Goon Pod

A podcast where we talk about classic comedy with particular focus on the work of Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe & Michael Bentine. You'll also hear us discuss the likes of Monty Python, Hancock, Blackadder, the Carry On films, Peter Cook, Steptoe & Son and countless other comedy figures & fixtures from the postwar era.

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246 episodes
Updated Wednesday

Episodes246

Newest first

Oct 4, 2023 · 1 hr 17 min
The Telegoons
October 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast of The Telegoons, a television spin-off of The Goon Show which ran for two series and 26 episodes between 1963 and 1964. Each fifteen-minute show was adapted by Maurice Wiltshire from an earlier Goon Show episode, many of which were firm fan favourites such as Napoleon's Piano, The Canal and Lurgi Strikes Britain, with new soundtracks specially recorded by Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and, straight off Dr Strangelove, Peter Sellers. This week's special guest is Alastair Roxburgh, and few know more about The Telegoons than him - having first viewed them via a grainy 1964 New Zealand television screen they became a lifelong passion and he has done a huge amount to keep the memory alive (see his website: http://roxburgh.org/telegoons/index2.htm) Alastair talks about the origins of the series, the technical challenges, the people behind the puppets and much more. The Telegoons have come in for a bit of stick due to many Goon Show fans complaining that trying to realise the characters and situations from a series which fully exploited the limitations - and possibilities - of radio was doomed to failure, sentiments reinforced by the pretty poor copies of the show which did the rounds for years. However, as Alastair argues, The Telegoons should not be compared to the show whence loins it sprang but judged as a television programme in its own right - and if somehow it could emerge blinking into the sunlight from the bowels of Copyright Hell and warrant a decent HD restoration and DVD/blu ray release it would surely be time for a reappraisal and who knows? A Telegoons Renaissance perhaps!
Sep 27, 2023 · 1 hr
The Goon Show at Birmingham Comedy Festival - October 2023
2023 is the centenary of Larry Stephens, writer and collaborator with the Goons and Tony Hancock, a unique comedy creator whose life was cruelly cut short in 1959. To celebrate Larry's contribution to British comedy this year, as part of the Birmingham Comedy Festival, the team who previously breathed new life into the Goon Show by restaging a handful of classic episodes has come back together for one night only to perform two shows which Larry co-wrote with Maurice Wiltshire: The Moriarty Murder Mystery and The Seagoon Memoirs. Joining Tyler to talk about it all are Richard Usher (Sellers), Jimm Rennie (Secombe) and Mark Earby (Milligan), as well as producer/director Dave Freak and Julie Warren, author of the recent Larry Stephens biography 'It's All In The Mind' - Julie will be holding a Q&A ahead of the shows on Sunday 8th October 2023. As well as talking about the creative process involved in putting together such a performance, the team talk about Larry's life and his relationship with the Goons and Hancock, including the scripting of a pre-Hancock's Half Hour vehicle for the lad himself: Vacant Lot, performed live in 2017 as part of the Festival. It promises to be a magnificent show and tickets are on sale now for £15 - please visit Birmingham Comedy Festival presents The Goon Show. (bhamcomfest.co.uk) or phone the box office on 0121 780 3333
Sep 20, 2023 · 1 hr 37 min
The Ladykillers (1955)
"Mrs Wilberforce..? I understand you have rooms to let." And so we are introduced to the sinister and mysterious Professor Marcus, performed with brio by Alec Guinness as a sort of unhinged Alastair Sim grotesque, in Alexander McKendrick's sublime 1955 Ealing comedy The Ladykillers. The film – described by McKendrick as a film about Britain in subsidence - was the first major film role for Peter Sellers, after a string of low budget and mostly forgettable little comedies. Although his role as the aging Ted and spiv Harry Robinson is very much a supporting one, it did get him noticed, and his subsequent career in films grew steadily with a BAFTA for Best Actor five years later and international super-stardom in less than a decade. Alongside Guinness and Sellers are the splendidly menacing Herbert Lom as Louis Harvey, Cecil Parker as Major Courtney and Danny Green as 'One Round', posing as members of a string quintet who have robbery on their minds. Playing the role of her lifetime as the titular 'lady' is Katie Johnson in her penultimate film as Mrs Wilberforce, a performance which won her a BAFTA. Joining Tyler to talk about the film is Graeme Lindsay-Foot, for whom this film remains one of his all-time favourites after having first seen it as a teenager. Together they break down the film from its earliest beginnings, as fragments of a dream occurring to the writer William Rose, to the production process. casting, plot and - yes- there WILL be spoilers. Fans of Frankie Howerd are duly warned that he comes in for a bit of flack. We answer these questions: WHY did Herbert Lom wear a hat throughout the film? WHO was the inspiration for the look of Professor Marcus? WHAT bits of the film were cut out, causing Sellers much annoyance? HOW did Sellers commemorate the film in the form of a gift for cast and crew? WHERE was Mrs Wilberforce's lopsided old house actually situated in London? ... And much more!
