Afleveringen
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Join us as we march off to war wearing squeaky socks and woolly underpants, before surrendering to the twisted logic of Spike Milligan (ābetter looking than Peter Sellersā).
This show, one of the highlights of the Goon Showās eighth series and released on BBC LP in 1981, has a plot of sorts: 1917 and England is at war, France is at war, while Eccles is at lunch. Grytpype and Moriarty sell German army shares to Neddie. They claim that the Germans are bound to win any war they enter. Seagoon discovers to his horror that the Germans are losing, but Major Bloodnok sells Seagoon 10,000 unused 1904 calendars. The plan is to drop the calendars on England by zeppelin, making the English think the war hasnāt even started, therefore giving the Germans an advantage. However, the British drop 1918 calendars on Berlin, and the Germans capitulate.
Thereās a lot more to it than that and joining Tyler to ārifleāthrough it is Graeme Lindsay-Foot, man of a thousand voices and motorcar enthusiast. That said, he canāt hold a torch to the late Peter Sellers, whose obsession with the horseless carriage they also examine this week, as well as singing the praises of the sound effects chaps, querying quite why Secombe got given six characters to voice and asking whether this could possibly be one of Spikeās greatest performances of his career.
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"He's only got to lift his leg and he'll drown 50 kids!"
This week: Digby, The Biggest Dog in the World, a 1973 British family comedy in which an Old English Sheepdog accidentally drinks an experimental growth formula and raises the woof!
Leading the cast is Jim Dale as Jeff Eldon, an animal psychologist at a NATO research facility; when Spike Milligan (playing a shameless German stereotype) moves in next door he is all for having him impounded as he mistakenly believes Jeff thinks he is a dog.
It's part Disney family adventure, part monster movie parody and utterly British.
Did we forget to mention that other cast members include Angela Douglas, Norman Rossington, John Bluthal and Victor Spinetti? Thereās also a cucumber the size of a bus, a mischievous chimp and a wonderful scene set in a roadside cafĆ©.
Plus we ask: did Dulux pay for the outrageous product-placement? Do the special effects hold up? And why wasnāt Jim Dale a bigger star in Britain?
Joining Tyler is Graham Rinaldi, film writer and academic and huge Bowie fan, and please feel free to join in the Bowie drinking game as we discuss this fine film.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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"Round the back for the old cherry brandy!"
Recorded in New York on 6 August 1963, this satirical comedy album brought together Peter Sellers, Anthony Newley, Joan Collins, Leslie Bricusse, Daniel Massey and Michael Lipton at the height of the Profumo Affair.
The midnight session accommodated Newley and Massey, whose Broadway shows had only just finished. The idea had been conceived less than two weeks earlier while Newley and Bricusse were holidaying in Montauk and they were keen to capitalise on Britain's appetite for political satire.
The recording became a celebrity gathering, attracting around 100 guests including Vivien Leigh, Sammy Davis Jr., Roddy McDowall and Peter Lawford. By 2am, according to one witness, Sellers and Newley were sharing Scotch from a thermos while cigarette smoke filled the studio. The entire session was completed in just three hours.
They rushed to release the album before public interest in the Profumo scandal faded but some record labels - notably Decca - were sniffy about its content, with mockery of the Royal Family a particular point of contention. Sellers responded: "Only a prude could possibly be offended by it."
The BBC banned it from radio play, although excerpts had appeared on television. Contemporary reviews ranged from praise to outrage, reflecting the record's deliberately provocative humour. The album remains a fascinating snapshot of Britain's early-1960s satire boom, when comedians and performers increasingly challenged the deference traditionally shown to politicians, celebrities and public institutions.
Joining Tyler to talk through the LP is Brett Tremble, who can be found on Bluesky @agnes-guano.bsky.social
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This week we look at Invasion Quartet (1961), one of the most significant, if forgotten, films in Spike Milligan's career. Set in a military convalescent hospital on the English south coast during 1942, the story follows three disabled service officers and an ageing military veteran who decide to launch their own private invasion of occupied France to destroy a German super-gun known as "Big Hermann", whose shelling is disrupting both the war effort and their cricket matches. The result is a whimsical wartime adventure that one hack at the time described as "a skit on The Guns of Navarone."
The film was made shortly after Spike signed a contract with MGM's British subsidiary, soon after the Oscar nomination of The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film. Invasion Quartet was part of MGM British's first production slate under Lawrence P. Bachmann, alongside future hits such as Village of the Damned and Murder She Said. While those films became major successes and spawned sequels, Invasion Quartet was one of the few productions that failed to make much impact at the box office.
