The Goon Show series 7
‘This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the result of last night's big fight Patrick O'Donovan, labourer of no fixed address: six months. Michael O'Bolligan: fined five pounds. And now, at eight stone seven pounds, in transparent shorts, The Goon Show.’
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Spike Milligan | Voices |
| Harry Secombe | Voices and loud singing |
| Peter Sellers | Very many voices |
| Wallace Greenslade | Announcer |
| Max Geldray | Musician |
| The Ray Ellington Quartet | Four musicians |
| Wally Stott | Orchestra Conductor / Musical Director |
| Pat Dixon | Producer |
| Peter Eton | Producer (Episodes 1 and 2) |
| Jacques Brown | Producer (The Reason Why) |
| Spike Milligan | Scriptwriter |
| Larry Stephens | Scriptwriter |
| Bobby Jay | Studio Manager / Mixing Panel |
| Ian Cooke | FX / Grams |
| Ron Belchier | FX / Grams (Episode 25) |
The Goon Show, series seven was a series of 28 shows (including three specials) aired between 4 October 1956 and 22 August 1957. Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens wrote all of the shows together, with the exception of 7/2 and 7/23 which were written by Milligan on his own. This series had two producers, Peter Eton for the first two shows and the rest by Pat Dixon. All the shows were broadcast on a Thursday evening excepting 7/10 and 7/13 which were broadcast on a Wednesday. Most of the shows were recorded the previous Sunday with the exception of 7/6, 7/14, 7/15 and 7/16. Seven of the shows had guests including Valentine Dyall, George Chisholm, Dennis Price, Bernard Miles and Jack Train.
Let's start with a delay
Still at the cutting edge of comedy, The Goon Show - starring Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan - was due to return for a new series on the BBC Home Service in mid-September 1956. However, busy on five other radio shows per week during the summer, producer Pat Dixon asked if the start of the new series could be deferred by a month from its planned start date to allow him a much deserved holiday. This sentiment seemed to be echoed by the show's main writer Spike Milligan who at the time was also attempting co write a ‘TV Goon Series’ for the BBC. In early July 1956, it was agreed that recording would be delayed by two weeks to start at the end of September, and by the end of the month, Pat Dixon's predecessor Peter Eron (who was now working for commercial television) indicated that he would be ‘willing and available’ to return and produce the first two editions of the series while his successor was on leave.
At the start of August, the General Overseas Service asked for a special edition of The Goon Show to be heard by British forces in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Areas as well as by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. BBC Head of Television Light Entertainment, Ronnie Waldman, was also keen to snap up Harry for a television series as soon as his show, Rocking the Town, at the London Palladium closed in mid-December; Harry's successful show was referred to by characters such as Bloodnok, Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty in later Goon Shows. In the meantime, the recording dates for the twenty new editions of The Goon Show were confirmed with the cast as starting on Sunday 30 September with Home Service broadcasts the following Thursday at 8.30pm. There had been an option to extend this run by six more shows, and this was exercised by the BBC on Wednesday 29 August.
The Ying Tong Song
Recorded by the Goons in August, The Ying Tong Song was released by Decca on Monday 10 September and sold like hotcakes, reaching third position in the charts by the end of the month. Spike returned from an Italian holiday to appear in his next TV series, Son of Fred, alongside Peter Sellers, harmonica player Max Geldray (a mainstay of The Goon Show) and frequent Goon guest Valentine Dyall – although for this he remained at Associated-Rediffusion. During September, Spike also joined fellow writer Eric Sykes to record another Goon-related single, but this time for George Martin at Parlophone. As Eccles, Spike sang a cover version of the David Whitfield hit, My September Love. while in the persona of Moriarty he performed the original piece, You Gotto Go Oww!, based on his new catchphrase introduced during August in the remake of China Story. Also featured were the Alberts, an oddball music trio who appeared on Son of Fred. Harry too was soon in the music papers again when his recording of Verdi's La donna è mobile was released by Philips.
In the run-up to the new series of The Goon Show, the relationship between Spike and the BBC was again stormy; he was in dispute over the extension of the series by six shows, there was confusion over the billing of Larry Stephens as Spike's co-writer, and Peter Eton felt the first script, The Nasty Affair at the Burami Oasis, was 'too bitty'. This opening story was partly inspired by the current Suez Crisis, in which British interests and the economy were threatened when Colonel Nasser of Egypt took control of the Suez Canal in July 1956, causing the British government to consider the deployment of military force. During the recording, reference was made to the fact that the show's vocalist Ray Ellington was now married to actress Anita West, and Spike gave his first rendition of By the Dustbins of Rome, a send-up of By the Fountains of Rome which had recently charted for both Edmund Hockridge and David Hughes.