Sep 13, 2023 · 1 hr 9 min
The Flea
In 1977 BBC Records released Goon Show Classics Volume 4. It became one of their biggest sellers and no wonder: on the A-side was the episode considered the greatest Goon Show of all time (as voted for by people of impeccable taste, breeding and judgement - Goon Pod listeners) - Napoleon's Piano; on the B-side was the show we're talking about today: The Flea. You heard her back in January talking about The Greenslade Story and back by popular demand is Donna Rees, trying to get her head around the plot of this stone cold classic from December 1956 set in 1665. Samuel Pepys, never one to pass up the opportunity to sport with Mrs Fitzsimmons, is the target of a dastardly ruse by Grytpype-Thynne and Count Jim 'Thighs' Moriarty (Minister Without Underpants to the Principality of Monte Carlo), who claims to have been bitten by a flea while lodging with Pepys. With Pepys being sued for damages and the prospect of war, the guilty flea, a lively fellow named Francois, is detained in a prison cell and guarded over by a formidable duo - Eccles and Bluebottle. However, they are easily overpowered by the villains and with a daring switcheroo the nationwide hunt for the fugitive flea is soon on! As well as discussing the show itself other topics include Tony Hancock in The Man Who Could Work Miracles, Charlie Brown and a football, the genius of Peter Cook and a whole lot more... and remember: You Gotta Go Owww!
Sep 6, 2023 · 1 hr 55 min
Dick Emery (with Nick Emery)
This week we look at the life and career of the late great Dick Emery (1915-1983), as Tyler and Chris Diamond talk to his son Nick. Dick worked with the Goons both collectively and individually: appearing in a number of Goon Shows, as a substitute for Secombe in The Case of the Mukkinese Battlehorn and briefly in the Sellers film The Wrong Arm of the Law, as well as working extensively with Michael Bentine on television. Nick talks warmly and openly about his father's career and personal life in a conversation which covers a lot of ground - from Dick's early life and wartime escapades to later fame as one of the biggest stars on British television. Topics include: Holidaying with the Milligans... Dick's relationship with Tony Hancock... the many marriages... working with Peter Cook and an intriguing 'Derek and Dick' tape.... the film Ooh You Are Awful... the origins of Lampwick... Dick's striking parallels with Peter Sellers... going AWOL during WWII... Ralph Reader's Gang Show... 'worrying Pat Coombs'... The Dick Emery Show and how he was ill-served by some of the later material... Clarence and portrayals of homosexuality in the seventies... It's A Square World... working with Wonder Woman... his appearance in the film Yellow Submarine... 'The Man Who Fixed Churchill's Son's Boiler'... the 1973 Royal Variety Show... Eric Morecambe, Clive Dunn, Harry Enfield and much much more!
