The Goon Show
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Image:Lastgoon.jpg The Goon Show was a popular and influential British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service.
The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreality, puns, catchphrases and an array of silly and surreal sound effects. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades afterward.
Many elements of the show satirised contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of showbusiness, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature, film and much more.
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Background
The show was enormously popular in Britain in its heyday; tickets for the recording sessions at the BBC's Aeolian Hall studio in London were constantly over-subscribed and the various character voices and catchphrases from the show quickly became part of the vernacular. The series has remained consistently popular ever since – it is still being broadcast once a week by the ABC in Australia, as well as on BBC 7 – and it has exerted a singular influence over succeeding generations of comedians and writers, most notably the creators of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the Beatles' movies.
The series was devised and written by Spike Milligan with the occasional collaboration of other writers including (singly) Eric Sykes, Larry Stephens, Maurice Wiltshire and John Antrobus, under the watchful eye of Jimmy Grafton (KOGVOS - Keeper of the Goons and Voice of Sanity). Many senior BBC staff were bemused by the show's surreal, left-field humour and it has been reported that senior programme executives erroneously referred to it as "The Go On Show" or even "The Coon Show".
Format
The principal parts were performed by Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, with Sellers and Milligan performing literally dozens of different characters. The first two seasons also featured Michael Bentine. The show also featured musical interludes by singer Ray Ellington and his quartet and virtuoso jazz harmonica player Max Geldray. A singing group called The Stargazers also performed, but left 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.
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. This idea appeared frequently in similar guises: pictures of money were accepted as currency, the word 'dinner' written on a piece of paper and eaten served as a full meal, and so on.
Another episode, Lurgi Strikes Britain, introduced the fictional malady of lurgi, an invented word (sometimes also spelled "lurgey") 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. At the end of the Commons sequence, Sellers, as Winston Churchill, is heard to say to a fellow member of the Government front bench, "Give me an A, will you?".
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". A story recounted in Harry Secombe's biography relates that a bemused canteen cook made up a pot of custard at his request, only to see him pour it into his socks, and run off whimpering into the kitchen. Milligan then went to an already prepared tape recorder, slapping both socks against a table...but not getting the correct effect. He was then heard to cry "S**t!" and storm off, because, as Secombe recounts, "if truth be known, that was really what he wanted the sock to contain.".
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.
The 'sound pictures' created by the Goons were equally groundbreaking; in one 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.
The scripts did not so much break the fourth wall as demolish it. In one episode, The White Neddie Trade, 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 "over-acting is becoming increasingly apparent to us all." In a later episode, Moriarty comments on the state of the story itself: "At last! [We've found] 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. In another episode, The Nasty Affair At The Burami Oasis, Sellers was playing Bloodnok and changed his voice to do one line by another character. Once back as Bloodnok, the character demanded, "Sellers! How dare you change your voice from mine to his for one joke only!" A third example comes from the episode The Histories of Pliny the Elder:
- Brutus Moriartus (Moriarty): Why don't you stop him, Julius Caesar?
- Sellers: How can I when I'm playing the part of Bloodnok?Template:Ref
The strain of writing and performing took a heavy toll on Milligan, who was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He suffered a 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.
Sellers could be similarly surreal. Once, around midnight, he turned up on Milligan's doorstep totally naked. "Can you recommend a good tailor?" he asked. On another occasion Sellers had bought a new car and asked Milligan for his help in locating an annoying squeak coming from the rear of the vehicle. Armed with a torch and a piece of chalk (for marking the location of the squeak) Milligan got into the boot and Sellers drove the car a few yards down the road. He was stopped by a policeman who, upon discovering Milligan in the boot merely nodded and said "Yes, I should have known it would be you!" and went on his way without further comment.