The return of The Goon Show (replacing Twenty Questions) was highlighted in the Radio Times with a strange cartoon from the pen of Peter Kneebone alongside its listing, and a half-page item elsewhere in the magazine entitled Wanted! - The Goons, which offered surreal information on Spike (‘Has numerous convictions, e.g. that the world is flat, that iron ships won't float’), Peter (‘to give him his incorrect name, Sir Grimbald Crab’) and Harry (‘studied drawing under Professor OJ Pules-Bladdock QC and also under water’). Spike also went on BBC TV on the evening that the new series aired, featuring as a guest on Highlight.
Neddie's Duck's Disease
Repeats of the series appeared on the following Monday evening at 8pm on the Light Programme, and Valentine Dyall guested on the second episode, Drums Along the Mersey (the title of which was inspired by the 1936 western novel Drums Along the Mohawk, released as a film in 1939); this show revealed that Neddie Seagoon suffered from Ducks' Disease - the curse of the Seagoons - and even had a mention of former Goon Michael Bentine who had left the series in 1952. While Spike's wranglings over the six extra scripts continued, Pat Dixon returned from leave to helm the recording of The Nadger Plague on Sunday 14 October. By now, a character called Spriggs - latterly Jim Spriggs – was coming more to prominence, and always calling everyone ‘Jim’. Peter Sellers first performed a rather wobbly piano solo for this show which would be repeated in subsequent editions, and Moriarty – previously called Fred, but now more usually referred to as Jim – started to receive bizarre introductions from his cohort, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne.
In addition to the General Overseas Service special, another extra edition which would not be heard by domestic listeners was soon in the production schedule, with the Transcription Service requesting a Christmas edition for the Canadian station CBC to be taped in early December. Spike then fell ill and was forced to miss the recording of The MacReekie Rising of '74 on Sunday 21 October. Although standard BBC policy was that ‘if as the result of illness an artist cannot appear he should not be paid’, the Home Service indicated that Spike should still be due his full fee. Peter and Harry were also paid an additional amount for covering their absent colleague's roles as Eccles, Moriarty and Minnie, while trombonist George Chisholm, from the show's orchestra, had been given some dialogue on the night as well.
If 20 is good, 26 should be better
‘We are delighted to have a new series of 20 Goon programmes, we should be equally delighted to have 26, so perhaps in due course you could let Pat Dixon know if you can possibly write 6 more,’ Head of Variety Pat Hillyard wrote to Spike on 22 October, noting that last year they had filled the schedules with repeats saying, ‘but you, yourself, I know are against doing this – and so are we.’ By late October, the two additional Christmas shows - for Transcription Services and General Overseas Service - were scheduled to be recorded in double-recordings with standard editions of The Goon Show on Sunday 2 and Sunday 9 December. Following this, Harry would not be available in early January, necessitating the cancellation of sessions at the Camden on Sunday 6 and 13 January, and so another pair of double recordings on Sunday 23 and 30 December. The three stars were contracted for the GOS recording on Wednesday 24, the same day that Pat Dixon sent a memo marked 'URGENT' to Pat Hillyard, telling him that he had just received the script for The Spectre of Tintagel - inspired by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur – that morning and had discovered that Spike had written ‘a substantial part’ for Valentine Dyall which the funding could not cover. As such Pat Dixon needed an extra guest fee to be sanctioned, and was aware that the same thing had happened during his absence on Drums Along the Mersey. ‘I have written to Milligan to tell him that he simply must seek permission for the inclusion of extras before he commits us to them in terms of a completed script.’ explained the producer, to which Jim Davidson, the Assistant Head of Variety, noted, ‘jobs for the boys’.
Spike, Harry and Peter were contracted for the Transcription Service Special on Thursday 25 October, the day that The MacReekie Rising of '74 was broadcast, promoted in the Radio Times by a photo of guitarist Judd Proctor, pianist Dick Katz. bass player Kenneth Spang and vocalist Ray Ellington – alias the Ray Ellington Quartet. The Spectre of Tintagel was recorded with a recovered Spike on Sunday 28 October, and then Spike was the guest of Roy Plomley on Desert Island Discs, recorded on Wednesday 31 October for a planned transmission on Monday 5 November. ‘For reasons best known to myself, I should like to have Peter Eaton [sic] back on the show.’ ran an unexpected missive to Pat Hillyard from Spike on Thursday 1 November, ‘Please reply as soon as possible, as I am most anxious to settle this matter.’ Pat Hillyard replied simply the next day, ‘It is quite out of the question that we should change the Producer of The Goon Show.’