Aug 30, 2023 · 1 hr 35 min
The Wrong Arm Of The Law (1963)
Writer and film academic Graham Rinaldi joins the pod this week to discuss the much admired 1963 British comedy romp The Wrong Arm of the Law, starring Peter Sellers, Lionel Jeffries and Bernard Cribbins. Very much a soulmate of the earlier film Two Way Stretch, and featuring many of the same cast, The Wrong Arm of the Law drew upon the talents of the cream of British comedy at the time - scriptwriters Galton & Simpson (and John Antrobus), plus supporting cast including Bill Kerr, Graham Stark, Dick Emery, Dennis Price and others. It also supposedly features an uncredited early appearance by Michael Caine but good luck spotting him! Sellers plays Pearly Gates, the self-assured head of a London crime syndicate whose legitimate business is within high class ladies fashion, where he masquerades as a Parisian fashion designer – M. Jules - with impeccable society connections. Maison Jules is of course a front for Pearly’s more illegal interests and he employs a hapless gang principally consisting of Graham Stark, Davy Kay and John Junkin. When these three are conned into handing over the spoils of a daring postal van hijack to three Australians purporting to be policemen, and when six of Pearly’s subsequent operations are stymied by the same trio of uniform-clad colonials, it is clear that this so-called ‘IPO Mob’ is seriously threatening Pearly’s livelihood – and not only his: a fellow crime boss, Nervous O’Toole (played by the wonderful Cribbins) has been similarly hit and the two criminal fraternities come together to try and decide how best to tackle this problem. Enter the ever-angular Lionel Jeffries as ‘Nosey’ Parker, an ambitious if bumbling police inspector, and the eventual collaboration of the entire London Metropolitan Police with the Gates and O’Toole syndicate to pool resources and catch the IPO Mob. Cue a sting operation, car chase and daring escape with a perfect ending - The Wrong Arm of the Law has it all.
Aug 23, 2023 · 1 hr 13 min
Spike Milligan's Q Series (Part 2)
It's Part 2 of The A-Z of Q with Adam Leslie! We talk large noses, Costume Dept tags, Ed Welch, public lavatories, the Queen, a man inside an elephant, terminal dandruff, Neil Shand, 'the w-word', scouts, Hitler, Bob Todd in blackface and much more, plus we discuss how the comedy landscape had altered beyond recognition by the time Q9 bowed out and even include some interesting thoughts on the series by Mark Lewisohn! And there's also time to talk about when Spike interviewed Van Morrison for Q. A packed show folks!
Aug 16, 2023 · 1 hr 12 min
Spike Milligan's Q Series (Part 1)
The A-Z of Q - Part One! Writer & podcaster Adam Leslie joins Tyler for the first of a two-parter, examining Spike Milligan's Q series on BBC Television, from Q5 in 1969 to Q9 in 1980 (there was also There's A Lot of It About in 1982 but we don't really talk about that). It was heralded as a massively influential show, particularly upon the group which would shortly after the transmission of Q5 come together to create Monty Python's Flying Circus, yet by the end, while it was still extremely funny in places, it was showing its age with some of Spike's comedy stylings seeming creaky when compared to those hip and happenin' young comedy turks behind Not The Nine O'Clock News. Adam & Tyler run through Q from A-N this week, taking in such topics as David Lodge's greatest film, Jehovah's Burglars, bosoms & battleaxes, raspberries, Michael Parkinson with a Black & Decker and much much more! There's also some background to the creation of Q5 and a salute to the many stalwart regulars, including the aforementioned Lodge, Bob Todd and, of course, John Bluthal. Next week: O-Z!
Aug 9, 2023 · 1 hr 12 min
The Sleeping Prince
This week Duncan Gray - the man behind the GSPS's brand spanking new website - joins Tyler to talk about an underrated Goon Show from Series 7 - The Sleeping Prince. Although the show may not figure highly on fans' lists of favourite Goon Shows, it contains arguably one of the funniest bits of music in the show's history - the glorious national anthem of Yacabaku! The episode was bumped from broadcast due to the Hungarian Uprising and BBC management felt some of the show's themes - including a revolution - were inappropriate so it was shelved for broadcast later in Series 7 and replaced by a repeat of The Greenslade Story. Duncan had a special reason for wanting to cover this particular episode and all will be revealed..!
Aug 2, 2023 · 1 hr 19 min
Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall
"Things had been going too smoothly to continue as they were. It really was time we had another bout of applied chaos." In 1971 Spike Milligan published the first volume of his war memoirs: Adolf Hitler - My Part In His Downfall. The preface to it anticipates that it would be the first of a trilogy; in actual fact six further books were written over the next twenty years. Although AHMPIHD is shot through with Milligan's trademark humour there are moments of sadness and melancholy. Milligan writes: "There were the deaths of some of my friends, and therefore, no matter how funny I tried to make this book, that will always be at the back of my mind: but, were they alive today, they would have been the first to join in the laughter, and that laughter was, I'm sure, the key to victory." Joining Tyler to talk about this wonderful book is Walter Dunlop and together they tease out the highlights, including: Commanding Office 'Leather Suitcase' 'Postern blasts' Gunner Naze and the high jump Throwing a brick at the enemy Putting up a tent The unique way the soldiers kept their boots soft and supple Chamberlain doing Prime Minister impressions on the wireless 'Jankers' The sheer artistry of Gunner Plunger Bailey The faint stirrings of the Goon Show as Spike collaborates with Harry Edgington Playing jazz to keep sane And, of course, the BLOODY AWFUL Warsaw Concerto They also examine how the war informed Spike's worldview and subsequent career. If the war hadn't occurred, would we be talking about Spike Milligan today? Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall remained one of Milligan's proudest endeavours and as he wrote to his friend Robert Graves: "... It sold 30,000 copies and it had to reprint almost at once. I can't tell you how good it feels, for a person whose education ended at 14, to be a bestseller."