Regular cast members
Other members
- Andrew Timothy – the show's original announcer, who left the show after the first few episodes of season 4, claiming that he feared for his sanity. He did however make a brief pre-recorded appearance in The Scarlet Capsule, and returned in 1972 for The Last Goon Show of All
- Wallace Greenslade – announcer, he opened and closed each show (often parodying the traditional BBC announcing style), and occasionally played himself in an episode, most notably The Greenslade Story, as well as other small parts (e.g., he was The Phantom Head-Shaver of Brighton).
- Ray Ellington (not related to the Duke) and his Quartet – singer and drummer. The popular Ellington Quartet acted as rhythm section for the show's orchestra. Ellington, whose father was African-American, also occasionally played small roles, mostly as African or Arab characters such as Sheik Rattle'n'roll, The Wad-of-Char, and The Red Bladder, and various Scottish and Irish characters. (Although his thick African American accent was nothing like Scots, several jokes were made about him being in the Black Watch.
- Max Geldray – Dutch jazz harmonica player (but no actor). Occasionally the butt of Jewish jokes, and more frequently, references to his nose - not for nothing known as 'Conks'
- Wally Stott and his Orchestra - the house band. Stott was a well-known British band leader and arranger whose other credits included numerous recordings for film and singing star Diana Dors. He also composed the music for Hancock's Half Hour.
- George Chisholm – one of the show's regular musicians, sometimes called upon to play Scottish characters.
Guest appearances
- John Snagge – doyen of BBC newsreaders who, like Greenslade, also played himself (usually in pre-recorded inserts), and was a great supporter of the show. Snagge had a prominent part in The Greenslade Story, when he was present in the studio instead of being pre-recorded, and read his part in his best 'Here-is-the-News' voice.
- Valentine Dyall – radio's "Man in Black", often called upon to play sinister characters. Appeared as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, the Christmas special Goon Show made for the General Overseas Service in 1956. Appeared in The Canal, as an amateur brainsurgeon attempting to murder his children (Neddie, Eccles, and Bluebottle) for the insurance money; appeared as Baron Seagoon in Drums Along the Mersey, with an elaborate scheme to smuggle a million pounds out of England; appeared as Dr Longdongle in The House of Teeth, a mad medic driven to knocking out men's false teeth and painting them black to fulfill a promise of fifty pairs of castanets to his Spanish flamenco dancer girlfriend Gladys la Tigernutta; appeared as the creepy caretaker of Tintagel Manor in The Spectre of Tintagel.
- Charlotte Mitchell – stepped into the breach on the rare occasions (Tales Of Montmartre, Ye Bandit Of Sherwood Forest) when the script called for an authentic female.
- Cecile Chevreau, another authentic female; made a cameo appearance in African Incident, being found in a compromising position up a tree with Major Bloodnok.
- Jack Train – made two appearances (in Shifting Sands and Who Is Pink Oboe?) reprising his role as Colonel Chinstrap from ITMA. Chinstrap fitted into the Goon Show framework surprisingly well, demonstrating the debt the Goons owed to ITMA.
- Dick Emery – stood in for Secombe as "Emery-type Seagoon" in Spon, and replaced Milligan in a few others, alternating with Graham Stark. Emery also appeared in the closest thing to a Goon Show film, The Case of the Mukkinese Battlehorn (which also featured Sellers and Milligan but not Secombe). He went on to provide voices for the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, and was popular in his own television sketch show in the 1970s.
- Kenneth Connor – stood in for Secombe in The £50 Cure as well as appearing as Willium Mate in Who is Pink Oboe? in place of Peter Sellers, who was ill.
- A. E. Matthews – appeared as himself in The Evils of Bushey Spon
- Dennis Price – appeared as Prince John in the Goons Christmas special broadcast of Robin Hood.
- Bernard Miles – appeared as approximately himself, complete with his best bucolic accent, in The Rent Collectors
Archiving
Many of the earliest radio episodes no longer exist. Only two episodes from series 2 (1951-2) survive, and no episodes from either seasons one or three survive. Only selected episodes from series 4 were selected for preservation in the BBC Sound Archive, and some exist only as off-air copies made by fans at the time of the original broadcast. However, commencing with the start of series 5 (1954), BBC Transcription Services began making copies for overseas sales, and even commissioned re-recordings of some key series 4 episodes for the "Vintage Goons" series, which was mainly intended for overseas markets.
