The Goon Show

• Man of 1000 voices Peter Sellers
• Manic-depressive comedy genius Spike Milligan
• Rotund Welsh straightman Harry Secombe
• Portugese weirdo Michael Bentine (for the first few seasons)

The show was very surreal with extreme off the wall comedy where anything was possible:

• sailing away in Dartmoor Prison (leaving a cardboard replica behind)
• cutting the knot off a rope to stop it being untied
• searching for pieces of the lost International Christmas Pudding

Spike Milligan was very particular about the sound effects for the show and pushed very hard for much more interesting items than just doors and footsteps. There was particular fun trying to get the sound of things like someone being hit with a sock full of custard.

Writing most of the scripts was very wearing for Milligan and he went through depression and at least one nervous breakdown during the lifetime of the show. He is quoted as saying "I gave my sanity to that show."

As well as the radio series they also released several records of comedy songs including the "Ying Tong Song", and "I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas (across the Irish Sea)".

Prince Charles is an avid fan of the series and there are picture of him as Bluebottle etc. In fact apparently when one of his brothers first heard the "Ying Tong Song" he thought it was Charles as he'd heard him sing it so much.

The cast got back together in 1972 to make "The Last Goon Show of All". This was transmitted on TV as well as radio. All the old characters were back. It was attended by Prince Philip and Princess Anne, but Prince Charles was on naval duty and sent an hilarious letter ("My knees dropped off with envy at the thought of my father and sister attending the show.").

Due to live nature of the program and chaos of the BBC Archives there are only some 150 episodes still extant (others still occasionally turn up from far and wide). The BBC has released about 60 episodes on tape and CD.

That leaves only one thing to say:

"Ying Tong Iddle I Po."

If done to annoy people, as in the latter example above, it works best with co-conspirators... my flatmate is shaping up to be quite a satisfactory sidekick in this regard.

And now I, as Dhericean, have only one thing to say...

"Nick knack, paddywack, give a dog a bone..."
"What are you doing, Min? Dog's had four bones already... three of them are mine."

Over the next quarter of a century they literally rewrote the rules and redefined the meaning of comedy. They were probably the first comics with a mainstream audience who did more than stand up and tell a series of jokes: The Goons used sketch formats and surreal humour to brilliant effect.

Despite the fact that they were recording nearly 50 years ago, much of their comedy is still amazingly funny, a testament to the power of the writing. Peter Sellers (who was once romantically linked to Sophia Loren) is sadly no longer with us, and Secombe is now a born-again Christian presenting religious programmes on TV, but Spike Milligan -- one of Britain's finest ever comics -- is still alive and well and still being subversively comic: upon receiving a "lifetime achievement award" at the BAFTAs a few years ago and being told there was a telegram of congratulations from Prince Charles he memorably said (on national TV) "That obsequious bastard? I wish he'd stop writing to me all the time".