophone which sent up the contemporary music scene; following a single with My Old Dutch in mid-November came the album Songs for Swingin' Sellers (a take on Frank Sinatra's hit 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers!). Working again with Wally Stott, Harry recorded a Philips' Christmas single. The Holy City was released in November along with the LP Secombe Sings; Harry then starred in Secombe at Large on Saturday 7 November before going on tour again.

Silly Verse for Kids was published mid-November and featured in a film about Spike made by Ken Russell for Monitor during November; plans were made for Spike's own North of England Home Service pilot programme, Milligan in Manchester, to be recorded on Thursday 3 December. In the last week of November, The Best of the Goon Shows entered the LP charts, peaking at Number 8 and remaining on the best-seller list for fourteen weeks. Songs for Swingin' Sellers followed it in mid-December, reaching Number 3 and selling strongly for months.

'Christmas is expected to get off to a disastrous start in the Home Service on Christmas Eve. For at exactly 7.30pm, announcer Wallace Greens/ode will announce over the ether 'This is The Goon Show. and for the next thirty minutes Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe will start a hilarious riot throughout millions of listeners' homes,' heralded BBC Publicity in the bulletin A Crazy Christmas Eve on Thursday 3 December. John Browell informed the world: 'Spike has agreed to write six new shows, followed by a repeat of seven old ones. The first recording will be at the Camden Theatre on Sunday, December 20.'

On Sunday 6 December, Harry appeared on Sunday Night at the London Palladium while the film Portrait of a Goon aired on BBC-tv's Tonight. Harry was now in rehearsals for the Palladium pantomime of Humpty Dumpty, while Spike was soon taking part in a drama film, Suspect.

'These three men are known to be at large, and when last reported were heading for a BBC studio with plans to broadcast a secret Goon Show tonight' read the caption of a shot showing Spike, Peter and Harry which promoted their return to the Home Service in the Christmas Radio Times. A Christmas Carol was recorded on Sunday 20 December along with a special insert for the General Overseas Service's Christmas Greetings to the Falkland Islands.

Spike was experimenting with a new catchphrase in the form of 'near enough for jazz', a musician's sardonic excuse for an out of tune instrument. The festive script also included references to Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita (finally published in London in November 1959), Peter's ongoing love of cars, and saw Peter's character Crystal Jollibottom from Ray's a Laugh as Ned's wife. In Yuletide mood, the closing music was Good King Wenceslas followed by Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. However, with the show over-running, Spike's song Teeth of England from Silly Verse for Kids had to be trimmed.

Harry opened in Humpty Dumpty on Wednesday 23 December and A Christmas Carol aired on Christmas Eve with an atypical Light Programme repeat the following afternoon. The wartime memoirs story The Tale of Men's Shirts was then taped on Sunday 27 December. Partly inspired by the November 1959 publication of Triumph in the West (Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke's second volume of war diaries), this script referred to Monte Cassino, the battle in which Spike had been wounded in 1944. For this show, the orchestra reverted to a closing theme of Alte Kameraden and a Crazy Rhythm playout. Also, the regular repeats commenced at 8pm on the Light Programme the following Tuesday, taking over from Hancock's Half Hour.

More jokes about Peter's car obsession opened The Chinese Legs, recorded on Sunday 3 January. The script reused a lot of familiar gags, made reference to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's African tour, and senior announcer John Snagge pre-recorded an announcement for the show.

By Friday 8 January, John Browell's secretary Stella M Walters was able to confirm the seven repeats from the 1958/59 series selected to air on the Home Service; the Light Programme had now opted not take any reruns. Recorded that weekend, the fourth show was entitled Robin's Post, the name of a mansion near Hailsham which Spike had visited during his basic army training. The Seagoon curse of Duck's Disease - mentioned in Drums Along the Mersey – surfaced again.

A BBC Audience Research Report summarising the views of 217 listeners who heard A Christmas Carol was circulated from Wednesday 13 January. "How marvellous to have this show back on the air again after the terrible threat of its non-return. The inspired lunacy of the script is as good as ever!" was the positive quotation selected to open the report. The festive edition had generally been very warmly welcomed by the audience at home, while only a couple of hardcore fans were 'vaguely disappointed'. Again, there were comments that new characters were hoped for, and some of the repetition gags had fallen flat. As on previous occasions, the noise levels of the show came in for criticism ('The laughs from one joke masked the punch-line of the next'), but generally the whole team - from the three Goons through the musicians to Wallace Greenslade - were all highly valued for their contributions.

