On this date in 1952 The Goon Show was first broadcast on BBC Radio. 10 facts about the Goons:
The previous year, a show called Crazy People aired on 28 May, featuring the performers who would become known as the Goons: Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. Their billing in the Radio Times was "Radio's own Crazy Gang 'The Goons'". When the next series began on 22 January 1952 the show’s name had changed to The Goons. The BBC didn’t like the name The Goons and wanted to call the show “The Junior Crazy Gang”, so the first series title was a compromise.
None of the first series of Goon shows had titles. Episodes were only titled from November 1952 beginning with “Fred of the Islands”. That said, one Crazy Gang episode, a Christmas special, was titled “Cinderella”.
The Goons were responsible for the phrase “The dreaded Lurgi” usually meaning a nasty cold or unspecified minor illness. The symptoms of Lurgi included the uncontrollable urge to cry "Eeeeyack-a-boo". Other recurring jokes were the blowing of raspberries and the use of the word “rhubarb” to simulate conversation.
Milligan and Secombe first met during the second world war, when both served in the Royal Artillery. Their first meeting itself sounds like a sketch from a comedy show. Gunner Milligan's artillery unit accidentally allowed a large howitzer to roll off a cliff, narrowly missing a small wireless truck below, in which was sitting Lance Bombardier Secombe. He would later describe the event thus: "Suddenly there was a terrible noise as some monstrous object fell from the sky quite close to us. There was considerable confusion, and in the middle of it all the flap of the truck was pushed open and a young, helmeted idiot asked 'Anybody seen a gun?' It was Milligan." Secombe's answer was "What colour was it?" Milligan met Peter Sellers at the Hackney Empire, when Secombe was performing, and the three became close friends.
They formed their comedy group in 1948 at The Grafton Arms Pub & Rooms in Victoria, London. The publican, Jimmy Grafton, was an experienced comedy scriptwriter, who became their mentor, and Michael Bentine was also a regular there. Bentine, however, left after the second series, saying he wanted to pursue other projects, but it was also the case that he and Milligan weren’t getting along.
The shows had the format of comedy sketches separated by musical interludes. The Goons made several hit records including I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas (which a town in Australia wanted to tribute by holding a parade of people walking backwards through the town in 2003. Thanks to elf and safety, they weren’t allowed to do that so had to compromise by wearing their clothes back to front and walking forwards) and Bloodnok's Rock and Roll Call, although audiences liked the B side, Ying Tong Song, better and it was re-released as an A side in the 1970s and was a hit again. The last time the three Goons worked together was on a recording of two songs called The Raspberry Song and Rhymes.
Recurring characters on the show included Neddie Seagoon, Eccles, Bluebottle, Henry Crun. Minnie Bannister, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, Count Jim Moriarty and Major Dennis Bloodnok. The latter is referred to in Shrek, when Shrek points out a constellation to Donkey and calls it 'Bloodnok the Flatulent'.
Famous fans of the show include the Monty Python team; John Lennon, who wrote “"I was 12 when The Goon Show first hit me, 16 when they finished with me. Their humour was the only proof that the world was insane.” Yoko Ono gave him 40 hours of Goon Show tapes on his 37th birthday; Elton John, who spent £14,000 at an auction of original Goon Show scripts in 1981; and the British Royal Family, including King Charles III, who was disappointed not to be able to attend the recording of The Last Goon Show of All in 1972 because he was on military duty with the Royal Navy at the time. Prince Philip and Princess Anne were in attendance, though. As Prince of Wales, Charles became a patron of The Goon Show Preservation Society in 1998 but it’s not clear yet whether as King, he will continue in that role. When students at the University of Cambridge challenged Prince Philip to a tiddlywinks match in 1958, he appointed The Goons as his royal champions to play the game on his behalf.
Alcohol was forbidden during rehearsals and recording of any BBC show, so the Goons mixed brandy with milk to hide the fact they were enjoying a tipple. The catchphrase "Round the back for the old brandy!" was used to announce the exit of a character or a musical interlude.
Most recordings of the early Goon Shows no longer exist because the BBC didn’t keep archives of everything it broadcast at that time.
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