Rather than making copies from the broadcast tapes, Transcription services made their own recordings simultaneous with the broadcast recordings in order to obtain the best possible sound quality. The TS copies were then edited to match the producer's cut of the broadcast tapes.
The Transcription Services versions were then cut to remove topical and parochial material and anything that might be potentially offensive (and the Goon Show did feature quite a lot of politically incorrect humour, much of it sneaked under the noses of BBC censors). Later TS releases had further cuts for timing purposes. For many years these abridged versions were the only surviving copies of many episodes, but in recent years the BBC has done a huge amount of research to find and restore the missing footage, often literally from the cutting room floor.
To date, the BBC has released 23 CD sets of these remastered episodes, containing 92 shows, plus The Last Goon Show of All and Goon Again. Another 12 shows had been previously issued by EMI, but for contractual reasons these were all heavily cut to remove musical interludes and other music cues, and to this day they are the only commercially available versions of those particular episodes.
Episodes of the Goon Show are still regularly broadcast in New Zealand and are still occasionally repeated on BBC Radio 2 or Radio 4 in the UK. More recently the show has become a regular feature on the digital radio station BBC 7, which features both new material (much of it recognisably in a Goonish tradition) and archives from several decades of BBC comedy and drama.
The ABC Radio National network in Australia has regularly broadcast the Goon Show since the 1960s. For many years, the series was broadcast every Saturday afternoon, just after the midday news bulletin. More recently, it was broadcast twice a week, on Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons. The network attempted to retire the series in January 2004, feeling that it might have at last worn out its welcome; but a huge listener response proved them wrong, and broadcasts of the show resumed in the Friday timeslot in June of the same year. The ABC's broadcasts of the series have made the Goon Show one of the most repeated and longest-running of all radio programs.
The sound of the Goons
Alongside the musical intermissions provided by the Ray Ellington Quartet and Max Geldray, the Goon Show was famous for its unique library of sound effects. Originally for the first two series the only effect was of a rusty, sinister chain; Milligan became so frustrated that he demanded sound effects from the BBC board of directors. Later, Eccles and Bluebottle would perform an out-of-tune, speeded-up, comedy version of Unchained Melody, featuring the same chain at the beginning and end as a homage. Another musical (?) item was a multi-tracked choir of Eccleses singing 'Good King Wenceslas' (The String Robberies)
The show's scripts often provided the BBC's sound effects department with such challenges as generating the audible equivalent of a piece of string, the sound of a wall/piano/Christmas pudding being driven at high speed, the noise made by an idiot attempting to open a door in the wrong direction, various explosions, splashes, splatters, clatters, bangs, etc. Apparently, the BBC sound library, whose previous work had involved producing nothing more stimulating than "footsteps on a gravel path" or "a knock on the door" greatly appreciated the variety of challenges posed by the show's often surreal requirements. On one occasion, Milligan is reported to have filled a sock with custard from the BBC canteen in order to find a particular squelching noise.
Trivia
Brandyyy!!!!
Alcohol was of course strictly forbidden during rehearsals and recording, so the cast fortified themselves with milk. The milk in turn was fortified with brandy. In later episodes the catchphrase "'round the back for the old brandy!" or "the old Marlon Brando" was used to announce the exit of one or more characters, or a break for music; Ray Ellington, on one occasion, before his musical item began, mused 'I wonder where he keeps that stuff!'. In another, he sympathised with the listeners, "Man, The excuses he makes to get to that brandy!", causing Spike Milligan to wail "MATE!" in protest.
Watch out Moriarity!
Peter Sellers, as Grytpype-Thynne, usually pronounced the name of his henchman "Morry-arty" (IPA: Template:IPA). However, if he (Sellers) was not in a good mood, or Milligan (as Moriarty) was overdoing his part, Grytpype-Thynne would start pronouncing the name as "Mor-EYE-atty" (Template:IPA. This gave Milligan a cue to simmer down.
Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!
During radio programmes of the 1920s and 1930s, the background noise for crowd scenes was often achieved by a moderately large group of people mumbling "rhubarb" under their breath with random inflections. This was often parodied by Spike Milligan, who would try to get the same effect with only three or four people. After some time, Harry Secombe began throwing in "custard" during these scenes (For example in The Fear of Wages and Wings Over Dagenham). About 10 years after the Goon Show ceased production, Secombe, Eric Sykes and a host of other well-known comic actors made the short film Rhubarb in which the entire script consisted of what Milligan called "rhubarbs".
You rotten swine you!
Bluebottle says this when something bad happens to him like being "deaded". Other Bluebottle catchphrases include: "I heard you call me, My Capitaine! " when entering, Variations of "Signals for Audience Applause...not a sausage", Variations of "Ooh! Licorice! I must be careful of how many of them I eat!", and, demonstrating his Freudian castration anxiety: "Harm can come to a growing lad like that!"
You silly twisted boy!
In the 5th series, Grytpype-Thynne says this to Neddie Seagoon in regard to his silly behaviour. In The White Box of Great Bardfield, a running gag during the show is Seagoon's attempts to win a reward of ten shillings after being chained up by Ellington in the first scene; he has complete confidence in his ability to escape: after all, he is the son of Houdini!! Grytpype says the phrase after witnessing Neddie's long and agonising contortions. Ray Ellington himself gets to say this quote in the Sennapod Tea episode, and Grytpype also lets Greenslade say it (with permission) in The Six Ingots of Leadenhall Street. It is also heard in China Story, following Ned Seagoon's admission that he is the British ambassador.
"The Little Grovelling..."
There are rumours that Prince Charles (referred to by Spike Milligan in the years after the goons as 'The Little Grovelling B******d'), and his wife Camilla Parker Bowles, being both avid fans of the Goons, nickname each other 'Fred' and 'Gladys'. In regular episodes,'Fred' was a term, like 'Charlie', for anyone who was an idiot; and 'Gladys' a sexless mystery person often played by either Peter Sellers or Ray Ellington, who often answered anything with 'yes, darling?'
Running Jokes
- Sometimes one-liners are responded to with the music hall catchphrase: "I don't wish to know that!"
- When someone tells Eccles to shut up, Eccles himself joins in, usually being the last to finish.
- Bluebottle reads his stage directions. ("Enters room wearing doublet made from mum's old drawers" or "Enter Bluebottle, waits for audience applause, not a sausage").
- Bloodnok was usually introduced by his theme music. This was followed by explosions or liquid noises, with Bloodnok yelling in pain. Later in the series, the music would be followed by silence, to Bloodnok's obvious relief: "I'm cured!"
- People would travel very long distances in very short spaces of time with a great "whooshing" sound.
- Neddy Seagoon is often referred to as very fat and very short. ("Neddie? Ah yes, who else could stand under a piano stool...")
- Wallace Greenslade, the announcer, was portrayed as an idol and heartthrob with his own fan-club, The Greensladers.
- Bluebottle and/or Eccles were usually employed in some capacity at which they are completely useless.
- The fact that Ray Ellington was black was commonly joked about. When Seagoon narrates in Under Two Floorboards, "At the mention of the police, we all turned white", Ellington responds, "Get me a mirror!" Also, in Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest, Bluebottle says, 'If I had my arms free I'd give you a black eye.' Ellington replies: 'What's the matter son? You colour blind?'
- OBE's were often joked about as though they were very easy to obtain (and perhaps even undesirable).
- Grytpype Thynne, instead of offering cigarettes to smoke, gave strange items such as gorillas, brass instruments and pictures of Queen Victoria.
- Little Jim's only line in most episodes is simply to say "He's fallen in the wah-taa!" It is often commented by various characters, usually Grytpype Thynne, that they do not know what they would do without him.