The cast included Bill Travers, John Le Mesurier, GrƩgoire Aslan, Millicent Martin and Maurice Denham, with Eric Sykes appearing briefly as a German soldier.
Spike himself later dismissed the picture as "desperately unfunny" and often lamented his lack of success in films. It did, however, result in at least one happy outcome for the Milligan family...
Although Invasion Quartet quickly disappeared from view, it offers a fascinating glimpse of a period when British cinema attempted to turn Spike Milligan into a mainstream film star - and failed.
Joining Tyler this week is John Hewer of Hambledon Productions, who are soon to hit the stage with a brand new production of The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town. John discusses this in the show and details can be found here: https://hambledonproductions.com/phantomraspberryblower/
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āI donāt find myself funnyā¦ it came as a surprise to me that I didnāt really learn anything by watching myself.ā
In June 1969 BBC2 broadcast a documentary in which comedian and writer Marty Feldman tried to discover the essence of comedy by speaking with some of its leading lights such as Eric Morecambe, Dudley Moore, Denis Norden and... Peter Sellers.
According to a critic on The Daily Mirror: āGiven the low state of comedy on the box right now ā well, thereās Father, Dear Father and The Gnomes of Dulwich to name triers; but no Till Death and no Steptoe ā a high-flyer like Marty might have chosen to show us how itās done. He could have played a few bad jokes off against his writing partner Mr Barry Took (who was present and correct), batted them about, and come up with an extemporary routine or two. But no. Marty was sold on contradiction.ā
Ignore that grump. The programme was a thoughtful, leisurely exercise in getting to the nub of of a very knotty topic where Marty philosophised and sometimes agonised while smoking a seemingly endless chain of cigarettes. From a bleak fairground in Margate via a kids' Punch & Judy show, a textile factory run by an ex-radio ventriloquist and a smoky jazz bar to a railway station in Henley where Peter Sellers was filming The Magic Christian, Marty never faltered in his pursuit of the truth: What is comedy?
Joining Tyler to talk about the programme and in particular the very revealing bits with Sellers is returning guest and podcaster Jon Auty. They also look at the early career of Marty Feldman and a couple of Spike Milligan TV appearances.
You can watch the programme on YT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0it6iARj64&t=1907s
Behind The Stunts: https://www.youtube.com/@behindthestunts
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It's 75 years since the first Goon Show (billed as Crazy People) was broadcast and to mark the occasion Tyler welcomes listeners from all over the world - Ian Richards, Colleen Dawson, Martin Eggleston, Fred Velez, Colin Fee and Ted Webb - to share their Goon Show stories and memories in a special episode.
Topics include where they first discovered the show, the importance of Harry Secombe, the show's legacy, favourite music in the show, how it has directly impacted on their lives, obscure references, favourite episodes, what 'lost' episode would they like to hear, best guests, Michael Bentine's role and so much more.
It's a riotous 90 minutes of people trying to get a word in!
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"Now, Neddieā¦ what experience have you had in translating ancient scripts? " - "Three years with Rayās A Laugh."
What do the Piltdown Man, a calculating canine, Norwich Castle Museum and a one-eyed cat peeping in a sea food store all have to do with this week's show? Listen as we discuss The Missing Scroll from Series 5 and offer a fascinating and in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Goon Show from this period.
Neddie Seagoon is recruited by antique dealer Grytpype-Thynne to help recover a lost Babylonian manuscript containing ancient music for which the BBC Home Service are offering a reward. Seagoon travels to Mesopotamia, where he is abandoned in the desert by Willium but rescued by Eccles who accompanies him on his quest. Their search takes them to an antique shop run by Minnie and Henry, where confusion reigns and Seagoon learns the manuscript was discarded on a dust-heap at Sidi Rosaic. Can he recover the scroll in time?
We also eavesdrop on a conversation taking place on a bus from Oldham and hear live from a revolutionary new type of prison.
Joining Tyler from the USA is performer and Goon enthusiast Brian Phillips.
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Itās 1972 and Dick Emery - once described as "a fugitive from The Goon Show" - is one of the most popular comedians on television. His show is a regular ratings-topper, featuring a cast of comic grotesques ā toothy vicars, leering jezebels, cats-bum-mouthed frumps and camp as Christmas extroverts.
With the success in the early seventies of the On The Buses films and other sitcom-to-big-screen transitions it was perhaps inevitable that Dick would make a movie, one that would showcase many of his best-loved characters, plus introduce one or two new ones.