The Radio Times listing for The Silver Dubloons was emphasised by a striking graphic of the surreal trio and also short piece in the Round and About section of the magazine regarding the sound effects employed on the show. Valentine Dyall - a frequent guest on the series - returned for the recording of The Silver Dubloons on Sunday 17 January. This script included references to successful comedian Dave King (who was now attempting to crack the American market) and also Spike's friend actor/writer Bernard Miles who was known for his rustic characters and had opened the new Mermaid Theatre in May 1959. The final new show, The Last Smoking Seagoon, was recorded on Sunday 24 January, and included specially recorded contributions from John Snagge as well as Ellis Powell, the star of the BBC Light Programme soap Mrs Dale's Diary. Again, references to Bernard Miles surfaced along with Wallace Greenslade's comments on the 1930 film Hell's Angels. However, the strain on Spike's creativity was now evident, with the dialogue even emphasising the fact that he was reusing material from a script as recent as Robin's Post.

Recalling the recording in the sleeve notes for Goon ... But Not Forgotten, Spike wrote: 'After it, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and I had dinner at the Czech Restaurant, Edgware Road. It was the end of a comic era, in which we had broken the radio barrier, during which we had created a show which was so faithful, it was impossible to repeat in any other medium.'

On Monday 25 January. John Browell wrote to Jim Davidson and Head of Light Entertainment Pat Hillyard to summarise the conversations he had had with the cast about an eleventh series after the Sunday recording. Spike said that he could write another series of six only - not thirteen. Peter believed that the series should come to an end; they were doing nothing new and their original drive and enthusiasm had gone. Harry was happy to carry on as long as his colleagues wanted to; he enjoyed the Sunday recordings and did not want to disappoint the fans. However, John noted that Harry - despite his good nature - was tiring of becoming a peacemaker between his two fellow Goons.

The Last Smoking Seagoon aired on the Home Service on Thursday 28 January. The same day in The Listener, critic Frederick Laws commented that he had revisited the previous week's edition after missing it for months: 'I found myself out of touch with the special logic of the proceedings, and had better keep quiet until I have caught the habit again. The Goon studio audience was no help, roaring with joy at the founder sound effects and taking the bits I understood in chilly silence. Somebody is evidently right out of sync.' The final new edition of The Goon Show was repeated on the Light Programme on Tuesday 2 February, with the slot then given to Dickie Valentine's show How About You? the following week.

In early February, The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film was nominated for an Oscar. The BBC issued an Audience Research Report on Robin's Post assembled from 278 listening panel members. As usual, the report reflected the polarising effect of Goon humour on an audience: 'Either you were a Goon fan or you weren't', it noted, before revealing that although a minority could still not comprehend the broadcasts, the majority felt that the series was 'in a class of its own'. Although there were still some comments that the show was too noisy, the programme was very much appreciated and there was praise for both the three stars and the two musical items. ‘Please thank Messrs. Milligan, Secombe, Sellers and Co. for yet another brilliant series of Goon Shows,’ wrote M Ashcroft of Tarleron in the Points from the Post section of the Radio Times dated 19 February 1960, ‘Last year Spike Milligan was reported as saying he had "run out of ideas" for The Goon Show; yet the recent series was possibly the best I have heard. Reassure Spike Milligan that this programme is still very much appreciated.’

Two Way Stretch was released in early February followed closely by The Battle of the Sexes, by which time Peter was filming the violent crime drama Moment of Truth (later Never Let Go). Peter and Spike made various television appearances, while on Tuesday 8 March Harry was named Show Business Personality of 1959 by the Variety Club of Great Britain. Meanwhile, the Home Service repeats continued (with another bizarre illustration of characters created from fingerprints for the broadcast of 3 March), promoting Frederick Laws to comment in The Listener on Thursday 3 March 1960 that 'The Goon Show has been getting at us for so long. This week's attack of it (Home, February 25) seemed clearer than usual, but was rich in wild poetry, anarchist sentiment, and cruelly undermining jokes about jokes not being funny. I notice that when the audible audience is clouted over the head more roughly than usual it claps instead of laughing. A defence mechanism perhaps?'

Dishonoured — Again concluded the repeats on Thursday 17 March, with the slot given to a repeat of music from the Third Programme. Although Spike was announced as having a new ABC television series (The Performing Men Show) that summer, instead he filmed the wartime comedy/drama film Invasion Quartet at MGM. Peter was now in New York, and Harry was closing in Humpty Dumpty.