Jul 26, 2023 · 1 hr 16 min
Zach Mitchell on the Goons
Canadian comedian and writer Zach Mitchell spent an entire summer vacation listening to every existing Goon Show. While others on the beach were indulging in aquatic horseplay, flicking towels at each other or kicking sand in the faces of skinny sunbathers, Zach was on board Ned Seagoon's snow-plough, avoiding falling pianos outside London embassies and taking up the flugelhorn as a precaution against the dreaded lurgi! This week he joins Tyler to talk about his love for the show - he mounts a robust defence of Series 8, is bewildered by its seeming obsession with knees and is keen to examine Spike Milligan's motives behind some of the show's more 'questionable' content. As well as older comedy they discuss more contemporary offerings, including The Simpsons, The Young Ones (ok, sure, it IS 40 years old but a mere stripling as compared to The Goon Show or The Honeymooners) and even Tim & Eric. They even briefly go all Late Review and talk about Kafka and how his work partly influenced Milligan - or not. It's a fun chat with a lot of diversions - well, what do you expect with this show?
Jul 19, 2023 · 1 hr 16 min
Treasure in the Tower
John Williams returns to talk about one of the strongest - and confusing - Goon Shows from Series 8! This episode of Goon Pod goes out literally days after Larry Stephens' centenary and Treasure in the Tower sees the debut of an enduring phrase he gifted to the Goon Show - you'll have to listen to find out! Set in the year 1600 and the year 1957, Sir Walter Raleigh brings back treasure from the New World and wants to bury it at the Tower of London while at the same time Seagoon of the Ministry of Works tries to dig it up! Throw in a pair of scheming steamers who scam Seagoon out of £10,000, a couple of elderly treasure-divining experts, a lowly sentry conversing across the centuries with a spotty nit in National Health spectacles and three soldiers occupying one battledress and you've got a show they could never do on television! John and Tyler discuss the show and events surrounding it plus possible influences - Nigel Kneale, JB Priestley and Iggy Pop all get a mention! Also: the problem the Goons had holding down producers at this period, 'smut by stealth' and a tribute to the late Lord Hailsham!
Jul 12, 2023 · 1 hr 6 min
Bridge on the River Wye
Exactly two weeks before his first encounter with the band which was to change his life, producer George Martin, assisted by Stuart Eltham, recorded a parody of the 1957 film The Bridge On The River Kwai at EMI Studios in London. Featuring the vocal talents of Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and an uncredited Dudley Moore, Bridge On The River Wye was released on LP in November 1962. The script was a revised and expanded episode of a Goon Show which had been broadcast in late 1957, 'African Incident'. Bringing together the hottest young satirists of the moment with two men who had been such an indelible influence upon them was a stroke of genius and their producer - Martin - was largely instrumental in making everything happen. Up to this point in his career he was well known for comedy and novelty records and it's highly possible he would have continued down this path had the fates not conspired to have him meet and agree to record the Beatles, however reluctantly at first. Writer Jason Kruppa, host of the Producing The Beatles podcast, joins Tyler to talk about the creation of the LP, drawing on documentation derived from EMI vaults and other information provided by the likes of Mark Lewisohn. https://www.producingthebeatles.com/
Jul 5, 2023 · 1 hr 22 min
The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu (1980)
What happens when one man, a criminal mastermind, who is desperate for immortality and will stop at nothing to achieve it, comes up against his greatest foe - a weary pensioner with a lawnmower fixation? As if out of a Trap, this week actors & comedians Paul Litchfield & Jeremy Limb join Tyler to hem and haw and (occasionally) howl at Peter Sellers' final film, The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu from 1980. Released two weeks posthumously, Sellers plays both the title role and that of Nayland Smith, a dogged detective who has foiled many a Fu Manchu scheme over the years and who is called out of retirement for one last job. Assisted by a cast which includes Helen Mirren, David Tomlinson and Sid Caesar, Sellers oftentimes cannot help coming across as tired and jaded and the parallels between his real life health problems and Fu Manchu's desperation to cling onto life are too obvious to go unobserved. Jeremy and Paul have been fascinated by this film for many years and have a lot to say about it - Jeremy in particular delivers an impassioned argument in its defence! Carry On Stre@ming: https://pod.link/1641768797
