Good evening. It is indeed a great honor to
appear with a man like Spike Milligan.
I'm standing outside the wonderful new Grenadier Guard
Soldier Armor Massage and Sauna Club.
Good evening. I'm now standing inside the new
Soldier Armor Massage and Nafi Club.
Who wrote this crap? Cigarettes.
Imagine. Spartan.
Hello, Parky. Don't get me wrong, You know I
am, don't you? No, Dave Lodge.
I was in Copper Shell. Hello and welcome to Goon Pod
doing Pod's work. Last week, my guest Adam Leslie
and I started an examination of Spike Milligan's Q series on
television from Q5 to Q9 and we called it an A-Z of Q Snappy
title. We've already covered A to N
that's appliances to news reader Spike.
And if you haven't heard that episode yet, please stop
listening to this. Go back and check it out if you
have, Settle back and enjoy. Part 2 of an A-Z of Q Okay O is
full oversized clothes and costumes.
There's often characters like wearing hats which are just a
size too big or maybe several sizes too big, like spikes.
Scout leader hats in the Q8 sketch.
And obviously you got famously, you got clothes and props with
BBC costume or prop department tags left on.
Yes, I like that. I like the running.
Yeah, the little running costume gags.
You got the large fake noses. We didn't actually see many of
those in the shows that we watched.
That's the thing that Python picked up on, I think, cuz this
Raymond luxury yacht. Yes, that's the.
Yes. Mangrove has the big detachable
polystyrene nose. But having said that, I don't
know if the noses occur in Q5, so you could argue that Spike
pinched that from Python. He might well have done mine,
but it's certainly a spike staple from that point on, I
think. Yeah, Okay P is for police.
Stroke law and order policemen proliferate the Q.
There's the running gag of him doing the the police knees band
and it hurting his groin. Yes, yes.
This happens. This happens almost a decade
apart. I think it happens in Q5 and
then Q8 or something like that. He's sticking with the gag, but
I yeah, I quite enjoy that. You've got I Love the magic
Carpet sketch from Q9 with Bob Todd and Spike as the policeman.
There's some lovely comedy business going on in that.
And Spike's just he's wearing his upper half as a policeman.
He's just wearing his normal flares and shoes.
Otherwise, at this there's a which sketch was it was the
Bermuda Triangle sketch, where Spike is a police constable and
his radio on his sort of lapel was just a matchbox.
And of course, Spike doesn't like any opportunity to dress up
as a High Court judge we have in Q5.
The common cold has been criminalized, so anyone that's
got a cold is up in front of the beak and you've got Morris
groins. Morris Groins.
Yes, I wrote that down. Other other names that come up
in that sketch are Jim Fluke, Arthur Needs Tom Things and Mrs.
Scrackle. And of course, Dave Lodge is
wearing the stripey jumper and and mask as a burglar more than
one occasion. He obviously in Jehovah's
burglars and also in the Q 900 meters chase the burglar
contest. Yes, he has that look about him,
doesn't he? He has that oldfashioned burglar
face and build. He looks like a wronging the.
Stash. Yeah, yeah.
I wrote down about, I think that the courtroom sketch had a lot
of strong jokes, but it seemed under under rehearsed.
They were oming and erring a lot and it didn't get the gap, It
didn't get the laughs. That I think, I think they they
didn't quite have it down. So a lot of the jokes, which I
thought were some of them were quite good but they didn't get
the laughs. It had the old Davy Jones line
Please stand. I am standing and stand on
someone else. I didn't get that but it's not
exactly good vintage that. But Oh yeah, the judge sneezes
to bits, which is slightly ghoulish.
I love, yes, yes. I love that Spike does like a
prosthetic leg. I like it when it's just slips
into nightmarishness. I like any comedy that slips
into nightmarishness. I think one of the most famous
ones is the Reeves and Mortimer MasterChef sketch, which is most
frightening things has been shown on television and very
funny. But yeah, anytime that this kind
of comedy just just tips, just tips into being really.
Odd, in a dark way I like. And for me, the the judge
sneezing himself to pieces, kind of because his his wig comes off
and he's completely bold and yeah, he just seems to
disintegrate from sneezing. But again, the bold wig is
inelegantly placed on his head, so it's just you can just tell
it's, you know, there's no attempt to make it look genuine.
Cheap, Cheap is the word I would.
Cheap. Yes, it's cheap and cheerful.
So cute. Not good Q before.
Oh my goodness, yeah. The whole series.
Let's talk about the whole series again.
Yes. No, it's Queen Stroke.
Royal Family. Oh yes, another favorite of
Spike, I think any authority figure really is is.
Fair game. Fair game, yes.
Do we? Is Jeanette Charles still with
us? Do we know?
You know, I meant to look that up the other day and I I didn't.
I think she might be there. I think she might be.
Do not think she retired to the library with a service revolver
when the Queen died last year. Are you allowed to say, let's
have a look, She's a retired British actress.
That's quite poignant, the fact that she's retired.
Yeah, she's 95. OK, well we see her shooting
John Bluthal on the head. We do, yes.
As the Queen, we've mentioned the Royal Windsor Scout Troop
sketch of course. And the Royal Guardsman sketch
with a few Prince Philip quips. Yes, but the Queen.
