The Goon Show

The Goon Show was a hugely popular and extremely influential British radio comedy programme, which was originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service.

Format

The principal parts were performed by Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe (who, incidentally shared the same birthday, 8 September), with Sellers and Milligan performing literally dozens of different characters. The first two seasons also featured Michael Bentine. Featured musicians Ray Ellington and Max Geldray also performed on occasion. A singing group called The Stargazers also performed, but left the show in the middle of the second series. The BBC announcer Wallace Greenslade provided spoken links as well as occasionally performing small roles in the scripts, usually as himself.

Related Topics:
Peter Sellers - Harry Secombe - 8 September - Michael Bentine - Ray Ellington - Max Geldray - Wallace Greenslade

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One Goon Show sequence, from "The Mysterious Punch-Up-The-Conker", begins with Bluebottle (Sellers) asking Eccles (Milligan) what the time is. Eccles consults a piece of paper, on which is written "Eight o'clock" – the answer he received the last time he asked somebody what the time was. The implications of this method of telling the time are then explored at some length.

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Another episode, "Lurgi Strikes Britain", introduced the fictional malady of lurgi (a word which has survived into modern usage to mean any miscellaneous illness). In the episode, Grytpype Thynne and Moriarty (who, in the episode, sell brass band instruments) invent the disease, tell Ned Seagoon that the only known cure is to play a brass band instrument, and convince him to make a plea to the House of Commons for millions of pounds to be spent on life-saving brass-band instruments, to be dropped over the affected areas...

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A classic example of Milligan's surreal approach to radio was his request for a special audio effect, which he said, he wanted sound like "a sock full of custard splattering against a wall". Many of the memorable sound effects created for later programs featured innovative production techniques borrowed from the realm of musique concrète, and used the then new technology of magnetic tape. Many of these sequences involved the use of complex multiple edits, echo and reverberation and the deliberate slowing down, speeding up or reversing of tapes. One of the most side-splitting sound effects was the famous sequence created by the Radiophonic Workshop to represent the sound of Major Bloodnok's digestive system in action, and which included a variety of inexplicable gurgling and explosive noises. This also kept turning up on later comedy shows, and can even be heard on a track by The Orb.

Related Topics:
Musique concrète - Magnetic tape - The Orb

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The 'sound pictures' created by the Goons were equally groundbreaking, and in one legendary episode, 'The Choking Horror', they conjured up the image of the tops of all the major buildings and landmarks in London being covered by a thick growth of hair.

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The scripts did not so much break the fourth wall as demolish it. In one episode, after Milligan's anguished portrayal of Moriarity in need of money, Grytpype-Thynne tells Ned Seagoon that the money must be found soon as Moriarty's "overacting is becoming increasingly apparent to us all." In a later episode, Moriarty comments on the state of the story itself: "At last! a plot!" Finally, Moriarty's character is introduced in an episode as he is recounting an actual conversation he had in the previous episode. Milligan even baited his audience by having a character ask them a question and having the sound of sheep bleating played back as their response.

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The strain of writing and performing such a hugely popular series took a heavy toll on Milligan, who was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He suffered a serious nervous breakdown during the run of the show, requiring hospitalisation, and the intense pressure also led to the failure of his marriage. Milligan was absent from the show for twelve episodes in the third series after an attempt to murder Peter Sellers with a knife! The story was that he left his house and made for the Sellers household, but Milligan's wife managed to telephone Sellers before Milligan arrived at the door.

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