āOohā¦ You Are Awfulā (named after the ubiquitous catchphrase of his easily-confused slattern Mandy) concerns conmen Charlie Tully and Reggie Peek, who fleece a couple of Italian worthies for Ā£500,000 and are about to hop on a plane to Switzerland until Charlie is arrested for trying to pull a stupid con on a pair of witless Americans in the airport lounge.
Banged up for six months, Charlie finally emerges from prison and is about to be told by Reggie the bank account details when the latter is murdered by local villain Sid Sabbath for having it away with his sister. There follows a farcical sequence of events involving the Mafia, several Emery disguises, an exploding milk bottle and a lot of womenās bums. Yes, seriously.
Joining Tyler are two-thirds of The Trap ā Jeremy Limb & Paul Litchfield ā for a loud, rambunctious journey through a film which the two have previously covered for one of their Film Commentaries - https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTrapComedy/posts
Warning: contains language that would make Hetty swoon!
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This week we're discussing Peter Sellers' only directorial feature, Mr Topaze from 1961.
Sellers plays Albert Topaze, an earnest, impoverished schoolteacher in provincial France whose rigid honesty ultimately proves his undoing. He teaches under the status-obsessed headmaster Muche (Leo McKern) and is in love with Mucheās daughter Ernestine (Billie Whitelaw). Living modestly with his colleague and friend Tamise (Michael Gough), Topaze supplements his income through private tutoring.
His integrity leads to his dismissal when he refuses to falsify a report, leaving him vulnerable to manipulation. He is soon drawn into the orbit of the glamorous Suzy Courtois (Nadia Gray) and her corrupt associate Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), who install him as the front for their fraudulent business dealings. Initially oblivious, Topaze is horrified when he learns the truth, but agrees to continue in order to protect Suzy.
Joining Tyler this week to chat about the film's background, themes and ultimate re-evaluation after decades languishing in obscurity is Vic Pratt of the BFI https://www.bfi.org.uk/profile/vic-pratt
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āTheir gags are paralysing. Sometimes the director has to let everybody have five minutesā rest, so that we can laugh the laughs out.ā (Pamela Thomas, supporting cast)
In 1956 a short film was released which with hindsight was probably the most successful Goon Show celluloid transfer, despite only featuring two-thirds of the team. Ironically, it wasn't even intended for theatre release but a lack of interest by US television networks nixed any further forays so it ended up as a cinematic supporting feature.
The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn (an early working title was The Yard Has Three Feet) starred Peter Sellers as Superintendent Quilt and Spike Milligan as Sgt Brown plus honorary Goon Dick Emery as Nodule, a museum curator. All three appear in multiple guises, including Sellers as Henry Crun, Milligan as Eccles and Emery as Maurice Ponque.
Joining Tyler this week to talk about the background to the film, including the revelation that it sprang from The Adventures of Robin Hood on television and that Harry Secombe's absence could at least be partly laid at the door of Jimmy Grafton, is returning guest Chris Diamond.
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This week the great Neil Brand visits the show to share his love of the Goons and in particular the music. Neil of course is a well-respected writer, composer and broadcaster and the country's leading silent film accompanist.
A self-taught musician, Neil describes the instinctive feel of the music in the Goon Show from people like Max Geldray and Ray Ellington and admires the sheer musical chutzpah of the boys in the band. He's also a huge fan of Angela Morley and the cinematic sweep of some of her arrangements.
As well as talking about the show we get glimpses into Neil's career and passions, a description of the one time he met Milligan and a story about a chance encounter with someone very much within Sellers' and Milligan's orbit.
Neil's podcast All About The Music: https://www.allaboutthemusicpod.com/
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"I wonder what became of old Filthy Gladys?"
This week we're talking about one of Spike Milligan's favourite Goon Shows from early 1956, and one whose script was originally published in the first Goon Show Scripts book.
Young Ned Seagoon, driven by a driving ambition to become the worldās greatest organ player, leaves his native Wales in order to pursue his musical studies in the Sahara. There, racing across the sands in the cockpit of his 50-ton brass-bound Wurlitzer, Ned meets unscrupulous villains Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty, scrapdealers by appointment and purchasers of arms for Egypt. They have other plans for the Mighty Wurlitzer however, which leads Neddie to a hair-raising race on Daytona Beach against ace organ pilots Crun & Bannister, in a desperate attempt to beat the land speed record forWurlitzers. But it is a different record that poor Neddie breaksā¦
Joining Tyler to talk cinema organs, land-speed records and Middle East tensions, not to mention Housewife's Choice, dying in Coventry and Sabrina's sweaters, is Stephen Hatcher. Steve is a regular on the Strangers In Space podcast.
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Although at first glance this obscure low-budget film āMichael Winnerās feature-length directorial debut ā may not appear to have a Goon connection. Oh, but it does.
