Goon Pod

• Bonus! The Simpsons (with Lord Of Adders Black podcast)

  There is absolutely no connection between the Goons and the Simpsons so what on earth is this special bonus episode all about? Well, my very good friends Ian and Michael over at the Lord Of Adders Black podcast - celebrating all things Blackadder - joined me to share our love for The Simpsons and talk through our favourite episodes! (Their podcast is really good - find it here: https://shows.acast.com/lord-of-adders-black )Great comedy is great comedy and while it's fair to say that few people could describe most post-2000 Simpsons content as 'great comedy' the stuff that came before remains sublime. I'm not sure what a Venn diagram of Goon Show fans and Simpsons fans would look like but hopefully it's more or less a circle. So indulge me for this special bonus episode with Michael & Ian where I get a rare chance to gush about comedy from the 1990s!

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• The Lost Gold Mine (of Charlotte)

  How young Ned Seagoon journeys by steam packet to the Americas to find the Lost Gold Mine and how, after being foully tricked by several desperadoes, he eventually triumphs. The action takes place aboard the S.S. Filthmuck, in a New Orleans dustbin, near the desert town of San Fairee Ann, and in a dried-up gulch near Hammersmith.Sandwiched between The Whistling Spy Enigma and The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-On-Sea, this episode of The Goon Show is an often overlooked gem from early on in Series 5. It's a cracking yarn, invoking Treasure of the Sierra Madre-type themes as Neddie tries to retrieve the map of a gold mine he lost to Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty. Much double-crossing and map-tearing abounds, and we even get the opportunity to discuss 1830s pornography!Returning guest Paul Abbott is co-host of The Big Beatles & Sixties Sort Out and the podcast can be found HERE: https://linktr.ee/bigsort

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• Peter Sellers & Irene Handl

  One of the few actors who could genuinely command respect and admiration from Peter Sellers, Irene Handl is mainly remembered now for her multitudinous 'mum', 'gran', 'landlady/charlady' and general 'dotty old dear' roles in films and on TV. She and Sellers appeared together in films, on record, on stage and on television. Perhaps the pairing is most well known from the 1959 film I'm All Right Jack, in which they played Mr & Mrs Kite. That same year saw the release of the LP Songs For Swinging Sellers which includes two tracks featuring Handl - The Critics and Shadows On The Grass, which she also wrote. Poignantly the two were reunited in 1979 on the LP Sellers Market, on the track The Whispering Giant and Sellers' death a year later upset Handl terribly - she said she never got over it. Clearly the two had had a unique friendship and understanding of each other that few others could equal. This week we welcome back Donna Rees to discuss the work they did together and Irene Handl in particular. She was a fascinating figure: not getting into acting until relatively late in life; the daughter of well-to-do parents with servants; a woman who never married yet received regular marriage proposals as she travelled the world in her twenties; a published novelist and huge fan of Elvis Presley and owner of many chihuahuas; she quite liked pornography, hated ET and her favourite actress was Yootha Joyce. And she pretty much worked with everyone.

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• Curse Of The Pink Panther (1983)

  Commissioner Dreyfus had for years wanted to see his infuriating underling Inspector Jacques Clouseau dead and buried and for a while, with the death of Peter Sellers in 1980, it seemed like the shambolic Sûreté shamus had indeed been laid to rest...... Until somebody had the bright idea of filming two new movies back-to-back trading on the Clouseau character - after all, the Pink Panther film series had been a massively successful franchise, why spoil it all just because the main actor was dead?First was Trail Of The Pink Panther which featured out-takes and deleted scenes from previous films, which was bad enough. Then Blake Edwards ran out of old footage so hit upon the idea of introducing a brand new character for the second feature, Curse Of The Pink Panther. This bumbling new detective, Clifton Sleigh, would be tasked with finding the missing Inspector Clouseau, and in the course of which would be just as hapless and hilarious and hopefully be seen as the heir to Sellers. In fact, the idea was to make six more films with Sleigh! I know right? It didn't quite work out. Jon Auty from Behind The Stunts joins Tyler to pick over the bones of this thoroughly-flogged dead horse and while acknowledging one or two genuine titters and some pretty impressive stunt work there's little else of any merit. Ted Wass, as Sgt Clifton Sleigh, tries to make the most of what he's given to work with (including an inflatable woman) and there's some fun to be had spotting familiar faces including Michael Elphick, Bill Nighy and - appearing as Turk Thrust II - Roger Moore. But the fact remains that it's a lame film that should never have been made and really should have been the final nail in that particular coffin. Yet amazingly it wasn't! (That's a story for another time)Jon talks about the various stunt coordinators involved with the film including Joe Dunne and Roy Alon and Behind The Stunts can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/behind-the-stunts/id1547078357

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• What A Whopper! (1961)

  When Adam Faith and chums decide to make a fake Loch Ness monster they set off a chain of events too hilarious to describe. With a script by Terry Nation, What A Whopper! is a serviceable British comedy film of the early sixties slightly let down by rather colourless leads but lending solid support are the likes of Sid James, Wilfred Bramble, Charles Hawtrey and - you guessed it - Spike Milligan, who plays a tramp fishing on the bank of the Serpentine.Returning guests Tilt Araiza and Gary Rodger from The Sitcom Club mull over Scottish stereotypes, Terry Scott's potty mouth and rubber salmon. Also:Recasting Adam Faith as Harold Steptoe?Is Sid James the Paul Eddington of dirty old men?How does the film compare to Psycho?Is Terence Longdon a young Tommy Cockles?Who thought casting Freddie Frinton was a good idea?Is it a sort of sequel to What A Carve Up?And who brought along Eccles cakes?Tune in to find out the answers to all this and more!

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