Jun 28, 2023 · 1 hr
Pierre Novellie
Comedian Pierre Novellie is this week's guest. Born in South Africa, his family moved to the Isle of Man when Pierre was turning seven and it wasn't long after this that he discovered the Goon Show - he was hooked and has loved it ever since. Pierre joins Tyler to talk about this and other influences, and the two share memories of assimilating into a culture which was instinctively familiar while being a bit weird as well! Also: is the Oxbridge Comedy Mafia not dead, only sleeping? Podcasting - we discuss BudPod which he co-hosts with Phil Wang. Why is the military is no longer considered a subject for comedy? And... Sabrina's measurements? Plus much more! Pierre will be touring his new show - Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things? - this autumn, details can be found here: Pierre Novellie BudPod: https://linktr.ee/Budpod
Jun 21, 2023 · 1 hr 19 min
Postman's Knock (1962)
Real movie stardom pretty much eluded Spike Milligan, although he appeared in quite a few. He was an unlikely leading man and there are only a small handful of films in which his name appears above the title - this week Jeremy Phillips of Cinema Limbo joins Tyler to mull over one of them: arguably Spike's 'biggest' film, Postman's Knock from 1962. In the early sixties Spike was signed to MGM with a view to launching him on the same road to cinematic success as his erstwhile Goons colleague Peter Sellers but a lack of available projects and, frankly, the difficulty in finding something which suited Milligan's unique style put paid to any ambition he may have harboured of being honoured by the Academy. He made Invasion Quartet with Bill Travers and then soon after Postman's Knock, in which he starred as Harold Petts, a rural village postman who gets a job in London, and naturally havoc ensues. Add a rather weak romantic subplot and some comedy villains and the result is a pretty formulaic British black & white comedy film - the inclusion of Arthur Mullard, Mario Fabrizi and Warren Mitchell to the cast further cements it. But for all that it's not a bad film; there's some nice touches here and there and Spike does his best with what he's been given. Oh, and you'll be whistling the theme tune all day! Cinema Limbo can be found here: http://www.podnose.com/cinema-limbo/
Jun 14, 2023 · 1 hr 31 min
Sunstruck (1972) and Listeners' Questions
"Good heavens! It's Evans!" Jon Auty from Behind The Stunts returns this week to discuss the 1972 fish-out-of-water comedy film Sunstruck, starring Harry Secombe as Welsh schoolteacher Stanley Evans. His romantic intentions towards a colleague stymied by a beefier rival, Stanley sees a poster offering jobs to British schoolteachers in New South Wales. Stanley applies, imagining a life of sun, sea and Sheilas, but reality brings him back to earth with a bump. Posted to remote Kookaburra Springs Stanley soon discovers that a new life Down Under is not all it's cracked up to be, with irritants including mozzie bites, beer-swilling barflies and an obnoxious child called Stevie... however, a burgeoning romance and the chance to win a national schools singing competition restores Stanley's sense of purpose. It's an interesting and gently humorous film featuring some fine Australian acting talent and Secombe acquits himself well in a rare leading role. Jon and Tyler have a lot of fun talking about it - we decide it definitely ISN'T suitable as part of a double bill with Wake In Fright (1971) - tip the hat to Network DVD (RIP) & remember the time that Baldrick met John Wayne. ALSO: LISTENERS' QUESTIONS! Feedback from listeners is always important and the opportunity to interact is something we at Goon Pod Towers are keen to do as much as possible! A few hours before recording the Sunstruck episode Tyler asked people on social media if they had any questions about the podcast, the Goons or comedy in general. There was a good response and unfortunately not enough time to answer everybody but maybe in the future we'll do an entire show of listeners' questions - let's see how this goes down. Do please let us know via Twitter, Facebook or email (tyler.adams1974@gmail.com) if this is a feature you enjoy... @goonshowpod https://www.facebook.com/groups/2537487143226771 BEHIND THE STUNTS: https://linktr.ee/behindthestunts
Jun 7, 2023 · 1 hr 31 min
Hoffman (1970)