In fact, there's an episode of Q where Spike and Dave Blufool are
dressed up as Queens. Not those sort of Queens, but
you know, the actual. Queens Oh, yeah.
That doesn't surprise me. I think.
Yes, they'd be good at that. Yeah, OK.
Are is for religion. Again, not so much in the
episodes we watch, but religion sort of runs through the Q
series like a stick of rock. We did have the sketch, which is
basically a silly, just a silly gag, rather than really actually
anything about anything but the one where they the hymn numbers
are also the dish numbers in the Chinese take away.
Yeah. Which is quite like, I mean,
anything involving any kind of other other race in Spike,
Lincoln stuff, you're sort of holding your breath, but as an
idea, it's quite a neat little idea.
Yeah, that was early on. That was Q5, wasn't it?
I think that's Q5. Yeah.
So they're singing it, is it right?
Because it's it's it feels like a long time ago now Q5, but I
think, I think singing him but but the lyrics are the dish.
Oh, sweet and sour lobster balls or something.
It's something like that, isn't it?
And I thought that was quite a neat idea and at least the guy
playing the vicar was actually East Asian.
Unlike the vicar in the Q8 sketch where Bob Todd's a Black
Face Vicar. Yes, that's a.
Yeah, it's not the way he's he's doing it.
He's playing it German at first. And then he's doing it.
I don't know what you how you describe it, that sort of Doo
dah voice. Yeah, they almost got away with.
I mean getting away with it. I mean, they didn't almost get
away with it because you like it blackface, but it almost sort of
worked with the doing it with the German voice because it was
such a jarring juxtaposition that it almost just made it
outright surreal rather than anything offensive.
But then they just had to point the thing out and Spike saying
to the audience. His voice is wrong, Like isn't
that wrong ladies and gentlemen? So then he has to cycle through
the accents until he gets to the inverted commas right accent,
which is some grotesque parody. So then it just becomes
completely irredeemable. Often blackface is employed for
no, there's never a good reason for it or necessity for it, you
know. Not that there should be a
necessity at all for blackface, but you could almost give them a
pass if it was a sketch about, for example, the black and white
minstrels specifically, like in that goodies episode, you know,
Whereas it's just it's just random, it's just arbitrary.
I think it's, I think Spike has his stock, random cultural
references, so like occasionally people will be in a kilt.
But random. I enjoyed the policeman in a
kilt in the courtroom sketch. Oh, yeah, John Wells.
Yes, that's right. He appears with his kilt on.
So I think he has these things that he likes to impose upon
randomly for texture. I think it's sort of it's the
it's spike world texture. Yes.
But just that particular thing hasn't hasn't weathered.
I mean, I don't. I mean obviously say it hasn't
weathered it was it was never acceptable but.
It's one of those things that you didn't really bat an eye or
a lot of people didn't bat an eyelid at the time.
No, that's right. That's it was considered just
commonplace. Of course it was okay, so S is
for Shand Neil Neil Shand. So in 1968, Spike had made The
World of Beachcomber television series for the BBC, and although
it didn't get a huge audience, it was very.
Well, you know, warmly received by critics and whatnot, and
someone who'd written for the Beachcomber series was a young
man called Neil Shand. And one day he gets a phone call
from Norma fans, Spike's agent, asking if he'd like to
collaborate with Spike on this new comedy series.
And so he not only wrote for Q5. But he also appeared in some
sketches, notably the customs officer sketch.
Nope. Suitcase open, please.
Why? You did read the notice?
Of course I don't notice I read the notice.
Open the suitcase, please. Why?
I want to see what's inside. I can tell you what's inside.
World War 2. You did read the notes, of
course. I read the notice.
You held it up. Have you got a bad memory?
A bad memory? Open the suitcase, please.
I told you what to type if you don't open the suitcase.
I'm afraid we shall have to force you.
What? What?
What's the matter?
Scramson? You won't open the suitcase?
Has he read the notice? He's read the notice.
And it is nothing about World War Two.
No, it doesn't. Sir, would you open the case,
please? Right.
World War Two is gone. Come on.
Let me say that, tell you. Come on.
This is gone. World War Two is there gone.
Must have been a novice. Just.
And he'd also write for going to write for Jasper Carrott, Jim
Davidson, Bob Monkhouse, Paul Squires, Liz Dennis, Russ
Abbott. And so on and so on.
So Neil Shand, yeah, I mean, he quits himself reasonably well in
the sketch that we saw as the customs officer.
It'd be interesting to know what he wrote, which bits he was
responsible for, whether he was enough of it, because it sounds
like he wrote for quite a lot of different types of people.
So he might have been sufficient of a chameleon that he could
slot into any into the house style on any show and just
contribute or whether he actually brought a particular
thing. Spike obviously on screen
credits him with the boob gags. Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe
He was like some of spikes collaborators, like John
Antribus, even Larry, you know, aping Spike style to a degree.
Which I think is is spikes Spikes.
I can't say that spikes spike style is so distinctive that I
think it would be. For, you know, for a
professional comedy, right? It would be quite easy to do
because he does have all these preoccupations and he has the
the styles of word play of of taking the thing, the normal
thing that someone says and then giving a different reply to
like, you know, they're pulling up outside.
