About The Goons
It's all in the mind, you know.
The Goon Show is a British radio comedy series that ran from 1951 until 1960, with more than 230 episodes broadcast on the BBC. Repeats are still broadcast now, and the show remains popular in the UK, US, and Australia in particular.
Created by and starring Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Michael Bentine, it set out to shake up radio comedy and bring something new, exciting, and anarchic to a country still struggling to recover from the horrors of the Second World War.
More than sixty years after the tenth series ended in 1960, and nearly fifty years after the broadcast of 'The Last Goon Show of All', the Goons' impact is still visible.
Most famously, they were a direct influence on the members of Monty Python, but they have also been cited by the Beatles, Eddie Izzard, and countless others as having had a profound influence on their humour.
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The Seagoon Memoirs - named after an episode from the ninth series - aims to chronicle the show over the course of the year, as well as explore the lives of the people who made the Goons possible. Not just the original quartet, but writers, BBC staff, producers, guest actors and musicians.
The Cast
The Goons were Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers, with Michael Bentine the fourth member for the first two series of the show.
But... there were so many more people involved in the show that helped make it the sensation it was - and continues to be.
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In the blog, we'll be meeting other members of the Goon menagerie, including:
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John Browell: Producer for the last two series
Pat Dixon: Producer for sixth and seventh series
Valentine Dyall: The Man In Black
Ray Ellington: Singer and band leader
Dick Emery: Actor and comedian, occasional Goon stand-in
Peter Eton: Producer for third, fourth, fifth and sixth series
Max Geldray: Harmonica player extraordinaire
Jimmy Grafton: King of Goons and Voice of Sanity. Script editor and occasional writer on early shows
Wallace Greenslade: BBC announcer and Phantom Head Shaver
Dennis Main Wilson: Producer for first two series
Angela Morley: Musical arranger and orchestra conductor, later an Oscar nominee
John Snagge: BBC announcer and Goon champion within the Beeb
Graham Stark: Actor and comedian, occasional Goon stand-in
Larry Stephens: Co-writer of more than 120 scripts
Eric Sykes: Legendary writer and actor, co-writer of 26 shows
Andrew Timothy: BBC announcer, escaped early in series four to preserve sanity
Maurice Wiltshire: Co-writer of scripts and editor for Telegoons