"Who would have suspected him? I mean, nobody ever noticed him. I never did." In 1969 Canadian director Alvin Rakoff directed a big screen version of his successful television play Call Me Daddy, which had starred Donald Pleasance and Judy 'Keeping Up Appearances' Cornwell. Now renamed Hoffman, the film starred Peter Sellers and newcomer Sinead Cusack. Benjamin Hoffman, a manager at a cigarette company, blackmails one of the office girls into staying with him at his flat for a week. His intentions are never wholly made explicit but Janet Smith (Cusack) has a pretty good idea and very reluctantly agrees. As the days go by very gradually the power dynamic shifts and we come to recognise Hoffman for what he really is: a rather sad, pathetic figure. Sellers famously hated this film, or didn't hate this film, depending on who you spoke to - but in any case he saw in the character of Hoffman too many traits which sat uncomfortably close to home. Some good did come out of it, in a way - he enjoyed a brief romance with Cusack which ended almost as soon as it began. And the film is quite absorbing, even if some of the content and themes are problematic when viewed from a 21st century perspective. It is pretty much a two-hander (the supporting cast, including Jeremy Bulloch and David Lodge, don't get much to do) and hardly full of belly laughs but is amusing enough in its own way. Joining Tyler to talk about it is actor Patrick Strain and among the many questions raised is "Could you make it today?" Patrick was introduced to Sellers' film work via three relatively cosy black & white British comedies and then this film - QUITE the gear change! As he explains, it's a film he's fond of as much for the history and background of its production as for the finished product. The film was recently released on blu-ray with oodles of extra features including an essay by former Goon Pod guest and host of Smersh Pod John Rain.
May 31, 2023 · 1 hr 16 min
Insurance, the White Man's Burden
Actor & writer Chas Early first heard the Goons when he discovered in his dad's record collection a 1967 LP called Goon But Not Forgotten, featuring Six Charlies In Search of An Author and Insurance, the White Man's Burden. It's the latter show which he discusses this week, a tremendous episode which at first appears to focus on a flannelled fool's attempt to make a fortune out of a piano-playing penguin but then swiftly pulls a handbrake turn as Ned lucklessly tries to set fire to the English Channel in order to claim insurance money. An unwitting mark in the latest crooked scheme cooked-up by those confidence tricksters Thynne & Moriarty, along the way Ned meets an employee of a match factory who sunbathes in the snow and tries to start a fire with a boy-scout's legs! Oh, and Wallace 'The Pelvis' Greenslade has to beat them off while belting out some rock & roll! Plus there's the usual mix of tangents, conversational meanderings and general blather for which Goon Pod is uniquely suited! It's all here, folks!
May 24, 2023 · 1 hr 29 min
The Goon Show Preservation Society
Originally formed in 1972, The Goon Show Preservation Society (GSPS) has for over fifty years championed all things Goon and achieved remarkable success in keeping the show fresh and relevant into the 21st century. One of its patrons recently got fitted for a crown so it can count among its supporters folk from the highest echelons of society right the way down to poor wretches kipping in dustbins! Over the course of Goon Pod we have played host to a number of former and current members of the GSPS, many of whom were or are active participants in society events and meetings, but this week's guest is undoubtedly one of the society's most significant figures: Chris Smith. Chris, among other things, found time to put together the quarterly GSPS newsletter, overseeing its transition from rather rudimentary, stapled together A4 sheets to a much more professional A5 booklet form. He was a key co-organiser of major GSPS events down the years (including the Fred weekends) and was fortunate enough to spend time with the three surviving Goons on a number of occasions. Chris joined the GSPS soon after its formation, while still in short trousers, and there could be nobody better to help navigate through the society's history - its highlights and (sometimes) lowlights, from the earliest days corresponding with founder Mike Coveney and putting on regional shows with the legendary Steam Count, right up to the present day (with a few gaps here and there). The GSPS would have been nothing without the enthusiasm and support of its members and has done more than most to keep the Goon Show alive, and by extension reminding us, especially in the crazy times we live in now, of mankind's capacity for idiocy. goonshow.org @TheGSPS