A tit-for-tat for a producer
The President's Protocol – an adventure about a Latin American revolution - was recorded on Sunday 4 November, but by the following day the Home Service was already concerned about the programme because of the situation in Hungary where a revolution against the Soviet government had erupted in late October. At the very least, Pat Dixon was informed that the title of the show would have to be changed, and the Corporation would need to listen to the edited programme before deciding if it was suitable for transmission. Meanwhile, the correspondence from Spike about Pat Dixon continued, with the Goon writing to Pat Hillyard on Monday 5, ‘When I asked you for a change af producer, it was not because of any personal feeling, it was purely in the interests of the show. However, as it is out of the question, as you say – then the show must suffer as a result’ Regarding the earlier request for six more shows. Spike added, ‘I should be delighted to write six more shows, provided that the producer of the show is changed for that six. Otherwise it is quite out of the question that I can write six more Goon Shows.’
Spike wants to be God
The final edition of Son of Fred was broadcast on Monday 5 November, with the series dropped after eight of its planned sixteen broadcasts. Meanwhile the international situation in Hungary forced the Queen to cancel her attendance at the Royal Command Performance - in which Harry was featured - while an extended news bulletin cancelled Spike's Desert Island Discs. It was soon clear that The President's Protocol was entirely inappropriate for broadcast, and so a popular show from the previous series, The Greenslade Story, was substituted. Retitled The Sleeping Prince, the unbroadcast episode was shelved until later in the run. The Great Bank Robbery was recorded on Sunday 11 November, and Spike was now engaged in discussions with Ronnie Waldman about a BBC television project, suggesting ‘a ludicrous documentary’ on musical history to feature cartoons, outdoor filming and stock film. The comedian added, ‘I must be able to produce how I feel it should be produced, and to have with me a producer who will believe from the start that I'm "God"!’
The script for the seafaring saga Personal Narrative, recorded on Sunday 18 November, made use of material from the final show of the third series from May 1953. Spike ad-libbed his own version of the popular song I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm during recording, and made an early appearance as a rather nervous junior officer – a character who would reappear in later shows. The following week in The Mystery of the Fake Neddie Seagoons, Seagoon was also reminded that he was not on the commercial television channel ITV now, having featured on Sunday Night at the London Palladium recently. The following week saw Peter Sellers flying to Canada for a television appearance and then stopping off in New York before returning for the double recording. In the meantime, Ronnie Waldman agreed to Spike's requests over his TV project, ‘except the possibility of the Producer believing you are "God"!’
You Gotta Go Oww! was released by Parlophone at the very end of November 1956, and Spike plugged this release in forthcoming editions of The Goon Show. The first of the double recordings for the Goons took place on Sunday 2 December. The first show, Robin Hood, was the Christmas special made for Transcription Services and was effectively a rewrite of Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest, the Yuletide edition from two years earlier. which in turn had drawn upon a Christmas show from 1952. Joining the cast for this recording were Valentine Dyall and also comedy actor Dennis Price. Following this came the next show for Home Service listeners, What's My Line?, a send up of the popular TV panel game which had debuted in July 1951 and in which guests had to determine a profession from a contestant's mime; the show also made reference to ATV's The $64,000 Question game show which began in May 1956 and offered a big cash prize of 64,000 shillings, with its format adapted from a popular American series, The $64,000 Question. A broadcast of Puccini's opera La Boheme from the Royal Opera House on Thursday 6 December meant that What's My Line? was aired on Wednesday, rather than Thursday evening by the Home Service.
More doubling down
The next double Goon recording on Sunday 9 December kicked off with Operation Christmas Duff, the GOS special recorded for the Middle East Forces and personnel at Base ‘O’ in Antarctica. The Home Service recording was then The Telephone, in which Peter Sellers developed a new character using the voice adopted by Kenneth Connor for the role of Sidney Mincing in Ray's a Laugh. Next day, Spike's deferred edition of Desert Island Discs was aired on the Home Service. That evening, Peter and Spike featured in Off the Record, a BBC TV programme broadcast live from Riverside Studios in which they were introduced by Jack Payne and mimed to The Ying Tong Song.
Back to single recordings, the previously unknown diary entries of seventeenth century naval administrator Samuel Pepys formed the basis of The Flea, recorded on Sunday 16. As the end of 1956 drew near, The Goon Show continued to be deeply appreciated by the millions of listeners who tuned into the BBC Home Service and Light Programme. Reviewing The Telephone in The Listener, critic JC Trewin commented, ‘The Goons, usually hovering on the frontier [of extravagance], can be very funny, or they can blast a joke into splinters. For most of the way, I think, this one, comes off according to plan.’
