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Alcohol was forbidden during rehearsals
and recording of any BBC show including The Goon Show, so the cast
mixed brandy with milk to conceal it.
In later episodes
the
catchphrase "Round the back for the old brandy!" was
used to announce the exit of a character or a musical interlude.
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In October 2003, residents in the Australian
town of Woy Woy planned
to commemorate the Goon song, I'm Walking
Backwards
for
Christmas,
by walking backwards in a parade through the town. Plans had to
be changed due to fears that the council would face lawsuits if anyone
injured themselves
by walking backwards. The 300 walkers in the parade
had to wear their clothes backwards whilst actually walking forwards.
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Goon Shows are still broadcast on
the digital radio station BBC
7. The ABC Radio
National network in Australia has
broadcast the Goon Show since the 1960s. The network attempted
to 'retire' the series in 2004, but after a huge listener response,
broadcasts of the show resumed later the same year. The ABC's broadcasts
have made the Goon Show one of the most repeated and longest-running
of radio programs of all time.
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Students at the University of Cambridge challenged
Prince Philip to a tiddlywinks match in 1958. The Duke of Edinburgh
appointed The
Goons as his royal champions. They played the game on his behalf
and the event even inspired a show entitled 'Tiddlywinks'.
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Peter Sellers talent for performing the Goon characters was so
great, that 4 additonal actors were required to perform the parts
when he
was
unable to attend a recording in January 1959.
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The Goons 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' strike), "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.
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In 1952 the BBC prepared to broadcast a pilot Goons TV show entitled
'Trial Gallop', with
Peter
Sellers
and
Michael
Bentine
(but
not
Milligan, strangely). Due to the death of King George VI
on the day that was to have been its live transmission, the show
was first postponed, then cancelled. The Goons did make it
to TV later with 'Idiots Weekly, Price 2d' and 'A Show Called Fred'.
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In 1972 the Goons reunited to perform 'The Last Goon
Show of All' for radio and television, before an invited audience
that didn't
include long-time fan The Prince of Wales. He was on military duty
with the Royal Navy at the time. The last
time all three Goons worked together was in 1978 when they recorded
two new songs, 'The Raspberry Song' and 'Rhymes'.
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The animated film 'Shrek' makes a reference
to The Goon Show. When Donkey and Shrek are looking up at the stars,
Shrek points
the constellation 'Bloodnok the Flatulent', a reference to the character
Major Bloodnok.
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Spike Milligan had a major nervous breakdown
during the early 1950's. The pressure of writing the shows is given
as a major contributing reason
for the
breakdown and the break-up of his first marriage.
He was eventually diagnosed with manic
depression and battled it for the rest of his life.
He once tried to
kill
Peter Sellers
with
a potato
knife for no real reason other than... "Sellers was being
his usual selfish self and I was, unluckily for him, at the end
of my tether".
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A Goon Show called 'The Man Who Never
Was' was a spoof of the 1956 film of the same name. Peter
Sellers performed the voice of Prime Minister Winston Churchill
in the actual film. He also performed the voice
in some Goon Shows.
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After years of worsening heart problems, Peter Sellers
had organised a reunion dinner with fellow Goons, Spike Milligan
and Harry Secombe
when he had his final heart attack. In his will he had explicitly
requested that Glenn Miller's song "In The Mood" be played
at his funeral. This is considered his last touch of humour because
he deeply hated the tune.
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In 1962 Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, with Peter
Cook and Jonathan Miller released the record 'Bridge On The River
Wye'. It
was a spoof of the film 'Bridge On The River Kwai', being
based around the 1957 Goon Show 'An African Incident'. It
was intended to have the same name as the film, but shortly before
its release,
the
film company threatened legal action if the name was used.
Producer George
Martin (of Beatles fame) edited out the 'K' every time the
word 'Kwai' was spoken. And so, 'The Bridge on the River
Wye' was created.
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Most recordings of the early Goon Shows (Series
1 to 3) no longer exists because the BBC simply did not retain archives
of everything
it broadcast during that period.
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Famous fans of the Goons included Prince Charles,
The Beatles and Elton John. Yoko Ono gave John Lennon some 40 hours
of Goon Show
tapes on his 37th birthday and
Lennon
even reviewed the book 'The
Goon
Show Scripts' for The New York Times in 1973. Elton John
paid £14,000 at an auction of original Goon Show scripts in
1981.
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The cast of Monty Python have made no secret that The Goon Show
and the comedy of Spike Milligan was a large influence on them, but
ironically their famous TV series over-shadowed Milligan's later
anarchic TV comedy such as the "Q" series.
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In 2001 the BBC recorded a 'new' show entitled 'Goon
Again' to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Goon Show. It was
based on two unpreserved series 3 episodes from 1953 - "The
Story of Civilisation" and "The Plymouth Ho Armada". The
cast included Andrew Secombe (son of Harry Secombe) and
Christopher
Timothy
(son of
Andrew
Timothy - the original announcer).
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Catchphrases
from The Goon Show form the longest index entry in the 2002 publication
of 'The Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases'.
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