- Bluebottle would say, "I don't like this game!", especially when he was about to be, or had just been "deaded".
- Miss Minnie Banister used many opportunities to say "We'll all be murdered in our beds!" or something along similar lines; after being swallowed by a tiger: "We'll all be murdered in our tigers!", or in Shangri-La Again: "We'll all be murdered in our monasteries!" In The Call Of The West, Minnie and Henry are being attacked by the Nackataka Indians. Minnie asks Henry, "Are they the ones that commit atrocities?" When Henry answers in the affirmative, Minnie replies, "I'll go upstairs and get ready."
Time Wasting
Many episodes seemed to contain a great deal of time wasting. Some examples are below.
- in The Tuscan Salami Scandal, Henry claimed to have an idea, forgot it, remembered it, told Minnie, forgot it again, was told by Minnie and then declared, "What a good idea." Minnie then went on to ask what was a good idea. This whole scene actually went on for a good five minutes.
- In The Affair of the Lone Banana, before sending Neddie to South America, for a good five minutes, Henry Crun appeared to be taking down Neddie's details, asking him to spell everything, usually more than once, and even falling asleep before finally saying, "It's no good, I'll have to get a pencil and some paper and write all this down."
- in The Whistling Spy Enigma, Eccles and Neddie ask each other about the health of their old dads for a considerable length of time.
- in Tales of Old Dartmoor, in response to Grytpype's "strange request", Neddie walks down miles of corridors and unlocks doors as he goes searching for something for about a minute, before suddenly saying, "What was it you asked for?". Grytpype replies "Don't worry, I'll smoke my own."
- In The Mummified Priest, Crun makes a rather lame joke, and bursts into hysterical laughter with Eccles, only for them both to begin 'ha' -ing to a tune, singing 'Ah ha ha ha ha ha ho,' etc. Greenslade then appears: "Listeners will note the cunning way in which the Goons fill in time on their programme!"
- In The Great International Christmas Pudding, when the signature end tune is played, Greenslade stops it and introduces Webster Smogpule to sing the first verses of Live a little Songbird Divine so as to fill in the last few seconds.
- In The White Neddie Trade, Henry and Minnie tell each other they must not waste any time, and then break into a spontaneous song about not wasting time. Milligan ends the song by saying (almost off-microphone), "We must fill out the time like the producer asks!" This case may differ from the others in that it was ad-libbed due to time reasons.
Later revivals
The future members of Monty Python were fans, and they have on many occasions expressed their collective debt to Milligan and The Goons, but ironically their famous TV series over-shadowed Milligan's later anarchic TV efforts (such as the "Q" series) – even though the Python team have credited Milligan and especially Q as being the source of two key Python features – sketches didn't have to be "about" real subjects and they didn't have to follow conventional structures, particularly in respect to ending sketches without the traditional punchline.
However although Python now seems to be the more quoted, it is fair to say that virtually all British alternative comedy in its modern form is based on the model created for The Goon Show by Milligan. The Goons also had a considerable influence on the humour of The Beatles, and especially the writing of John Lennon. Interestingly, The Goons and The Beatles both worked considerably with record producer George Martin.
The Telegoons (1963–1964) was a 15-minute BBC puppet show featuring the voices of Milligan, Secombe and Sellers and adapted from the radio scripts. 26 episodes were made. The series was briefly repeated immediately after its original run and all episodes are known to survive (having been unofficially released on the Internet).
In 1964, Milligan, Secombe and Sellers lent their voices to a comedy LP, How to Win an Election (or Not Lose by Much), which was written by Leslie Bricusse. It was not exactly a Goons reunion because Sellers was in Hollywood and had to record his lines separately. The album was reissued on CD in 1997.
They made a number of records including "I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas" (originally sung by Milligan in the show to fill in during a musicians' Christmas Break), "Bloodnok's Rock and Roll Call" (the first British record with the word "rock" in its title) and its B-side "The Ying Tong Song", which was reissued as an A-side in the mid-1970s and became a surprise novelty hit.