‘Will you please note that Larry Stephens will be the part author of all the remaining Goon Show programmes. This is at the request of Spike Milligon,’ wrote producer Pat Dixon in a memo on Wednesday 19 December 1956, effectively mid-way through the seventh series of the highly popular and surreal radio comedy show. As such, the series was once again being written by its two original scribes who had first crafted it for radio in 1951. This arrangement helped to relieve Spike Milligan – the driving force behind the series – from the nightmare of meeting six months of weekly script deadlines alone, in addition to perfonming many of the show's much-loved characters on the Sunday recordings at the Camden Theatre. Spike had recently released a record via Parlophone entitled You Gotto Go Oww! which he performed in the guise of the decrepit Count Moriarty from The Goon Show with his colleague Eric Sykes and the comedy music group the Five Alberts. It was also performed live on BBC TV's Christmas Cracker on Saturday 22 December. One of the show's other stars, Harry Secombe, also had a Yuletide television show, starring in ATV's The Harry Secombe Show the same night. Next day, Spike and Harry joined Peter Sellers for a double recording of The Goon Show comprising both Six Charlies in Search of an Author (inspired in part by Pirandello's 1922 play Six Characters in Search of an Author) and Emperor of the Universe (a spoof the British hero Bulldog Drummond featured in numerous books and novels since 1920). This second show – which included references to the petrol rationing brought on by the Suez Crisis – also featured a character called Professor Jampton, later referred to as Hugh Jampton whose name was dubious cockney rhyming slang (Huge Hampton – Hampton Wick – prick). The cast were also in high spirits, joining in with the playout music, and making reference to their off-stage imbibing during the music numbers with calls of ‘Round the back for the brandy’. (Bottles of milk laced with brandy were smuggled into the Camden Theatre by the trio.)
£5.5.0 per Mile
Spike appeared live on BBC TV's Pantomania on Christmas Day, while Boxing Day saw the broadcast of Six Charlies in Search of an Author, with The Goon Show displaced from its usual Thursday night slot by the opera Carmen scheduled for Thursday 27. Meanwhile, Peter Sellers dabbled with 'straight' acting when he took on different roles in two half-hour playlets screened back to back as part of ITV Television Playhouse on Thursday 27. There was then another double recording for The Goon Show to round off 1956 on Sunday 30. The first show was Wings Over Dagenham (partly inspired by the successful 1950 stage play and 1954 film Seagulls Over Sorrento), which featured a role for the orchestra's trombonist George Chisholm and references to radio actress Gladys Young. It was followed a couple of hours later by The Rent Collectors, in which there was an unexpected guest appearance from character actor Bernard Miles, the driving force behind the Mermaid Theatre and a devotee of the Goons. Next day, Pat Dixon wrote to the contracts department about this additional cast member – who had been prepared to perform for fee but had accepted a nominal fee of ₤5.5.0 – commenting that circumstances had arisen ‘which made it desirable that Bernard Miles, who happened to be in the studio, should take part… I thought it best in view of the keenness of the cost, that he should participate on this occasion.’
The Rent Collectors was also notable for the first appearance of Little Jim, a new character played by Spike created solely to speak a contrived, meaningless catchphrase: ‘He's fallen in the water.’ Indeed, Spike had delivered this line as an ad-libbed aside after Max Geldray's number in the recording of Wings Over Dagenham.
Apparently Spike has a strange personality
New Year's Day 1957 found the BBC continuing to debate the situation over Spike's appearances in The Goon Show, regarding the contract issued the previous year in which the Corporation had booked the three stars for 20 shows with an option of six more. For these six extra shows, Spike now wanted a substantial rise in salary, which – as the lowest paid member of the cast – would still leave him some way behind his colleagues. Variety Booking Manager Patrick Newman was reluctant to give in to Spike's demands, but noted, ‘of course one is dealing with a strange personality. We all know that his star is in the ascendancy in both Sound and TY – also the fact that he gets separately paid for the Goon script should not have any bearing on his performance fee.’ As such, it was up to the Head of Variety and the Home Service to decide if they would agree to Spike's new fee.
‘You're, going on holiday,’ Harry had commented during the recording of The Rent Collectors, and indeed this was true. The recent double recordings had been to allow the Goons two Sundays off from recordings at the start of 1957. Peter collaborated with Eric Sykes on two television specials for ATV – Eric Sykes Presents Peter Sellers – which were broadcast on Saturday 5 and 12 and featured Peter playing Major Bloodnok. BBC TV were keen to have Peter Sellers working for them, and overtures were made to the star by Ronnie Waldman, BBC Head of Television Light Entertainment. Spike was also appearing on television, featuring in The Petula Clark Show on Thursday 10. Meanwhile, on Monday 14 January, Harry started shooting the movie Davy, a sentimental Ealing Films production set in the world of show business in which he took the title role.
