Goon Pod

"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

This week we look at Invasion Quartet (1961), one of the most significant, if forgotten, films in Spike Milligan's career. Set in a military convalescent hospital on the English south coast during 1942, the story follows three disabled service officers and an ageing military veteran who decide to launch their own private invasion of occupied France to destroy a German super-gun known as "Big Hermann", whose shelling is disrupting both the war effort and their cricket matches. The result is a whimsical wartime adventure that one hack at the time described as "a skit on The Guns of Navarone."

The film was made shortly after Spike signed a contract with MGM's British subsidiary, soon after the Oscar nomination of The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film. Invasion Quartet was part of MGM British's first production slate under Lawrence P. Bachmann, alongside future hits such as Village of the Damned and Murder She Said. While those films became major successes and spawned sequels, Invasion Quartet was one of the few productions that failed to make much impact at the box office.

The cast included Bill Travers, John Le Mesurier, Grégoire Aslan, Millicent Martin and Maurice Denham, with Eric Sykes appearing briefly as a German soldier.

Spike himself later dismissed the picture as "desperately unfunny" and often lamented his lack of success in films. It did, however, result in at least one happy outcome for the Milligan family...

Although Invasion Quartet quickly disappeared from view, it offers a fascinating glimpse of a period when British cinema attempted to turn Spike Milligan into a mainstream film star - and failed.

Joining Tyler this week is John Hewer of Hambledon Productions, who are soon to hit the stage with a brand new production of The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town. John discusses this in the show and details can be found here: https://hambledonproductions.com/phantomraspberryblower/

“I don’t find myself funny… it came as a surprise to me that I didn’t really learn anything by watching myself.”

In June 1969 BBC2 broadcast a documentary in which comedian and writer Marty Feldman tried to discover the essence of comedy by speaking with some of its leading lights such as Eric Morecambe, Dudley Moore, Denis Norden and... Peter Sellers.

According to a critic on The Daily Mirror: “Given the low state of comedy on the box right now – well, there’s Father, Dear Father and The Gnomes of Dulwich to name triers; but no Till Death and no Steptoe – a high-flyer like Marty might have chosen to show us how it’s done. He could have played a few bad jokes off against his writing partner Mr Barry Took (who was present and correct), batted them about, and come up with an extemporary routine or two. But no. Marty was sold on contradiction.”

Ignore that grump. The programme was a thoughtful, leisurely exercise in getting to the nub of of a very knotty topic where Marty philosophised and sometimes agonised while smoking a seemingly endless chain of cigarettes. From a bleak fairground in Margate via a kids' Punch & Judy show, a textile factory run by an ex-radio ventriloquist and a smoky jazz bar to a railway station in Henley where Peter Sellers was filming The Magic Christian, Marty never faltered in his pursuit of the truth: What is comedy?

Joining Tyler to talk about the programme and in particular the very revealing bits with Sellers is returning guest and podcaster Jon Auty. They also look at the early career of Marty Feldman and a couple of Spike Milligan TV appearances.

You can watch the programme on YT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0it6iARj64&t=1907s

Behind The Stunts: https://www.youtube.com/@behindthestunts

It's 75 years since the first Goon Show (billed as Crazy People) was broadcast and to mark the occasion Tyler welcomes listeners from all over the world - Ian Richards, Colleen Dawson, Martin Eggleston, Fred Velez, Colin Fee and Ted Webb - to share their Goon Show stories and memories in a special episode.

Topics include where they first discovered the show, the importance of Harry Secombe, the show's legacy, favourite music in the show, how it has directly impacted on their lives, obscure references, favourite episodes, what 'lost' episode would they like to hear, best guests, Michael Bentine's role and so much more.

It's a riotous 90 minutes of people trying to get a word in!

"Now, Neddie… what experience have you had in translating ancient scripts? " - "Three years with Ray’s A Laugh."

What do the Piltdown Man, a calculating canine, Norwich Castle Museum and a one-eyed cat peeping in a sea food store all have to do with this week's show? Listen as we discuss The Missing Scroll from Series 5 and offer a fascinating and in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Goon Show from this period.

Neddie Seagoon is recruited by antique dealer Grytpype-Thynne to help recover a lost Babylonian manuscript containing ancient music for which the BBC Home Service are offering a reward. Seagoon travels to Mesopotamia, where he is abandoned in the desert by Willium but rescued by Eccles who accompanies him on his quest. Their search takes them to an antique shop run by Minnie and Henry, where confusion reigns and Seagoon learns the manuscript was discarded on a dust-heap at Sidi Rosaic. Can he recover the scroll in time?

We also eavesdrop on a conversation taking place on a bus from Oldham and hear live from a revolutionary new type of prison.

Joining Tyler from the USA is performer and Goon enthusiast Brian Phillips.