Goon Pod

"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.

It’s 1972 and Dick Emery - once described as "a fugitive from The Goon Show" - is one of the most popular comedians on television. His show is a regular ratings-topper, featuring a cast of comic grotesques – toothy vicars, leering jezebels, cats-bum-mouthed frumps and camp as Christmas extroverts.

With the success in the early seventies of the On The Buses films and other sitcom-to-big-screen transitions it was perhaps inevitable that Dick would make a movie, one that would showcase many of his best-loved characters, plus introduce one or two new ones.

“Ooh… You Are Awful” (named after the ubiquitous catchphrase of his easily-confused slattern Mandy) concerns conmen Charlie Tully and Reggie Peek, who fleece a couple of Italian worthies for £500,000 and are about to hop on a plane to Switzerland until Charlie is arrested for trying to pull a stupid con on a pair of witless Americans in the airport lounge.

Banged up for six months, Charlie finally emerges from prison and is about to be told by Reggie the bank account details when the latter is murdered by local villain Sid Sabbath for having it away with his sister. There follows a farcical sequence of events involving the Mafia, several Emery disguises, an exploding milk bottle and a lot of women’s bums. Yes, seriously.

Joining Tyler are two-thirds of The Trap – Jeremy Limb & Paul Litchfield – for a loud, rambunctious journey through a film which the two have previously covered for one of their Film Commentaries - https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTrapComedy/posts

Warning: contains language that would make Hetty swoon!

This week we're discussing Peter Sellers' only directorial feature, Mr Topaze from 1961.

Sellers plays Albert Topaze, an earnest, impoverished schoolteacher in provincial France whose rigid honesty ultimately proves his undoing. He teaches under the status-obsessed headmaster Muche (Leo McKern) and is in love with Muche’s daughter Ernestine (Billie Whitelaw). Living modestly with his colleague and friend Tamise (Michael Gough), Topaze supplements his income through private tutoring.

His integrity leads to his dismissal when he refuses to falsify a report, leaving him vulnerable to manipulation. He is soon drawn into the orbit of the glamorous Suzy Courtois (Nadia Gray) and her corrupt associate Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), who install him as the front for their fraudulent business dealings. Initially oblivious, Topaze is horrified when he learns the truth, but agrees to continue in order to protect Suzy.

Joining Tyler this week to chat about the film's background, themes and ultimate re-evaluation after decades languishing in obscurity is Vic Pratt of the BFI https://www.bfi.org.uk/profile/vic-pratt

“Their gags are paralysing. Sometimes the director has to let everybody have five minutes’ rest, so that we can laugh the laughs out.” (Pamela Thomas, supporting cast)

In 1956 a short film was released which with hindsight was probably the most successful Goon Show celluloid transfer, despite only featuring two-thirds of the team. Ironically, it wasn't even intended for theatre release but a lack of interest by US television networks nixed any further forays so it ended up as a cinematic supporting feature.

The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn (an early working title was The Yard Has Three Feet) starred Peter Sellers as Superintendent Quilt and Spike Milligan as Sgt Brown plus honorary Goon Dick Emery as Nodule, a museum curator. All three appear in multiple guises, including Sellers as Henry Crun, Milligan as Eccles and Emery as Maurice Ponque.

Joining Tyler this week to talk about the background to the film, including the revelation that it sprang from The Adventures of Robin Hood on television and that Harry Secombe's absence could at least be partly laid at the door of Jimmy Grafton, is returning guest Chris Diamond.

This week the great Neil Brand visits the show to share his love of the Goons and in particular the music. Neil of course is a well-respected writer, composer and broadcaster and the country's leading silent film accompanist.

A self-taught musician, Neil describes the instinctive feel of the music in the Goon Show from people like Max Geldray and Ray Ellington and admires the sheer musical chutzpah of the boys in the band. He's also a huge fan of Angela Morley and the cinematic sweep of some of her arrangements.

As well as talking about the show we get glimpses into Neil's career and passions, a description of the one time he met Milligan and a story about a chance encounter with someone very much within Sellers' and Milligan's orbit.

Neil's podcast All About The Music: https://www.allaboutthemusicpod.com/