In the meantime, the stockpiled shows continued broadcasting at 8.30pm on Thursdays from the Home Service, with a Light Programme repeat at 8pm the following Monday. The gap in production allowed Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens to work ahead on scripts. At the start of January, the pair wrote Shifting Sands, which featured the character of the dipsomaniac Colonel Humphrey Chinstrap (‘I don't mind if I Do’) who had originated in the earlier BBC radio comedy ITMA in 1942, and had subsequently appeared in the 1950 series The Great Gilhooly. Pat Dixon requested special permission to hire Jack Train – who had played Chinstrap in ITMA – to take part in the recording at the end of the month.
On Thursday 10 January. Assistant Head of Variety (General) Con Mahoney noted that the Camden Theatre was required for an opera broadcast on the evening of Sunday 10 February, and that possibly two shows should be recorded the previous week. The following day Jim Davidson – a fellow Assistant Head of Variety - wrote to Pat Dixon telling him to ‘please initiate negotiations immediately’ to book the Goons for 26 more programmes forming a 1957/58 series which would run from Thursday 26 September. However, before that there was still the issue of getting Spike contracted for the remaining six shows of the current series… and the Home Service were not ready to accede to the scar's salary demands.
It was hoped that the Goons could appear as special guests on a live edition of BBC TV's popular panel show What's My Line? which The Goon Show had sent up in December; this was to be broadcast at 8pm on Sunday 27 January, and the rehearsal and recording of that day's show were to be planned around this.
Niggles
The suggestion that two shows should been recorded on 3 February was met with reluctant agreement by Spike on 16 January. ‘Milligan points out however, that he is very much opposed to any further double recordings in respect of The Goon Show because the second performance always suffers severely due to the exhaustion and strain of the cast,’ noted Pat Dixon, ‘there is absolutely no doubt that he is right in this.’ In future when new series were to be scheduled, it was agreed that recording dates would not subsequently be altered to allow for cast's other commitments; Harry's agent, Jimmy Grafton, had now also requested that the 10 February recording be dropped to permit his client to undertake another booking. ‘This must really be the last time that we can make adjustments to this show for the sake of an artist,’ Pat wrote sternly to Jimmy, ‘We have proved that doing two shows in one day is extremely bad for the series, as the second performance is always indifferent as a result of strain and over-tiredness of the performers, quite apart from the fact that it is difficult for the writers to meet this sort of situation… participants in this show must make up their minds that if they are going to do the series they cannot do other things which will interfere with it’ The issue became a source of friction between producer and agent, with Jimmy Grafton complaining to Patrick Newman, the Variety Booking Manager, about the tone of the correspondence and commenting that in future he would prioritise Harry's movie commitments over The Goon Show. Newman later responded, and while agreeing that Pat Dixon did not speak for his department he also observed, ‘It is certainly up to you to advise your client as to whether or not you think The Goon Show is of any value ta him.’
By Friday 18 January. Spike had accepted the BBC's offer of a small increment in his appearance fee for the final six shows, and his contract for editions to be taped from 17 February to 24 March was issued; those for Peter and Harry followed in due course. However, Pat Dixon had now decided not to schedule a double recording for 3 February after all. The gap in the run would be filled with The Sleeping Prince – a show from earlier in the run shelved when its content had been unsuitable for transmission because of the terrible events of the Hungarian uprising.
Anti-censorship Pat
Recording for The Goon Show recommenced on Sunday 20 January when Jack Train joined the cast for Shifting Sands, complete with gags about the newly released historical drama film Anastasia, plus references to Hughie Green's game show Double Your Money and the western The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, then running on commercial television. During the following week. the plan for the team to appear on Whats My line? had to be shelved since Peter Sellers' commercial commitments had precluded his BBC TV appearance. Meanwhile, Pat Dixon was unhappily fighting his superiors regarding references that Spike and Larry's scripts were making to newly elected Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. ‘Of course we have cut the reference to Harold Macmillan as you instructed,’ he wrote but protesting that this was unnecessary censorship and stating his objections ‘against a policy that debars reference ta a Cabinet Minister in a comedy show’.
Spike appeared on The Eamonn Andrews Show on BBC TV on Saturday 26 January, and the following day joined the others to record The Moon Show, complete with references to the recently released adventure film Zarak which featured Anita Ekberg (one apparently sensuous poster of whom had been banned a fortnight earlier); by now, the audience were enthusiastically responding to the appearance of Little Jim. Peter Sellers recorded an appearance on the Light Programme's Calling the Stars on Saturday 2 February which was broadcast the following evening. Sunday 3 February also saw the taping of The Mysterious Punch Up-The-Conker which featured a classic exchange of bizarre logic between the characters of Eccles and Bluebottle, Minnie Bannister singing Green Door (a hit in late 1956 for Frankie Vaughan), and references to television police dramas from both sides of the Atlantic, with Dragnet (being screened by ITV) and Dixon of Dock Green (then in its third series. with Jack Warner whistling Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner as his theme tune).
