The Goons on Film and Television
The success of The Goons on radio inevitably lead to work in television and films, and attempts to move The Goon Show on to the screen.
The obvious problem was that Goon humour is so surreal, often being based around ludicrous situations, that it couldn't be transferred directly onto screen. The Goons were well aware of this, with some shows including the quote - "I'd like to see them do that on television!".
However, Goon humour is more than just pretending to do the impossible. Screen based humour may be more limited in many ways, but the same distorted view of reality, bizarre characters and crazy ideas sometimes provided equally hilarious results.
The Goon on Television
The Goons appeared in a number of television shows that covered new ground in TV comedy.
Notable shows included 'The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d', 'A Show Called Fred' and 'Son of Fred'.
The Goons in Film
The Goons appeared in a number of movies together, but not all contained typical goon humour. Some features such as 'The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn' and 'The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film' succeeded in bringing Goon ideas to the big screen.
Although each Goon made regular on-screen appearances throughout their individual careers, this section concentrates only on the "goonish" productions they worked on together.
The Oscar nomiated short film is included as a speacial feature on this documentary DVD entitled ‘The Peter Sellers Story…As He Filmed It’.
The only film to feature all four orignal Goons released in 1952.
Two rare films with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan are now on DVD. "Let's Go Crazy" and "Penny Points to Paradise".