Goon Pod

Following on from last week’s conversation with Samira Ahmed about A Hard Day’s Night we continue the Richard Lester theme with a look at his 1967 anti-war satire How I Won the War - a film often lazily regarded as a John Lennon vehicle, but in reality a far stranger, darker, and more ensemble-drivenpiece of cinema.

The film stars Michael Crawford as Lieutenant Ernest Goodbody, a hapless officer leading a doomed platoon through a series of absurd and increasingly brutal Second World War missions. Although Lennon features prominently in the film’s marketing, his role as Musketeer Gripweed is supporting rather than central - albeit memorable. We look at why Lennon was used to sell the film, where he was personally and creatively at the time and how his detached, cynical performance fits the film’s tone.

Told largely in flashback, the story follows Lieutenant Goodbody recounting his wartime experiences to a cultured German officer after his capture near the Rhine. Missions include the wholly pointless task of setting up a cricket pitch behind enemy lines in North Africa, followed by campaigns through Europe and the final crossing at the Rhine.

The platoon is made up of a host of familiar faces, including Roy Kinnear, Ronald Lacey and Lee Montague, with Michael Hordern almost stealing the film as Colonel Grapple, still fighting World War One in his head.

Novelist Adam Leslie joins Tyler to talk about HIWTW, discussing the film’s class commentary, British fascism and why the film was poorly received on release despite later reassessments. Adam is also the man behind both the Goon Pod feem choon and logo – cheers Adam!

(This episode was originally published in January 2026 as part of Goon Pod Film Club, the Patreon subscription feed)

Writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed joins Tyler this week to talk about her new book on A Hard Day’s Night and its roots in the world of the Goons, from the Fred shows to The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film.

Also:
Richard Lester’s creative vision and Alun Owen’s pitch-perfect script
Why Beatlemania was distinctly black and white and how the film mirrors this
Wilfrid Brambell – and why the film wouldn't be the same without him.
Ringo and David Janson
Favourite scenes: from the ad agency to John & Millie
Deleted scenes
The women of A Hard Day's Night and why the film avoided stereotypes that would later creep into Help!
Recasting ideas
Ringo’s odd line delivery
The disposable TV culture at the time
Those intriguing unmade Beatles films
And… was Paul Rodney Bewes to John’s Tom Courtenay?
 
A celebration of a film that's every bit as fresh, funny and ground-breaking today as it was in 1964.

Samira’s podcast Through the Square Window can be found HERE: https://squarewindow.co.uk/

Join us as we march off to war wearing squeaky socks and woolly underpants, before surrendering to the twisted logic of Spike Milligan (“better looking than Peter Sellers”).

This show, one of the highlights of the Goon Show’s eighth series and released on BBC LP in 1981, has a plot of sorts: 1917 and England is at war, France is at war, while Eccles is at lunch. Grytpype and Moriarty sell German army shares to Neddie. They claim that the Germans are bound to win any war they enter. Seagoon discovers to his horror that the Germans are losing, but Major Bloodnok sells Seagoon 10,000 unused 1904 calendars. The plan is to drop the calendars on England by zeppelin, making the English think the war hasn’t even started, therefore giving the Germans an advantage. However, the British drop 1918 calendars on Berlin, and the Germans capitulate.

There’s a lot more to it than that and joining Tyler to ‘rifle’through it is Graeme Lindsay-Foot, man of a thousand voices and motorcar enthusiast. That said, he can’t hold a torch to the late Peter Sellers, whose obsession with the horseless carriage they also examine this week, as well as singing the praises of the sound effects chaps, querying quite why Secombe got given six characters to voice and asking whether this could possibly be one of Spike’s greatest performances of his career.

"He's only got to lift his leg and he'll drown 50 kids!"

This week: Digby, The Biggest Dog in the World, a 1973 British family comedy in which an Old English Sheepdog accidentally drinks an experimental growth formula and raises the woof!

Leading the cast is Jim Dale as Jeff Eldon, an animal psychologist at a NATO research facility; when Spike Milligan (playing a shameless German stereotype) moves in next door he is all for having him impounded as he mistakenly believes Jeff thinks he is a dog.

It's part Disney family adventure, part monster movie parody and utterly British.

Did we forget to mention that other cast members include Angela Douglas, Norman Rossington, John Bluthal and Victor Spinetti? There’s also a cucumber the size of a bus, a mischievous chimp and a wonderful scene set in a roadside café.

Plus we ask: did Dulux pay for the outrageous product-placement?  Do the special effects hold up? And why wasn’t Jim Dale a bigger star in Britain?

Joining Tyler is Graham Rinaldi, film writer and academic and huge Bowie fan, and please feel free to join in the Bowie drinking game as we discuss this fine film.

"Round the back for the old cherry brandy!"

Recorded in New York on 6 August 1963, this satirical comedy album brought together Peter Sellers, Anthony Newley, Joan Collins, Leslie Bricusse, Daniel Massey and Michael Lipton at the height of the Profumo Affair.

The midnight session accommodated Newley and Massey, whose Broadway shows had only just finished. The idea had been conceived less than two weeks earlier while Newley and Bricusse were holidaying in Montauk and they were keen to capitalise on Britain's appetite for political satire.

The recording became a celebrity gathering, attracting around 100 guests including Vivien Leigh, Sammy Davis Jr., Roddy McDowall and Peter Lawford. By 2am, according to one witness, Sellers and Newley were sharing Scotch from a thermos while cigarette smoke filled the studio. The entire session was completed in just three hours.

They rushed to release the album before public interest in the Profumo scandal faded but some record labels - notably Decca - were sniffy about its content, with mockery of the Royal Family a particular point of contention. Sellers responded: "Only a prude could possibly be offended by it."

The BBC banned it from radio play, although excerpts had appeared on television. Contemporary reviews ranged from praise to outrage, reflecting the record's deliberately provocative humour. The album remains a fascinating snapshot of Britain's early-1960s satire boom, when comedians and performers increasingly challenged the deference traditionally shown to politicians, celebrities and public institutions.

Joining Tyler to talk through the LP is Brett Tremble, who can be found on Bluesky @agnes-guano.bsky.social