Peter Sellers was the subject of the Home Service's Desert Island Discs on Monday 4 February (recorded on Wednesday 23 January) and that evening he appeared in cabaret at the Trocadero to celebrate the silver anniversary of the Windmill Theatre. Meanwhile, Spike was making plans for the summer. Rather than visit Australia as he had intended, he was keen to repeat the notion of the non-audience programme The Starlings, which the Goons had made in 1954, and suggested six 45 minute shows could be made on a monthly basis. Pat wrote to Spike on Friday 8 about the new series for the autumn and indicated that he had put forwards Spike's suggestion for the other six shows.
Spike appeared on the Light Programme's Younger Generation Question Time on Sunday 10 February (recorded on Wednesday 23 January) and The Sleeping Prince plugged that weekend's gap in recording. On Monday 11. the Home Service decided to re-run six editions of the current series directly after the final show, and that evening Peter Sellers joined former Goon Michael Bentine in the first of six weekly editions of a surreal new sketch show for Associated-Rediffusion – Yes, It's the Cathode Ray Tube Show! - which failed to get favourable reviews.
Plans for the following series of The Goon Show continued, and while Harry Secombe was amenable to the schedule, Peter Sellers' agent Dennis Selinger pointed out that he might want recordings adjusted depending on his client's film commitments.The BBC responded that this was not possible. The main problem was with Spike, who again wanted a shorter run to relieve the pressure of writing; he suggested sixteen shows running from Christmas Day and also wanted increased fees for writing and performing over and above what the Corporation offered. Next, Dennis Selinger indicated that he too wanted a substantial increase in fees for Peter.
Penguins are funny
Drawing upon the forthcoming movie version of Jules Verne's novel Around the World in 80 Days for inspiration, Spike and Larry had written Round the World in 80 Days for recording on Sunday 17 February. This script developed their fascination for penguins as a source of humour, admitted that the shows no longer had proper conclusions, and had Eccles singing Frankie Vaughan's chart hit The Garden of Eden.
In late February, Spike told Ronnie Waldman that he was still enthusiastic about doing a television show covering the ‘history of music… You can always find me counting the coal sacks in Room 3, Rowton House, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matinees on Thursdays. Children without trousers, half price.’ Spike made a further appearance on The Eamonn Andrews Show on Saturday 23 - this time joined by Peter at short notice when Eamonn was taken ill - and the following day took part in recording of Insurance - The White Man's Burden, which featured announcer Wallace Greenslade singing Bill Haley's 1956 hit See You Later, Alligator.
Piccadilly Circus fee negotiation
Meanwhile, fee negotiations continued. Spike's agent, Stanley Dale, rejected the BBC's raise and sought parity for his client with Harry and Peter. This was resolved on Tuesday 26 February after Spike realised that he had possibly been misled over his colleague's remuneration. However, discussions revealed that Peter had quoted an inaccurately high fee for The Goon Show to another agent which had caused confusion and embarrassment. ‘I am hardly in a position to forbid such an action, and if Peter Sellers… was to stand up in Piccadilly Circus and announce what we pay him I suppose it's his own affair,’ Pat Newman wrote to Denis Selinger on Monday 4 March, ‘However, if he wants to take such an action he must be jolly sure he quotes the right fee because, if he doesn't that is certainly the moment when we will step in.’ By Tuesday 5, small increments for Harry and Peter had been arranged with Spike marginally behind the rate of his friends.
Recorded on Sunday 3 March, Africa Ship Canal included Harry performing a selection of his popular vocal hits (including his signature tune, Falling in Love with Love) in a tale which was inspired by the situation at the Suez Canal from which British forces had withdrawn in December 1956 and – with Israelis also forced to leave the area – was to re-open the following month. Peter joined Eric Sykes for a rock 'n' roll skit on ATV's The Max Bygraves Show on Saturday 9 and then on Sunday I 0, the Goons assembled at a commercial recording studio to record five new songs for release by Decca. I Love You was written by Spike, Whistle Your Cares Away was composed by Spike with Larry Stephens, Eeh! Ah! Oh! Ooh! was composed by Tony Carbone and the other two items were entitled Who's That Knocking? and Hello Folks. That evening the Goons recorded the episode Ill Met by Goonlight, a script written by Spike alone which sent up the newly released wartime movie Ill Met by Moonlight starring Dirk Bogarde and based on a true commando mission to capture a German general in Crete. This show required the sound effect of a sackful of spaghetti being flung at someone, and – striving for authenticity – Spike couldn't capture exactly the noise he wanted. In desperation, he asked the BBC canteen to cook him some spaghetti, took his sock off, poured the spaghetti in, took it down to the studio and recorded it… only to find it still didn't sound right. The show also saw the debut of a character referred to as Cyril based on a Jewish impresario acquaintance of Peter's (‘I seen ‘im! I seen ‘im!’).