Radio and TV personality Jack Jackson introduces a selection of sketches and musical items, linked by his demonstration of a fantastical computer with display screen. Acts include Glen Mason, Cherry Wainer, Craig Douglas, Russ Conway and archive footage including Michael Bentine, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers. The film also features location shooting of London nightlife and was described in one sympathetic review as āJust the thing for the Espresso coffee bar tradeā
Joining Tyler this week is returning guest Adrian Smith.
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Goon Pod kicks off a new series for 2026 by looking back at a film which is unbelievably fifty years old but when released was hailed as a modern masterpiece of comedy cinema, and which lifted Peter Sellers from an extended period of career inertia: The Return of the Pink Panther, directed by Blake Edwards.
Sellers plays Inspector Clouseau once again, back on the trail of the mysterious Phantom ā aka Sir Charles Litton (Christopher Plummer) ā who apparently has stolen the famed Pink Panther diamond again. Along the way the hapless ātec nearly gets shot, gets blown up by a bomb, drives into a swimming pool, is outwitted by a parrot, assists a bank robbery, gets squashed in a revolving door and is the victim of countless other indignities.
Joining Tyler is Sitcom Club co-host Gary Rodger and the conversation, rather like Clouseau on the waxy museum floor, goes in all directions:
How Lew Grade came to the rescueWho might have been cast in the mooted Pink Panther television seriesPrince Charles moistening a lady in MontrealWhat happened to Niven?We love John BluthalZwamm?Douglas Fairbanks Jr as an early casting choiceHow Sellersā career may have panned out had this film not happenedCheering Lodge & StarkPan & Scan technologyLast of the Summer Wine Catherine Schell corpses, Victor Spinetti fumes, Mike Grady shines and Carole Cleveland makes a splashDid Dreyfuss overreact?And much much more. Itās all here folks!
As mentioned, Gary is going to run the London Marathon this year (or kill himself trying) on behalf of Alzheimer's Society ā please show your support here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/gary-rodger
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On the occasion of Kenneth Williamsā 100th birthday it seemed an ideal opportunity to introduce people to the glories of Goon Pod Film Club.
Inspired by Mr Fiddler in Carry On Camping (episode out next week) membership to GPFC has dropped to Ā£1 a month for all existing and new members. That will give you a new full-length discussion about a classic British comedy film every month plus access to the GPFC archive of over twenty shows and growing: episodes include Without A Clue; Steptoe & Son Ride Again; Shaun Of The Dead; Kind Hearts & Coronets; A Hard Days Night; School For Scoundrels; Paddington 2 and many more!
We also have some fine guests including David Quantick, David Renwick & Andrew Marshall, Tim Worthington and Jon Canter.
This is a special 2-hour edition of Goon Pod highlighting some of the many conversations weāve had on GPFC over the last 18 months.
Remember: head over to Patreon.com/GoonPod and subscribe for just Ā£1 a month (you can also buy individual episodes for Ā£3 each if you donāt wish to subscribe)
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Let's go out with a bang as we count down Listenersā Top 20 British Sitcoms of All Time ā as voted for by you.
In total 73 different shows were nominated - some of the very greatest and most popular, others quite obscure or forgotten. But which ones made the final list? In this show we find out, with very special guests Chris Diamond and Donna Rees.
Whether your tastes run towards the communal warmth of classic ensemble shows, the brittle awkwardness of suburban frustration, or the fragmented edges of sitcom storytelling, thereās plenty here to argue about.
We talk about why some comedies endure, why others divide opinion and how shifting zeitgeists shape what people laugh at. Expect nostalgia, rediscovery and the occasional raised eyebrow or disapproving 'tut' as we move through the list.
Will the obvious favourites dominate, or will a few unexpected titles sneak in? Expect a few surprises!
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This week, for Christmas, a heart-warming festive treat full of joy, goodwill and Peter Sellers at his cuddliest.
ONLY JOKING.
Actually, itās Carol for Another Christmas, Rod Serlingās bleak, angry, Cold War reworking of A Christmas Carol . Conceived as the opening salvo in a run of UN-friendly TV specials, the film is a full-throated warning against isolationism, nuclear brinkmanship and the idea that minding your own business ever ends well. Xerox paid for it, ABC aired it ad-free on 28 December 1964, viewers and critics were divided about it, and it then disappeared for nearly 50 years.