What are they pulling up outside?
The aforementioned, You rang, No, you twit, that was the bell.
Those sorts of just just picking up on the those mundane things
and turning them into a joke. Yes, unfortunately I was unable
to find too much about his contribution.
As as such, there's not, there's not a lot out there, really.
Even in the the Milligan biographies, he's kind of a
footnote more than anything. He seems to be from quite a
working class background as well, so it almost feels like Q
is is the working class version of Python or Python is the
middle class version of Q. I think no.
I'd say Q is lower middle class. Would you say Yeah, it could?
Be I suppose, yeah. I don't really know.
Yeah, OK. Let's get on to TT is for talcum
powder in the hair. We've already, we've already
mentioned these. You have the Reverend Franklin
with a few calming words. Librium.
Valium. And there's a funny pale.
Yes. It's.
A bad impression of Patrick Moore.
Not my words. That this is how Spike describes
his own impression of. Patrick Moore as a bad
impression of Patrick. Moore.
Which leads nicely into. You and you stands for and I and
I wanted to talk about this category and I didn't know what
else to call it really. I've just called it ugliness and
squalor. And what I mean by that is the
the implication that everything is rather kind of grossy or
decaying or dusty or broken or distressed or shabby down at
heel, abject. I'm just reading from a
thesaurus now. Like like the like in the
Attebra sketch. This locations in the Attebra
sketch that wouldn't have looked at a place in the bed sitting
room film. No, I think he's filming on bomb
sites, isn't he, for some of it? Yeah.
Definitely. So like he when he's he's
talking about the the stairs that they go up, he's standing
outside the house but still gesturing to the stairs inside
the house because the whole front of the house is missing.
So it's it's actual either they've been pulled, they're in
the process of being pulled down, or he's on actual bomb
sites from 20 years earlier. Yeah, but.
It was math. Mathematics.
There's never any. There's there's never any.
Anything elegant in Q, is there? No.
Cheap, tatty. Shabby.
Which probably spike in 20 years time, then went on to go or BBC.
It's all cheap and rubbish but actually I think he liked it
that way. I think that it's definitely
part of his aesthetic. Yeah, yeah.
I I had a sort of a broader thought about the 1970s, anyway.
About how particularly watching this, I think more the 1970s in
Britain more than anything else, because you and I are Columbo
fans. So 1970s in America just seems
like it doesn't seem that alien in the way that Britain in the
1970s seems quite alien to us where I don't know if I'll be
able to just to convey this sufficiently, but.
So if you look back to, say, the 1950s or 1960s, it seems like a
long time ago, but you kind of get it.
You kind of get what they're doing.
And the same with the 80s and 90s, You kind of they dress a
bit weird and the music's a bit weird, but you kind of get what
they're doing. Then you're in Britain in the
1970s and they're listening to the Brotherhood of Man and these
men with these all these weird mustaches and this, this the
wallpaper's going crazy and. It seems like a whole 7.
I suppose the the most archetypal thing is Abigail's
party, which is so 70s. It's almost like a parody of the
70s, but it's not. It's actually the 70s, but it's.
It. Feels alien.
It's like, I don't understand what these people are doing and
what their interests are and why they're behaving like this.
So I don't, you know, it feels like it's, it's been totally
removed. Like you could go straight from
1969 to 1980. But there's this big alien clump
in the middle of where everything went a bit wrong and
fest. It got septic and fest and went
to a win. Became a bit delirious. 1972 is
brown and orange. Yes, I think much of the 70s is
because like, if you watch something like we'll get, we're
getting a Beatles reference here as well.
If you watch something like A Hard Day's Night and then watch
one of those really grimy sex comedies from. 10 years later.
Not, not, not that I would. No, I mean, one wouldn't.
Obviously not not not gentle like us, but it doesn't feel 10
years more modern. It feels just really dated and
strange, but doesn't really sit in the continuity of like
culture or or again, watching. I know there's some digital.
Cleaning up, having gone on, but watching the Get Back TV series
of The Beatles TV series, you're spending time with these people.
They just, they could be yesterday.
Like the way they look and the way they behave and talk to each
other and fashions generally feels very modern.
But if you look at like these weird people in there with their
bizarre walrus mustaches and terrible hair and these horrible
shirts, big ties they're wearing and they're disgusting
wallpaper, and then. Weird.
All the weird racism and homophobia and stuff going on.
It's like, what? What?
And and and and the puddings. And the puddings 70s.
Yeah, 70s. Alien life forms.
And I think possibly because obviously you've got the the
swinging 60s when everything seemed optimistic and then kind
of a bit of a crash in the 70s when everything seemed less
optimistic. I think I wasn't.
I mean I was there for half of the 70s, but I don't remember
enough of it to really tell. But I think there's possibly
that that like I say, it's sort of the 70s is the 60s gone
septic? But possibly you've also got
because like I don't want to say I'm not implying there was no
racism and homophobia and all the rest of it in the 60s.
There was, there was plenty. But I think the 50s and 60s,
certainly in Britain, was too polite generally to say it, you
know? Yeah, well cuz cuz late 60s into
the 70s everyone was letting it all hang out, weren't they?