Moronic listeners and Pat
As producer, Pat Dixon continued to battle censorship, querying why a reference to Field Marshal Alan Brooke (who had made some controversial statements the previous month) in Ill Met by Goonlight should be cut at the request of the BBC; condemning ‘senseless censorship' against ‘freedom of speech’ he added, ‘We really must grow up and stop shivering in our shoes every time someone thinks that there might possibly be an angry phone call from some moronic listener.’ Appealing to the Controller of Radio Entertainment, Pat got the show broadcast intact the following night.’.
The Missing Boa Constrictor – recorded on Sunday 17 March – drew upon two topical news items. First of all, there had been a stormy reaction to the start of work on Birmingham's Inner Ring Road scheme on Friday 8 March. Secondly, a six foot boa constrictor called Bertie had escaped from a pet shop in London on Wednesday 13. Monday 18 March then found Harry performing his new operatic recording, Catori, Catori on BBC TV's Off the Record while – as Yes, It's the Cathode-Ray Tube Show! came to an end – a new film project entitled The Naked Truth was announced for Peter Sellers. Davy also completed shooting, and Harry then did a one-off edition of The Harry Secombe Show for ATV on Saturday 23 March, the same night that Spike again appeared on The Eamonn Andrews Show.
Gaius Plinius Secundus
There was an end-of-term feel for the recording of The Histories of Pliny the Elder, a Roman epic inspired by the encyclopaedic work of the first century philosopher Gaius Plinius Secundus and featuring one of Spike's favourite climaxes to a story. With this final show (which included references to the BBC radio soap Mrs Dale's Diary) completed, Harry set off for some bookings in Kenya with Eric Sykes, while Peter was off to Toronto to appear in CBC's Chrysler Show with his old chum Graham Stark. Appearance fees for the next series were agreed on Tuesday 26 March, and two days later The Histories of Pliny the Elder concluded the current run of new episodes on the Home Service which then went straight into repeats. The Light Programme repeat of this last show was deferred by a day, pre-empted by coverage of the British Empire Featherweight Championship.
In The Listener, critic Roy Walker described the Light Programme repeat of The Histories of Pliny the Elder as ‘a man-made madhouse’, noting ‘the studio audience laughed like mad. My critical countenance, noting the triumph of speed and vocal antics over antique material, remain uncreased, but maybe I'm crazy.’ Contracts spanning 26 new shows to be recorded from Sunday 29 September 1957 to 23 March 1958 for transmission the following Thursday at 8.30pm on the Home Service were issued to the cast on Friday 5 April. The movie The Smallest Show on Earth – which Peter had shot the previous autumn - was released on Thursday 11, with Peter interviewed about the film in Picture Parade on Monday 15.
Cleopatra's Needle
Back from Kenya, Harry appeared on The Billy Cotton Show on Tuesday 16 April, while Spike returned to The Eamonn Andrews Show that Saturday. The next Decca Goon release comprised I Love You and Eeh! Ah! Oh! Ooh!; released on Saturday 20, it failed to chart. Meanwhile, Pat Dixon attempted to assess what was happening with regards the non-audience shows which the Home Service had agreed to broadcast… following which he had been instructed not to approach Spike. Having heard nothing from the BBC, Spike had now taken on other work and only completed a single 30 minute script; this was The Reason Why which featured some characters from The Goon Show and concerned the erection of the Ancient Egyptian obelisk Cleopatra's Needle on London's Victoria Embankment in the 1870s. Pat suggested the other five shows be abandoned, but this script was made as a non-audience special. Jim Davison agreed on Monday 29 April, and it was soon confirmed that regular Goon guest Valentine Dyall would join Spike, Peter and Harry for the recording.
By now, The Goon Show had become a major hit on CBC's Trans-Canada network, and the station wanted more editions over and above the shows made from 1954 onwards offered by Transcription Services. A suggestion was made that several scripts from the 1953/4 series could be re-recorded, starting over the summer. The Home Service repeats concluded on Thursday 9 May, after which the slot was filled by Twenty Questions. Thursday 23 May found Spike appearing on BBC TV's Alma Cogan Show, while the same day the Home Service scheduled The Reason Why (referred to as The Goons - Special) at 9.15pm on Tuesday 23 July, two days after recording. Also, the planned remakes of earlier scripts were projected to start the following week, meaning that nine Transcription Service shows would be taped before the start of the new series. However, there was a question over the availability of Harry for these dates. As such, recording on The Reason Why was deferred to Sunday 4 August, with transmission on Thursday 22 August at 9.35pm.