During February 1960, Grosvenor Films had produced a pilot puppet film for their proposed Goon Show television series. By May 1960, BBC-TV were involved with a proposed run of 39 programmes. BBC radio took the view that such a venture would not interfere with the success of The Goon Show on radio, with Michael Standing – a senior radio executive - observing: 'I only hope that the cartoon does not by giving a physical shape to Goonery destroy too many personally built images but this, I fear, we cannot prevent.'

In April 1960, Spike joined his old friend Eric Sykes to work on sequences for the comedy film Watch Your Stern and then write for Eric's BBC-TV series Sykes and … to record during June and July. Harry and Peter both enjoyed recording success over the spring with the EPs Sacred Songs and The Best of Sellers. Having won the British Film Academy award of Best British Actor for I'm All Right, Jack on Tuesday 22 March, Peter started filming his next movie, The Millionairess, at Elstree in late May while Harry opened in the new Palladium revue Let Yourself Go. By mid-June, the BBC were attempting to schedule a new series of The Goon Show; in practice, all three stars would be willing to take part if not bound by other commitments, and the BBC was aware that Peter would be sensitive to any attempts to drop either Ray or Max from the line-up. On Tuesday 21 June, Jim Davidson confirmed to Patrick Newman that they wanted to schedule six editions to run on Fridays from 23 December 1960 at 9.30pm on the Home Service. When approaches were made via agents, Harry quickly responded that he would be delighted to travel down from Manchester where he would be appearing in Humpty Dumpty. Spike was happy to write the shows, but requested two (rather than the usual one) domestic repeats. When this became an issue for the BBC during July, Spike explained in a letter to Pat Hillyard on Tuesday 19 July that he needed this guarantee to compensate him if he had to turn down film work under his MGM contract. 'As much as I would like to write the show, I am sorry but I cannot throw money away by taking employment at a smaller remuneration. Therefore, my decision is that I want to write the show, but cannot afford to write under the conditions the BBC stipulate.' On returning from leave on Wednesday 3 August, Pat invited Spike over to Aeolian Hall to chat things over. Spike was reticent, but commented that his next MGM film may have been put back to January which would allow him to write the new scripts.

In August, George Martin investigated the possibility of Parlophone issuing more Goon Show recordings; John Browell suggested The Tale of Men's Shirts and Robin's Post, but George was unhappy with the second show so - instead - John offered The Scarlet Capsule and A Christmas Carol in September. George selected The Scarlet Capsule. By September, Spike was recording an LP of his own with George Martin on which he performed some sketches with Valentine Dyall. On Tuesday 11 October, he then re-recorded the song The Sewers of the Strand which had featured in the Goon Show episode Ten Snowballs That Shook the World along with some further sketches for Parlophone.

During September, BBC radio waited to see if Spike would agree to the proposal for a new series to run from Friday 30 December. Finally - a few days after the proposed Saturday 1 October deadline - Spike's agent Lou Berlin confirmed that he would be available and was happy to be commissioned for six new shows. The BBC had been hoping to coax the run up to thirteen episodes, but Peter had various film commitments and similarly Harry was concerned about the long commute from Manchester, suggesting that double recordings could be scheduled. This was academic: Spike refused to write seven more shows without further guaranteed repeats. By mid-October it became clear that the delay in getting Spike's agreement had jeopardised the availability of Peter and Harry. Harry was in Australia until the start of December and then had other commitments until Christmas - but would still try to attend double recordings during his Manchester panto run during January. Peter was due to star in and direct the film Mr Topaze in November which might take him out of the country but would be available from January. Wally Stott had left BBC Radio and instead Peter Knight was being considered as a replacement. As it stood, it would be impossible to broadcast from Friday 30 December so on Monday 24 October the cast and musicians were instead offered contracts for six recordings at the Camden to commence on New Year's Day 1961. Unfortunately, the situation had already changed. It was now likely that Peter would be filming abroad. Immediately, the brakes were put on the project; Spike would be paid for only the first script - a story concerning a luminous plastic piano with built-in gas oven - and the commission for the other five shows was cancelled. On Monday 31 October, Pat Hillyard told the press that The Goon Show would not return that Christmas: 'We understand Peter Sellers will be unavailable because of his film commitments.' However, the next day, Philip Phillips of the Daily Herald claimed that the BBC were - unofficially - blaming Spike for not signing his writing commission quickly enough. 'I am sorry that things have fallen through,' commented Pat to Lou Berlin on Tuesday I November. Internally, John Browell outlined the situation of the cancellation, noting: 'It is our opinion that Spike Milligan's delay in signing his contract has caused the cancellation.' However, the same day, Peter indicated that he did still want to make the new show after all, and it appeared that the BBC were still morally obligated to the six scripts from Spike.