In the movies the following were a product of Goon activity:
- Let's Go Crazy (Film) (1951)
- Penny Points to Paradise (1951)
- Down Among the Z Men (1952) (with Bentine)
- The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956) (a two-reeler starring Milligan, Sellers and Dick Emery)
- The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1959) (a surreal one-reeler short subject starring Milligan and Sellers and directed by Dick Lester)
In 1972, the Goons reunited to perform The Last Goon Show of All for radio and television, before an invited audience that didn't, however, include long-time fan HRH The Prince of Wales (who was out of the country on duty with the Royal Navy at the time). The show was broadcast on BBC television and radio, and eventually released in stereo on a CD.
The last time all three Goons worked together was in 1978 when they recorded two new songs, "The Raspberry Song" and "Rhymes". Sellers died in 1980, Secombe in 2001, much to Milligan's relief, as he didn't want Secombe to sing at his, Milligan's, funeral; and Milligan himself in 2002 (Bentine had died in 1996.)
In 2001 the BBC recorded a "new" The Goon Show, Goon Again, featuring Andrew Secombe (son of Harry), Jon Glover and Jeffrey Holland, with Christopher Timothy (son of Andrew Timothy) announcing, based on two unpreserved series 3 episodes from 1953, "The Story of Civilisation" and "The Plymouth Ho Armada", both written by Milligan and Stephens.
A recreation of a Goon Show broadcast before a studio audience is seen early in the HBO Original Movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), with Geoffrey Rush as Sellers, Edward Tudor-Pole as Spike Milligan and Steve Pemberton as Harry Secombe. A very brief moment from that recreation is seen in the trailer for that film.
Episodes
See: List of Goon Show episodes
The sincerest form of flattery
Although the names, catch-phrases and slang of the Goon Show came to permeate British culture, the same could not be said of the USA, so when an issue of a Marvel comic book, The Defenders issue 148[1], used the character names Minerva Bannister, Harry Crun (i.e. Henry), and Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, it went completely unnoticed by American readers. The reactions of British readers, if any, were not recorded.
The characters were as follows :
- Minerva Bannister - Villainous heiress.
- Harry Crun - Private Detective, employed by Ms. Bannister, and in love with her.
- Hercules Grytpype-Thynne - Cop on their trail.
In the movie Shrek, Shrek refers to a constellation as "Bloodnok, the Flatulent."
The rock band Ned's Atomic Dustbin took their name from a Goon Show episode.
See Also
- Radio Comedy
- The Navy Lark - a BBC Radio Comedy that followed the Goon Show, running 15 series from 1959 to 1977
- Monty Python
References
Template:Note {{cite web
| author=Adkins, Kurt | year=2006 | url=http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/ajwills/raw/series07/s07e25a.html | title=The Histories of Pliny the Elder | publisher=homepages.paradise.net.nz | accessdate=2006-03-05
}}
External links
- The Goon Show Site – Contains downloads, pictures, collectables, cast, characters and much more
- Goon Show Preservation Society – UK
- Goon Show Preservation Society – USA
- The Goon Show Archive
- The Goon Show YAQ: Google Usenet archive
- The Goon Show – Some of the scripts: +50 scripts available for download
- the alt.fan.goons newsgroup exists to discuss the Goon show and Goon-related things
- BBC On-line Shop
- The Goon Show Companion: A History and Goonography by Roger Wilmut and Jimmy Grafton (1976) remains the definitive book on the series, but has never been updated.
- The Goonlog – a Goonish weblog by Wayne Stewart. Contains polls, guess this sound clip competitions and find links to shows.
- The Spike Milligan Tribute Site
- The Spike Milligan Appreciation Society
- The Goon Show on BBC7
- The Goon Show – A Quick Guide – An introduction to Spike Milligan's revolutionary radio show, with audio clips.id:The Goon Show