On Monday 27 May, shooting began on The Naked Truth at Walton Studios with Sellers in a prime role. A couple of days later Jimmy Grafton informed Pat Dixon that Harry would be on tour with Rockin' the Town from July to September, and wouldn't be available for the remake recordings. In addition to this rethink, Pat Dixon would be on leave from late July, and so another producer would need to deputise on The Reason Why; this was Jacques Brown, a former musician and actor who had been one of the more experimental producers responsible for getting the Goons and their new type of humour on the air six years earlier.
Pat knew what was coming
Spike appeared on BBC TV's pop music and variety show Six-Five Special on Saturday 8 June. He was then informed of the record schedule for The Reason Why which - because of Harry's touring availability - had now been pencilled in to be recorded on Sunday 11 August in Manchester. Two remake shows would record on Sunday 28 July, and then further pairs of recordings would be made from Sunday 1 September up to the start of the new series. Three more Transcription editions would then be recorded in tandem with each new Home Service show for the first three weeks. Jacques Brown would produce the first batch of recordings for Transcription until Pat Dixon was back from leave. However, on Monday 24 June, Pat Dixon wrote to Jim Davidson regarding Jacques' presence, ‘I do not know what arrangements are being made after this, but I hope you will bear in mind the fact that I do not want very much to produce this programme at all in the course of the coming year.’ In fact. in addition to other projects he wants to pursue, Pat Dixon knew he was ill with cancer…
Spike's special programme – Man and Music – made its appearance on BBC-TV on Monday 24 June; joining him were Dick Emery, Valentine Dyall, Graham Stark and Kenneth Connor plus Goon Show announcer Wallace Greenslade. Following this, the scheduling of the remakes for CBC began to concern Spike since Larry Stephens was committed to two television projects and would not be available to rework the scripts in time for a July start. Ultimately, the proposed summer recordings for the Transcription remakes would be abandoned, and rescheduled when Spike and/or Larry were available to update the existing scripts. The shows would then be taped in tandem with recordings for the next series from late September.
The Goons were contracted for The Reason Why on Friday 5 July, with recording scheduled for 9pm on Sunday 11 August in Piccadilly Studio 2 (‘I doubt it will play is well as The Starlings ’ noted Con Mahoney on the script). It was also agreed that Jacques Brown would take over as producer of The Goon Show from mid-November, with Pat Dixon handling only the first seven editions. Meanwhile, Spike made a return visit to the Six-Five Special on Saturday 13 July, and Peter Sellers resumed his recording career with the release of Boiled Bananas and Carrots and Any Old Iron by Parlophone; this charted strongly in August.
In late July, the Light Programme expressed an interest in taking the two non-audience shows at 6.30pm on Sundays from 29 September; first The Starlings and then Cleopatra's Needle (as the new show was referred to). At the same time, the Home Service shifted the new series to Mondays at 8.30pm rather than Thursdays. with a repeat at 9pm on the Light Programme the following Thursday. Because of this rescheduling, it was realised that Pat Dixon would no longer have time to edit The Goon Show for transmission due to his commitments on recording Round the Bend with Michael Bentine.
The Reason Why was recorded on Sunday 11 August, with the cast assembling at Piccadilly Studio at 2.30pm to take part in a photocall, clad in Victorian garb and clustered around Cleopatra's Needle. Spike then recorded The Peers Parade on Thursday 14 for broadcast the following Sunday with producer Roy Speer who – on Saturday 16 – was formally appointed to take over as producer of The Goon Show for the new series. Spike's non-audience special was then broadcast by the Home Service at 9.15pm on Thursday 22 August. This precursor to another series of radio madness was promoted in the Radio Times by a cartoon from Peter Kneebone showing a trumpet playing explorer with wings flying alongside Cleopatra's Needle which was covered by all manner of strange hieroglyphics and held aloft by two mermaids. The broadcast was also covered by the magazine's ‘Round and About’ section in which The Reason Why was described as ‘a programme of midsummer madness guaranteed to gladden the Goonstruck.’
In little over a month, the Goons would be back at the microphone to regale audiences across the world with crazy adventures old and new… and also the most demanding production schedule for their groundbreaking radio comedy yet…
The above programme notes, episode notes and ephemera was researched and written by Andrew Pixley
Episodes
Music
Throughout the series The BBC Dance Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott. Additionally, Stott wrote most of the incidental orchestral music for the shows.
- ^ "The Goon Sho Volume 34". Retrieved 24 May 2019.