This is it, I think. I think the the late 60s,
probably about 6869 through to the 80s if we are well into the
80s, but that's when all the inhibitions lifted.
But they hadn't but it hadn't matured out of just being
horrible to people, being horrible to minorities and
marginalized groups and saying all these things and yeah, and
everything's just, I don't know, everything's just a bit tobacco
stained as well like in the 60s everyone's smoking like a
chimney but it's like in the 70s you've got the all all the tar
has seeped into the wallpaper from the whole previous decade
of smoking. So you were now in 1972 and it's
everything's brown from tobacco smoke and everything.
That's. Yeah.
I mean, I don't. Well, the pervade I would say.
I would say the pervading aroma of 1972, like you say, is stale
fags and coffee breath. Yes, stale beer that's been.
Stamped in the carpet, Yeah, But.
But I mean, I think there's some stuff in America that's, you
know, is similarly grossy and velded, but you watch like a
classic American thriller or stuff like Columbo, and it seems
it doesn't seem quite as alien as some of the really shabby
British stuff contemporary to it.
Yeah, but you look at any American film set in New York,
temporary film, 70s New York. The streets are just, aren't
they? Certainly.
Yeah, certainly. Stuff like Taxi Driver or French
Connection, which I watched not long ago.
Again, it's certainly horrible and grimy and grotty and gritty,
but it doesn't feel like it feels like it knows it is or it
feels like I don't. It's difficult to describe.
Whereas I think the British stuff is kind of almost
wallowing in it in the way that like the American thrillers,
like Taxi drivers is commenting on it.
Whereas whereas something like Q, it's just having a great time
wallowing in the filth. I mean, like I said, I don't,
I'm not, I'm not completely having a go at the 70s.
They they for mentioned good life Doesn't seem alien and
weird. That still seems fairly fresh
and a lot of the music and things from the early 70s
doesn't. It hasn't gone full brotherhood
of man quite yet, and I suppose America did also give us
Manhattan Transfer, which I think is quite close to being
the American nation brotherhood of man.
So they're not totally immune to it, to that that sort of
combination of griminess and chintzy kitschy tweeners summed
up by. Yeah, but, but there was, there
was some great music in the 70s. I mean, yeah, Gracie.
I mean a lot of my favorite albums with this.
I'm not. I'm not having to get.
The fully. I'm serious about super tram.
Actually, I love super tram. I like a bit super tram.
Yeah that love. My favorite.
I'm a big sixties, 70s fan.
I I I do enjoy the yeah, it's not, it's not necessarily a
criticism of the 70s. I enjoy how how grossy it is.
A lot of the time I enjoy watching the stuff, listening to
like the rock that came out of it.
Not necessarily tie a ribbon around the old oak tree, but a
lot of the actual good music I enjoy.
But I find it fascinating how it does.
It seems like a little bit of a a detour between the 60s and the
80s into this this weird kind of soupy strange Abigail's party
universe. I think that's sort of yeah,
that's the best way to semitable is kind of Abigail's party.
People listen to Demi Demis Russos, or how you pronounce it,
whether it never quite sure whether.
It is Demis Russos. Demis Russos.
Demiss Russos, Yes, and with the head of man and all that.
Kind of. I saw a photograph the other day
of Demos Rusos in bed with a beautiful naked lady, of course,
and for a split second I thought it was Spud Gun from bottom.
Even the Spud Gun. I do.
Spud Gun and Hedgehog. Yeah, Hedgehog.
Dave, was it? Dave Hedgehog and Dave hedgehog
and Spud gun, Yeah. Anyway, you've been listening
to. The reflexes, Yes, I'm sorry to
any. I'm sorry to the 1970s.
It was more an appreciative rant than anything.
I enjoyed it. I do quite enjoy it at a
distance. I love 70s films particularly, I
love. It's my favorite decade for
films. I really don't like the 80s
particularly. I think my least favorite films
decade for films is the 90s. How is it really no 80s for me?
70s I love 70s films. Absolutely.
All the live long day any who let's crack on.
Sorry, I was off on one. I do apologize.
That's all right. It was an interesting
conversation. V is for Sorry about this very
catchy theme tune and other music.
Well, the theme tune. I love the theme tune.
Well, the theme tune. Did we decide?
I can't remember if we decided one way or the other that it's
George Martin playing the piano. Didn't George Martin produce the
Q theme? Yeah, he did.
I don't know it was an actual record.
Quite possibly, George. Of course, yeah, because it
would fit. Because he likes the jangly
piano. He did the jangly piano, and
tomorrow never knows. Yes, he did, and I think he
would. It's certainly within his skill
set and tastes to do that. And it's it's a very memorable
theme tune. It does get slightly you have
variations of it as as the Q series progresses into the 70s
and I've had a few guests who've said that they would like that
played at their funeral. Yeah, I don't see why not.
It's it's like I love it just as a standalone record outside of
the I like the comic timing on the buzzes that because they
hesitate and it's like it's almost like grants of
hesitation. It's like that always really
just delights me. Top of my head I think Paul
Abbott, former guest, has said he wants it as his funeral
music. If not Paul, write in and tell
me what you want played at your funeral instead.