Enjoying a strong chart hit with his novelty single Goodness Gracious Me performed for Parlophone with his Millionairess co-star Sophia Loren, Peter started filming Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Lolita at the end of November while plans were made to reunite Harry and Spike in the ABC production Alice Through the Looking Box, recorded on Sundays 11 and 18 December for transmission on Christmas Day. December saw the release of Parlophone's The Best of the Goon Shows No 2 (PMC 1129) complete with sleeve notes from John Browell; this quickly entered the charts for a six-week stay, peaking at Number 11. Harry then opened in Humpty Dumpty in Manchester at the end of December, while Peter's next LP from Parlophone was Peter and Sophia.

With the commission for the six editions of The Goon Show still valid, in February 1961 John Browell made enquiries about any work which Spike had undertaken on them. Beryl Vertue informed him that Spike would only start writing again when he had definite recording dates. This meant an impasse, since the BBC would now only make recording arrangements when the scripts were delivered. 'In view of the difficulty in getting this series organised owing to the non-availability of the artists concerned it would be best to abandon the project and cut our losses,' Pat Hillyard wrote to John on Thursday 23 February, 'Further, the longer we delay the revival of The Goon Show, the less attractive the proposal, becomes.' Unfortunately when the BBC informed Spike that the project was cancelled but that they would let him keep the payment for the first script as delivered, Spike revealed that he had completed five scripts and had a sixth in draft form. Since these scripts could not be used elsewhere, on Thursday 9 March Spike asked to be paid for two more scripts. Over the next two weeks. John Browell studied the six scripts; the first was complete as delivered, the second had been written before 1961 as it referred to President Eisenhower rather than President Kennedy, the third appeared to be an unused television script with '1958' crossed out and '1960' written in, and the fourth - an unfinished item about the Luminous Plastic Piano which Spike referred to as 'Goon Show No 227' - was written in 1960 because it referred to traffic wardens and Harry's summer season in Blackpool. A fifth incomplete piece was entitled The Tree Maniac and concerned an attack on Herne's Oak in Windsor Park. He was unsure if these could be developed into full shows. The BBC agreed to pay Spike for two more scripts over and above the first.

In the meantime, Peter had been talking to the press at the premiere of Mr Topaze, telling the Daily Mirror on Tuesday 21 March, 'I'm seriously thinking of restarting The Goon Show on sound radio with my old fellow Goons, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. We all got together and decided that we missed those crazy Goon recordings.'

Goodbye, Wal

Sadly, if the show was to return, one voice would be missing. On Thursday 20 April, Wallace Greenslade suddenly died at home of a coronary thrombosis. ‘Goon Man Dies at 48’ was how the death of the BBC announcer was announced to the public. By April 1961, John Browell was assessing the existing recordings of The Goon Show made since 1954 to determine which should be retained by the BBC for future use.

Meanwhile, Spike had become the host of a comedy quiz show entitled Vice Versa made for TWW which featured Bob Todd and John Bluthal, one of Spike's colleagues from The Idiot Weekly, and then in May started shooting the MGM comedy film Postman's Knock in which had had the starring role. Meanwhile, Harry opened in his fourth season at the Palladium with Let Yourself Go while Peter started filming That Uncertain Feeling (latterly Only Two Can Play) in May and then Waltz of the Toreadors in July.

In early August 1961, Patrick Newman met Harry Secombe who commented that he was often asked about when The Goon Show was coming back and indicated that he could possibly get Peter and Spike back on board. 'Any positive approach by any member of the team on behalf of the others will receive every consideration,' noted Pat Hillyard on Wednesday 16, 'the ball is at their feet' As such, Patrick wrote to Harry at the Palladium on Wednesday 23 to explain, 'Have noised abroad your comments about the G___ S___ (ssh!) and, frankly, I think the feeling is that the next move is up to you lot!'

