Anyone still listening, or has recently discovered The Goons Show? Brilliant BBC Radio shows from the 1950s with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and harry Secombe
Still funny, although the PC Police would not like them much.
Geoff
Still funny, although the PC Police would not like them much.
Geoff
Unfortunately, some of the original tapes were destroyed, I had read the scripts in a book.
Some of the tapes were used to record other shows later.
And difference between Sellers and Milligan led to a lot of tension.
I think it would be worth listening to, if the accents and sound effects are to your taste, and you understand the Cockney humor.
An example of Milligan's humor - very political now - was a discussion he and his mates had in the Sahara desert, and the conclusions were...
'Why does Hitler have it in for the front-wheels?
"One of them, a doctor messed up his piles treatment"
"You mean we could have ended this was by dropping a case of Preparation H over Berlin?"
I quote freely, I will have to take the book out of storage and check again, it is the third one I think, of his four books of war memoirs.
Front-wheel skid = Yid = Jewish person, Yiddish is mostly spoken by them. Cockney rhyming slang.
My apologies in advance, moderators, you are free to delete if you find it breaks forum rules.
Some of the tapes were used to record other shows later.
And difference between Sellers and Milligan led to a lot of tension.
I think it would be worth listening to, if the accents and sound effects are to your taste, and you understand the Cockney humor.
An example of Milligan's humor - very political now - was a discussion he and his mates had in the Sahara desert, and the conclusions were...
'Why does Hitler have it in for the front-wheels?
"One of them, a doctor messed up his piles treatment"
"You mean we could have ended this was by dropping a case of Preparation H over Berlin?"
I quote freely, I will have to take the book out of storage and check again, it is the third one I think, of his four books of war memoirs.
Front-wheel skid = Yid = Jewish person, Yiddish is mostly spoken by them. Cockney rhyming slang.
My apologies in advance, moderators, you are free to delete if you find it breaks forum rules.
"She doesn't love me any longer!
If you were longer, she'd love you more"
The very early shows were recorded on 16rpm shellac discs and were lost many years ago. We're lucky the BBC didn't wipe the lot
Geoff
The BBC re-did the shows using puppets, I thought that those were available as videos, I wonder if they were ever transcribed to DVD, if so I'd buy the lot
That was The Telegoons - I remember them, but like most BBC comedy from that era (Frost Report, Pete and Dud, 1948 Show etc) the tapes were either wiped or recorded over. I think there might have been half a dozen or so?
I always thought it was better to leave the characters to the imagination, although when you watch 'The Last Goon Show of All', Sellers in particular becomes the character(s).
Geoff
I always thought it was better to leave the characters to the imagination, although when you watch 'The Last Goon Show of All', Sellers in particular becomes the character(s).
Geoff
They are indeed available as DVDs. I got them from e-bay. To be frank I found them easier to understand than the radio shows. I have at least a dozen shows. They fell out of copyright somehow: they were done by a now defunct third party. So the BBC had no hand in wiping them.
EJP
EJP
I did listen to the recordings, a few were on the net, the sound quality was poor, to say the least, and may have lost fidelity in uploading.
I decided to stay with memories of the book.
I do remember seeing advertisements of the recordings in audio format in the Australian 'People' magazine, which was sold in India in the 1980s, so the material was there for sale, at least in Australia.
You might find a link on the web.
I decided to stay with memories of the book.
I do remember seeing advertisements of the recordings in audio format in the Australian 'People' magazine, which was sold in India in the 1980s, so the material was there for sale, at least in Australia.
You might find a link on the web.
The sound of the official BBC recordings is OK, considering they were mono radio broadcasts and taken from transcription discs or early tape. There are many copies of copies, or MP3s taken from the AM radio sources, so the quality varies. However, as long as they're listenable I don't care.
Some of the minor characters had 'interesting' names which usually got past the rather zealous BBC censors: The Black Rod (aka Ray Ellington); Novark and Goode (!)' and Duchess Boil de Spudswell, who sounded rather like the Queen.
The earliest shows are now 70 years old.
Geoff
Some of the minor characters had 'interesting' names which usually got past the rather zealous BBC censors: The Black Rod (aka Ray Ellington); Novark and Goode (!)' and Duchess Boil de Spudswell, who sounded rather like the Queen.
The earliest shows are now 70 years old.
Geoff
Our Cleveland OH classical station, WCLV had a "Saturday Night" comedy program from 10:00 PM to Midnight -- and they featured "The Goon Show" AND comics of the day. They DID NOT play anything from "Firesign Theater", famous for Porgy Tirebiter.