And Mark Thomas. When Mark Thomas was on, I think
he said he wanted it but no very memorable.
And then you have. One of the kind of jarring
things as we get into the 70s Q series is the musical numbers
with this strange looking man called Ed Welch.
And I have a P please, Bob, do you know why I said that?
Blockbusters. Yes,
Ed Welch. I mostly know the name from the
Blockbusters theme tune and Nightmare, the ITV kids game
show involving Dungeons and Dragons.
He did the theme tune for that as well.
Well, he he collaborated with Spike quite a bit.
And funny enough, so we watched these five random shows, two of
them, they sing the same song. Well, Ed sings solo.
The first time, it's silly old baboon, which is Spike's poem
set to music. The second time you've got Spike
sat with him and they're both both wearing these.
Quite fetching. Apricot fruit salad design
dress. Yes, they're dressed
identically. They're both wearing the same
floral shirt and beige slacks, which is very amusing.
The whole band, the whole band wearing the same thing was
supposed to be, but they certainly are.
Yes, Spikes holding an orange balloon as well.
Can I say? I really, really, really,
really, really like the musical numbers.
Really. Yes, I think they're just
delightful. Okay.
They do feel like a completely different program.
I'll give you that. Okay.
It suddenly becomes a children's program because it becomes very
gentle. Yeah, Spike becomes very gentle.
He's not this slightly nightmarish out of control,
gaining whirling dervish of tics and manic energy.
He becomes very gentle. He says nice things about Ed and
he did laugh when he called. He called the band Ed's wife and
two children, even though two other middle-aged men.
But Ed has a very gentle face and he has a very gentle
demeanor about him and he makes Spike very gentle and he plays
his like the other. I forget the title of it, but
one of the other ones was this instrumental.
So would be Ed's own work, which is this sort of slightly ragtime
ish, quite 70s shuffle, really soothing and calming, and I
think it's this cute eight. He does a song called Eleanor,
which I think is that Spike or is this entirely Ed?
I think that's Ed. I get the feeling that's Ed,
Ed's daughter. So they put up these these
pictures of a little baby. And he's this really sweet,
touching song about this girl called Eleanor.
He's gorgeous and it's completely, totally out of whack
with the rest of the program. But it's a breather, at least.
And it's not like it's not like some shows where you you get
quite a cheesy, that musical interlude and it is, you know
some cheesy 70s band or singer doing a thing.
It's it's quite lovely and sincere at the same time.
Yeah, makes it even odder. But I like the the oddness of
that, that it just becomes this completely other thing for three
minutes and you get this, this very nice looking man who
doesn't seem to age over the course of the the run of the
series. He's still got his his identical
thinning blonde hair he he looks quite like Tom Fogerty from
Cresent Clearwater Revival. That's quite a niche reference
though I. Wouldn't I wouldn't know what he
looks like. I like some of those songs.
And by the way, I definitely didn't Fast forward through any
of these songs. Honestly, I think that might be
my favorite bit. I mean, it's not.
I mean, I haven't really heard any of his stuff outside of
nightmare and blockbusters, but certainly in a live context,
he's not the strongest, almost accurate singer, right?
And so the song sort of worked better when it was the two of
them singing together. Yeah, yeah, I did watch that
one. Yeah, but yeah, I really liked
it. Oh, good, there we go.
So we are now at what are we up to?
We've had VS from Oxford as well.
Sorry, I just thought I'd throw that.
Ed Welsh is an Oxford lad. Still around?
Still. Still.
I don't know if he's still around Oxford.
I I kind of. I looked up to see what he
looked like now and wondered whether he might be a regular at
my shop, but he didn't look familiar.
Well, he looked a was ageless during the Q series.
He probably still looks the same now he he doesn't look old.
Yeah, he kind of has a beard and.
Yeah, he doesn't look ancient. Okie doke, So W what do you
think W stands for that we haven't discussed already?
Possibly one of Milligan's biggest, if not the biggest
preoccupation. His life, The war, of course it
is. And there's quite a few bits and
pieces in the shows that we watched that war related or did
we get any Hitler? I can't remember.
That well we did right at the end I was a bit worried because
we we because right up to Q9 we hadn't seen any Hitler but then
Q9 the CREF sketch. Oh yes, Spikes doing his usual
tramp with the the knotted rope and cap and that.
But he's got like a Hitler mustache over his normal white
mustache, little beard. But also a little later in that
episode, you see Bob Todd as Hitler.
Oh, yes. Yes, Yeah.
I suppose if you've been through World War Two, then it's gonna
stick with you. It certainly does and and he'd
had huge success of course with the but certainly by.
By the time of, you know, QQ6789, he'd he'd have huge
success with his first couple of, well, certainly first couple
of war memoirs. The war was, you know, fruitful
material for for gags. You got the Q5 custom sketch
with Neil Shand and Spike. Is this uncooperative airline
passenger refusing to open a suitcase?
And he says it's got World War Two in it.
That's quite a goon show idea, is there's a few things that are
quite good. I mean, there's there's at least
one thing that was actually from a goon show, the sketch where
somebody has to drink a lake. Yes, but where did you get that
idea from? Yes, indeed, that was probably
the worst sketch. Not for that reason, the one
with the Welsh. Yeah, it was the Welsh
Liberation Army. Whatever that's right, that was.