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Cleopatra) in his only television outing, the film stars Sterling Hayden as Daniel Grudge, a wealthy American industrialist who hates foreign aid, diplomacy and the United Nations in equal measure. On Christmas Eve he clashes with his liberal nephew Fred (Ben Gazzara) and is hauled through a series of visions featuring war dead, nuclear devastation and, most memorably, Peter Sellers as āImperial Meā ā a cowboy-Santa demagogue preaching radical individualism. It was Sellersā first screen appearance after his near-fatal heart attack earlier that year.
Also featuring Eva Marie Saint, Robert Shaw, Steve Lawrence, Pat Hingle, Britt Ekland and music by Henry Mancini, the film is verbose, didactic and relentlessly grim ā and all the more fascinating for it.
Joining Tyler is Tilt Araiza (The Sitcom Club / Jaffa Cakes for Proust), drawing parallels with Planet of the Apes, The Prisoner and unpacking Serling and the social and political climate just one year after after the assassination of JFK... looking at how things came together to produce this Christmas curio.
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āYou call this a life?ā
This week we dip into the big red book and examine Spike Milliganās two famously chaotic appearances on This Is Your Life ā first in 1973 at an army reunion in Bexhill and again in 1995 in the wake of Spikeās infamous crack at Prince Charles at the British Comedy Awards. From bungled surveillance operations and surprise reunions to war memories, old squeezes, secret sons and unresolved tensions, these programmes offer an occasionally revealing ā and sometimes unsettling ā portrait of Spike at two very different points in his life.
Joining Tyler this week is co-host of World Of Telly John Williams and the pair try to navigate the uneasy compression of a vast, contradictory life into television-friendly fare.
Along the way we encounter Peter Sellers in Nazi garb, Robert Graves refusing retakes because āthe milkman is part of lifeā, Harry Secombe on VT, Eric Sykes restoring some semblance of order to proceedings, Michael Bentine getting a warm reception, Roger McGough falling a bit flat and a surprise appearance from a reclusive billionaire. We also examine the differing styles of Eamonn Andrews and Michael Aspel ā the former being all awkward and lacking spontaneity; the latter oozing affable charm and keeping the show on the rails.
These two programmes, separated by 22 years, chart not just Spike Milliganās public career but his private fractures ā family divisions, emotional debts, and the limits of nostalgia. They also expose the clumsy mechanics of This Is Your Life itself: a format built for uplift struggling to contain a life defined by contradiction, pain, brilliance and refusal to behave.
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Tyler welcomes comedy writer David Quantick to celebrate the 1965 film One Way Pendulum starring Goon Show alumnus Eric Sykes.
Adapted by NF Simpson from his own 1959 Royal Court play and directed by Peter Yates (fresh off Summer Holiday, soon to make Bullitt), Eric plays suburban dad Arthur Groomkirby, who is quietly building a full-scale Old Bailey in his living room while his son Kirby (Jonathan Miller) teaches speak-your-weight machines to sing the Hallelujah Chorus in the attic. Meanwhile, daughter Sylvia (Julia Foster) obsesses over her arms and Aunt Mildred (Mona Washbourne) witters endlessly about transport. Rounding out the madness are Peggy Mount as the food-dispatching charlady and George Cole, Graham Crowden & Douglas Wilmer in a superb hallucinatory courtroom sequence.
The comparisons to the Goon Show are obvious.
David ā who met Simpson ā explains how his very British absurdism (Lewis Carroll meets Kafka with actual laughs) cloaks the bizarre inside the banal which none of his characters question. The humour is in the mismatch between the bland domestic surroundings and the offbeat conversations therein.
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"It's all in the mind."
How do you categorise Yellow Submarine? Animated psychedelic musical fantasy comedy?
That barely scratches the surface.
In this technicolour fantasia, the cartoon Beatles tackle the Blue Meanies, whoāve turned joyful Pepperland into a static, monochrome dystopia where music has been silenced. To restore harmony, John, Paul, George and Ringo - alongside Jeremy Hilary Boob PhD and the ever-anxious Old Fred - must travel from Liverpool to Pepperland in the titular underwater vessel, drifting through strange realms like the Sea of Science and the Foothills of the Headlands.
Packed with terrific songs (well, duh), a splendid voice cast (including the great Dick Emery), and a script sharpened - largely uncredited - by Roger McGough, Yellow Submarine may have begun as a contractual compromise but blossomed into something far better than most people expected. Even the real Beatles were impressed enough to pop up for a brief live-action cameo at the end, sealing the film with a smile and a song.
Joining Tyler to celebrate this singular sixties cinematic exclamation-mark is comedy writer and podcaster Joel Morris, bringing his trademark insight, deep pop-cultural savvy and boundless enthusiasm to the conversation.
As for why Goon Pod is covering this particular gemā¦ well, all will be revealed in the episode!
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