Eccles' massed performance of Good King Wenceslas from the 1958 episode The Great String Robberies was re-recorded by Spike for Parlophone as Good King Eccleslas on Thursday 10 August. Spike also had a new off-the wall comedy special placed with BBC-tv: A Series of Unrelated Incidents at Current Market Value aired on Tuesday 5 September and featured Valentine Dyall, Bob Todd, Graham Stark and Bill Kerr.

In October, a contract formally granted to Grosvenor Films an exclusive licence for films and television programmes based on existing editions of The Goon Show for fifty years. The same month saw Parlophone's release of two of Spike's songs as a single: The Sewers of the Strand and also I'm Walking Out with a Mountain as heard in the 1958 episode The White Neddie Trade. Both these and Good King Eccleslas were then included on the LP Milligan Preserved, released in November and achieving some chart success. Having joined Bernard Miles' production of Treasure Island at the Mermaid over Christmas 1961, Spike then appeared with Valentine Dyall and Graham Stark at Canterbury in a new absurdist play which he had written with Goon Show writer John Antrobus: The Bed Sitting-Room. Meanwhile, Peter started filming The Dock Brief. The 1955 Goon film The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn made its UK television debut on Associated-Rediffusion and other ITV regions on Tuesday 10 April 1962.

On Wednesday 23 May, Peter and Spike joined Beyond the Fringe stars Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller to record a comedy album based on the 1957 Goon Show episode African Incident for EMI; when the makers of the film The Bridge on the River Kwai threatened to sue, George Martin re-edited all the dialogue to turn the recording into The Bridge on the River Wye for release in November. Also released during the year was an extract of Peter Sellers as Bluebottle from the 1956 episode The Great Tuscan Salami Scandal as part of the BBC EP Historic sounds from forty years of broadcasting.

In the coming months, Spike was back in Australia to record a third and final run of The Idiot Weekly which aired from August to November. Some of these now reworked parts of The Goon Show; elements of Lurgi Strikes Britain, The Spon Plague, Operation Christmas Duff. The Last Tram (from Clapham) and others were plundered for material.

Harry starred in Secombe Here at Great Yarmouth in the summer, and then toured from November, while Peter filmed first The Wrong Arm of the Law and then the satire Heavens Above! In mid-September, things got underway on the Grosvenor Films project with the BBC offered a contract to option an initial twenty-six fifteen minute puppet shows with an option on twenty-six more. The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler (of Bexhill-on-Sea) received an airing on the Home Service on Saturday 13 October as part of a season of comedy repeats.

At short notice, Peter joined the cast of the comedy film The Pink Panther in November 1962 and then went straight on to Dr Strangelove - Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb from January 1963, while The Bed Sitting-Room began a London run at the Mermaid in January. Harry, Spike and Peter joined their puppet alter-egos for the launch of the Goon puppet shows - The Telegoons - on Friday 29 March 1963; production on the twenty-six shows had begun in January with Spike and Harry recording all their dialogue at Teddington with Peter replacing most placeholder material at a later date. After his tour, Harry's next major project was the musical Pickwick which opened in Manchester in June before transferring to London. Meanwhile in New York, Peter starred in the comedy film The World of Henry Orient

Spike did return to BBC Radio in autumn 1963 when he collaborated with his old friend and former Goon Show producer Charles Chilton on a new comedy series called The Omar Khayyam Show. These were reworkings of some of the scripts from The Idiot Weekly (themselves reusing gags from The Goon Show and featuring Eccles and Singhiz Things) and co-starred the likes of Bill Kerr, Barry Humphries. John Bluthal and Bob Todd …most of whom would soon be in a new stage production of The Bed-Sitting Room.

Announcing the first show was actor Brian Wilde, but from the following recording he was replaced by BBC presenter Tim Gudgin, host of shows such as the Light Programme's Music Box. The six recordings took place on Sundays every few weeks between 22 September and 1 January 1964, relieving the pressure of furnishing a weekly script and allowing for re-recordings. Concurrently, Spike's first novel, Puckoon, was published by Blond in October 1963.

By mid-September 1963, the BBC had in mind a special Goon Show to be made in Paris which would be broadcast at Christmas, but found that Spike - in the midst of The Omar Khayyam Show - was not likely to be available to write it. Nevertheless, Harry was very interested in the project and Pat Hillyard awaited the views of Peter Sellers who was returning from New York in early October. By mid-October, it became clear that the project was cancelled; Peter would soon start shooting A Shot in the Dark and was no longer prepared to do an edition of The Goon Show.