That was the least. That was the Free Welsh Army.
Yes, that's right. Because I think it was relying
too much. Sorry, I've slightly, I've
slightly diverted. I think it was relying too much
just on Wells people. So funny accent and they have
leaks and that's the entire joke for five or six minutes.
And then throw racist stuff as well.
Yeah, they threw leaks violently at Spike.
Milligan never lands that sketch.
That's just, that's a pain. That's painful, that one.
Yeah, yeah. Back to the war?
Yeah, sorry. Bermuda Triangle sketch, when
Spike and Rita Webb are on an airplane To Bermuda, you have
John. I think John Bluth was a U boat
commander. Hey, Tommy Atkins.
Tommy Atkins. Tommy Atkins.
Why you have to go so far from England for your disasters,
where you see we didn't get the sun with our disasters.
When you pull them out, they're all white and pasty.
But overseas, that my brother Lord brought them here.
He was run over by a tram in Argentina and when they dragged
him out, he was lovely and brown, beautiful brown, kind of
lovely. All except when the wheels went,
of course. Yes.
You don't grab me Argentina. The truth is, what are the TV
show? Get you a smile, a song and a
load of crappy jokes. But look here.
You have better disasters in England.
Like what? Leyland's.
Leyland's right. Do you drive one?
When they make one, I'll drive one.
But I mean overall again, in the episodes that we watched, maybe
not that representative of the share weight of war references
in the Q series yet. The naffy sketch, of course.
I suppose it felt less wary than the Goon Show.
Oh yes, indeed. Yeah, probably with good reason,
cuz that's 20 years closer to the war.
Yeah, but. But of course, as, as we always
say, you know, Spike wasted no opportunity to dress up as
Hitler whenever possible. We just didn't really see it in
the shows that we watched. So, X, this is really leading on
this. Sorry.
X stands for extremely Troubling racial depictions, and there
certainly are plenty of those. Yes.
So not just that, I mean also racist language.
Yeah, there's not. There's not the worst word,
let's face it. But there's a lot of the word
beginning with W that he throws around with abandon.
Yeah, lots of black faces. We've really alluded to Bob Todd
as the vicar. John Bluthal When you pause the
Tell When you pause the the DVD. Keith Smith as well as Black.
Yeah, they all have a go, don't they?
Pretty. Much they do.
You've got the Arabs buying up London, as we said earlier, of
the the get that cabaret, you know, the Jehovah's Witness
sketch. And then there's the cabaret
with Grotty thing. The Chinese magician.
Oh, yes. And he's in this box with the
knives going in and Juliet Brett banging them in.
And then he comes out, Spike comes out, and he's got this
sort of Fu Manchu whiskers. And it does.
This terrible, terrible Chinese accent.
And awful. There's also the Guardsman
sketch. There's the overenthusiastic
Japanese tourist. Yes.
Well, that's always been a that's that's always, I mean
this this thing about Japanese tourists photographing
everything that I didn't realize it sort of went right back to
the This is 1980 Q 9. Isn't that true?
Yeah, it was a comedy staple in the 80s at least.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's frequent use of the W
word to the extent that it kind of it was just it kind of lost
its because he applied that word to any.
Minority, Ethnic minority, if you know what I mean.
Or or race. It didn't.
It wasn't just one race. It was just any anyone who
wasn't, you know, British more or less.
Yes, he is. And I think, I mean none of it,
I think was out and out malicious in the way that a lot
of comedy of that era was. It's it's entirely just silly.
Which is not to excuse it. And I think like often the
excuse will be made for people like Spike that he's a he's an
equal opportunities offender. That he will offend everyone
equally. Which is fine, except I think
that argument doesn't quite hold up because it's not a level
playing field, particularly in the 70s when, you know,
offending a stodgy white husband who's a bit under the thumb is
quite different from making jokes about ethnic minorities in
the kind of atmosphere you had in the 70s.
So yes, most of the portrayals weren't very sympathetic.
They were just very, very pantomime.
But but yeah, I really didn't really didn't travel well down
the years. You know, we're not, we're not
clutching our pearls here, and we're not trying to be too
precious about these things. And you know it.
I always say this as well. 40 years ago, if I'd watched, when
I was watching the Best of Q video or not, 40 years ago, 35
years ago, 30 years ago, a lot of these things kind of went
over my head or didn't. They didn't make me cringe
because it was kind of commonplace then.
The world has changed for the better in many ways and for the
worst in other ways. But the world has changed and it
is, is really uncomfortable. It's absolutely a product of its
time, isn't it? And it's all those things that
like, I can watch it because it's a product of its time.
If this was somewhat, if this was a YouTube video being made
by someone, now you wouldn't watch it because it's like, this
is appalling. Yeah.
But because this was, you know, a TV show made, and I'm not
saying to, I say to my housemate Hillary, cuz she came and
watched the Michael Parkinson sketch with me.
And I said to it cuz that yeah, it's so much racist stuff in
that, but it's certainly very high camp.
And I was saying this stuff went out on prime time or slightly
later than prime time, just mainstream British TV.
This isn't like some weird cable show or anything like that.
This is just this is broadcast to the masses.
So it's it's TV of its time and I think if you watch it knowing
it's of its time and and it's very easy for me to say as a as
the most vanilla possible straight white bloke.
So it's not really up for me to it's up to me to say either way.
But certainly from my perspective I can watch it find
knowing it's a product of its time and I can cringe.
But it's I'm not going to throw the DVD in the bin or anything
like that. But which.
Which is not to say that other people shouldn't find it
horrifying because it's that's not my not my place to say.
But it's interesting to get Hillary's reaction.
I hope she doesn't mind me talking about her on the
podcast. She may well listen.
Hello, if you're listening. Hello Hillary.
But her reaction was that apart from the racism and homophobia,
it actually seemed like quite a lot of bad modern comedy.
I didn't. Neither of us could quite work
out what she was referring to, right?
But but she didn't seem. She wasn't, like, horrified by
it or anything like that. It's just like this is old TV
rather than like this is the most appalling thing I've ever
seen and should be destroyed. It is.
Yes, it was just like this is old TV and we don't do it now,
but. It's.
Of, it's.
Of it's time, yeah. It's of, but it's of historical
interest. That's it.
Yeah. It's, yeah.
Yeah, I think it's slightly over this idea that like younger
people now, because Hillary's in her early 30s, younger people
now are just so woke about everything that they want to
destroy anything that doesn't conform to modern sensibilities.
I think that's mainly reactionary nonsense.
I think most people can, you know, adapt their perspective
knowing that, yeah, this is from 30-40 years ago, 50 years ago,
and this is the way they did things then, and we don't do it
now. But you know, and and I think
it's also fine to criticize something that was made 40 years
ago, as we have been doing mercilessly.
Yeah, well, it's also you can do both at the same time.
You can criticize something and also understand the ditch from a
long time ago. What's that?
What's that line? And the go between the past as a
foreign country, yes. Yeah, certainly the 70s.
OK. All right.
Well, I think we've covered that.
Okay. So we're up to Y.
We're getting getting close to the end, folks.
Y is for young ones, not the 9:00 o'clock News and an altered
comedy landscape. By the time Q9 began in 1980,
the comedy landscape was significantly different from
when Q5 had begun in 69. Not the 9:00 O'clock News was
huge, and its second series had. Just ended the month before and
the young ones began the month after.
There's a lot of it about finished in 1982.
Yeah. So when Q began it was you know
incredibly fresh, innovative groundbreaking and pre Python.
And I guess it's fair to say by the time it finished, if you if
you class particularly, there's a lot of it about as the end of
Q. It was creaky.
There was occasional flashes of brilliance, but it was still
leaning heavily on on, as we said, outdated racial
stereotypes and birds with big Bristols, I suppose.
Yeah, which seemed to have happened.
Obviously the most famous example is Benny Hill, where
I've never seen any of the Benny Hill, the 60s Benny Hill, but I
hear that's. Freaking some of it, yeah.
I hear it's very innovative, innovative.
That's not what I can say very easily, but certainly the Benny
Hill I remember is just ladies boobs.
They're hilarious. That's about it.
Which you just can't get your head browned.
It doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand it.
Yeah. So it seemed to happen a lot to
a lot of people in that era that they seemed to lose their ideas
and just fall back on the stock nonsense.
Well, they must have looked aghast to some degree at not
the, I think not the 9:00 o'clock news.
Certainly was huge breath of fresh air for British comedy at
that time because it also, you know, Mel Smith I know was quite
instrumental in initiating the kind of naturalistic style of
acting in a lot of the sketches. I think this is something I
heard Joe Morris talk about. All right.
Mel Smith in particular. Yeah, it's a very naturalistic
style and it's less, yeah, Python review style projecting
to the back row. Yes.
Yeah. And so by by the time, yes.
So not, not that I can never say that not the 9:00 o'clock news.
I think the first well, the pilot was a bit of a disaster.
The first series with Chris Langan was Okay was fairly well
received. But then they they got rid of
Chris and Griff stepped up into sort of the the, the 4th.
Permanent cast member role and for Series 2.
And that was a huge hit and there was all those sort of
spinoff Lps and books and they were almost like rock stars at
their height. And all the while while the, you
know, while while this is happening, you've got Spike
bringing out Q9 and just ploughing the same Farrow as he
had, you know, for the last five or six years.
I think if you watch something like the Young Ones next to the
later Q series, not necessarily there's a lot of it about, but
they have quite a similar energy.
There's a similar kind of grubby chaos, really sort of frenetic,
frantic energy to them. And if anything the Young Ones
is the more sort of it's more violent and more angry and
there's more abuse being ladled onto people in the young ones.
But it has a has with with the the the benefit of distance,
where like TV production look and aesthetic of kind of
Constantine it up so that Q and the young ones look quite like
just just aesthetically look like each other compared to the
TV we have now and energy they have a similar energy to them
and they're similarly chaotic and grimy even if politically
they're coming in from quite different angles.
But I think if Spike had not been so cranky, he could have
enjoyed some of those shows. Oh, we hated the young ones.
Yes. Yeah.
And I think that's just him feeling like he's being edged
out. Yeah, definitely, yes.