The Telegoons started broadcasting on BBC-tv on Saturday 5 October, attracting audiences of around five million. It seems that this puppet version - which ran for eleven editions through to Saturday 28 December - prompted the thought of repeats on the Home Service, and on New Year's Eve John Browell was informed that nine shows would air at 9.30pm on Friday nights from 31 January as a replacement for The Omar Khayyam Show which aired from Friday 27 December. The new series was heralded in the Radio Times by a short article entitled The Omar Khayyam Show: Beware! in which it was noted: When we sent the most expendable member of our staff to see what was going on at Omar Khayyam rehearsals he returned in a state of nervous collapse harnessed to an uprooted parking meter; and all he could do was to whistle "Taxi" in the key of E So, it's up to you… Medals will be distributed to all those who survive the series.' Surreal illustrations by Peter Kneebone helped to indicate the strange nature of the programme. Spike helped pick the nine shows from the programmes retained by the BBC and these were aired under the title Vintage Goons. As it transpired, Vintage Goons replaced the final edition of The Omar Khayyam Show which was instead held over to start a repeat run in May.

Pete's first

On Saturday 28 March 1964, The Telegoons resumed on BBC-tv with the remaining episodes running through to August after which some earlier editions were repeated through to September. Meanwhile, Spike, Harry and Peter could be heard together on the musical comedy LP How to Win an Election (or Not Lose by Much) released by Philips in April 1964; this topical item by Leslie Bricusse had been recorded with Peter in New York and Harry and Spike in London. And it was while he was in the USA that Peter Sellers had a heart attack in early April, forcing him to recuperate and reduce his workload. With Peter now so popular in the USA, the early Goons film Down Among the Z Men was now released under the title Some Kind of a Nut with Peter taking top billing in publicity.

September saw the Decca release of the 10 inch The Goons: Unchained Melodies which combined the eight songs released by the company in the 1950s. Spike fronted a new ATV comedy show, Milligan's Wake, from September and opened in Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov at the New Lyric ... a production quickly relaunched at the Comedy as Son of Oblomov when Spike started ad-libbing. On Sunday 1 November, Harry and Spike were joined via telephone by Peter - who was in Paris filming What's New Pussycat? - and recorded an abridged version of the Goon Show script I Was Monty's Treble as their contribution to the Light Programme's 21st anniversary celebration of British Forces Broadcasting - Forces Gala Night - transmitted at 6pm on Sunday 8 November and relayed to troops in Cyprus, Nairobi, Singapore, North Africa and elsewhere.

Harry and Spike then teamed up on Sunday 20 December to record Spike's The Grand Piano Orchestra Show, a programme performed before an audience of General Post Office workers and Postmaster General Anthony Wedgwood Benn. This reworked in part elements of a 1954 Goon Show script which in turn had appeared in Crazy People in 1951; it also offered a new narrative inspired by the Great Train Robbery of August 1963 with Harry as Inspector Seagoon and Spike as Eccles, reusing elements of Dishonoured — Again. The special was broadcast by the Home Service on Christmas Day at 1.10pm under the title The GPO Show.

Spike hosted a series celebrating poetry and jan in the form of Muses with Milligan on BBC Two from Christmas Day 1964 through to the end of March 1965. In February 1965, the successful Pickwick closed and Harry prepared to open on Broadway in July. By now, The Goon Show was deemed relevant of serious study, and Ean Wood delivered a talk on it over the BBC's Network Three on Tuesday 27 April. In May while Peter started filming After the Fox in Italy, Spike recorded another special for the Home Service entitled The Army Show; this was broadcast in June with the Radio Times commenting 'Spike Milligan… is in The Army Show complete with "Goonery" tonight'. This reused elements from Goon exploits such as African Incident and again featured Field Marshal Eccles.

From May 1965 through to September, BBC One - the rebranded BBC-tv - scheduled a handful of repeats of The Telegoons in a variety of slots, while The Seagoon Memoirs was repeated on the Home Service on Friday 20 August as part of a season entitled Let's Laugh Again.

Peter's next film from September was The Wrong Box, and in October, Spike completed his trilogy of Home Service specials by recording The Naughty Navy Show - again featuring Eccles - for transmission on Christmas Day. 1965 drew to a close, and as 1966 arrived, ATV drew up their plans to bring to The Goon Show to television… but without the need for puppets!

Programme notes and cast biographies researched and written by Andrew Pixley