So Adam, we have almost reached the end of this mammoth A-Z of
the Q, but we still have Zed to go.
So what could Zed be, do you think?
Well, I wonder if it's anything to do with the zoos.
It is Zed is for the zoo sketch, which is the elephant in the
room. Quite literal.
Quite literally in the room, because it's a sketch we haven't
mentioned at all so far, but it would be of particular interest
to listeners of this podcast because.
It is a sketch that features a guest artiste.
Although you don't see him, do you voice over only because he's
inside the elephant? Yes.
So just to set the same, it's from Q5, so it's 69 and you have
Spike who plays Alfie, who's a zookeeper, purely so the police
purely so the policeman can say what's it all about, Alfie?
Yeah. And Alfie, is he, is he dusting
the elephant? He is dusting.
It's a real elephant. It's a real elephant as well.
And then you hear, you hear Harry seek him who's inside the
elephant and he's he's asking for help.
This is the this is the place. What's it all about, Alfie?
Well, it's got in here without paying.
Oh, where is he? He's inside the elephant.
Would you mind repeating that, Sir?
Yeah, there's a black got in here.
Got in here with that paying. Where is he, Sir?
He's in charge. The in charge.
The elephant. What's this?
Boarding. I have reason to believe you're
drunk. In charge of an elephant.
Oh, I apologize, elf. You're not in drunk in charge of
an elephant. Are you back yet?
You're a teamer. You're black in charge.
The elephant. I say hello.
Listen. Yes, listen, we've got a copper
out here, so you watch it in there, mate.
What you want to go and do that for?
Excuse me, Sir. It's a please, constable Here.
I have reason to believe that you've got in here without pain.
I just like a few particular, Sir.
Look, all I want is this. Will somebody phone up foot of
the Masons and tell them to collect my lawnmower as the axle
is out of alignment. Can I have your name please,
Sir? I'm not going to give it to you.
Listen, don't miss it. Andrew.
One of our best elephant. I can't hear you.
I think he's within the loyal. I just.
I better go and get a search. Warren.
Delsy. All right, then.
I'll keep the eye on him. You're for it now, mate.
And and we have, you know, we have a few of these sort of
scenes with the elephant and Harry Seeker inside.
The elephant We get the police. Police again at one point
surrounding the elephant because somehow or other Harry seeking
was holding Elfie the zookeeper inside the elephant as is
hostage. Elfie.
And where I Elfie. I mean the elephant.
He's holding me. Don't you come here.
Here, Papa, or I let him have it.
Have what? Never mind what.
But there's a lot of it about. But don't go away.
I'll feed up here in a minute and hurry up.
My hurry. And the police say we've got,
we've got every exit covered. It's so intriguing.
I mean, just one that, you know, did Spike just phone, hurry up
and say, you know if you got an hour to come and record some
lines, he wasn't available but just decided, you know, he
wasn't physically available, so just jumped into?
Booth somewhere And maybe, yeah. Called it the Sketch.
Maybe, yeah. Yeah, but it's the thing I found
all this about. It is that I hadn't heard about
it. Like I thought.
I would have heard that Harry Secombe was in a Spike Milligan
sketch. In an elephant.
Yeah, inside an elephant. Well, funny enough cuz there's
an earlier existing Q5 episode, just a black and white Tele
recording, which is on the DVD where Harry Secombe is
referenced. There's a courtroom scene.
I didn't watch it to refresh my memory, but it's something to do
with Harry seekum and liquid from memory.
So seekum was a recurring motif in Q5 certainly.
Yeah, it's quite nice to have that bit of continuity, isn't
it? A bit of a callback.
Bit of a callback to the games, and Speaking of the goons, I
mean you've already mentioned the drinking the late to empty
it. Bit which obviously harks back
to the treasure in the lake you do get, despite doing the echo's
voice a few times and and also the CD plates that the Arabs are
using on the dustbins to escape prosecution obviously.
Maybe think of the goon show the case of the missing CD plates.
So there we are. So yeah, I I just thought, you
know, Zed to to round off this this list.
Zed for the zoo sketch. I thought it was nice to round
it off with Harry. Speaking of the goon, I'm sorry,
I'm going to drag it out slightly.
Speaking of the goons, I just wanted to sort of have one.
I had one thought while I was watching it about the goons.
It's just how differently spiked humor works visually than it
does on the radio to me. And obviously a radio thing will
work differently in each individual person's imagination.
But to me, when I listen to the goons, despite the fact that
it's chaotic and they talk about bits of string and shabbiness
and people's knees fraying and all that kind of stuff, to me
it's quite a glossy thing. And it's in.
In my mind's eye, it's in this sort of nice, glossy black and
white that's quite high budget. Yeah, because they have all
these big. Yeah, there's these big.
Things high concept ideas. So like for example the, you
know, drinking the lake through a hose when you actually see it
in queue, it's a really ordinary looking lake and a really
ordinary looking garden hose. Yeah, but you see, but the whole
thing is much cleaner and glossier in my imagination when
it's on the Goon Show and. Yes, I know what you mean
exactly. And I think bigger, bigger
budget. Much bigger budget.
Yeah. So it's so I like the griminess,
but it also it's less charming somehow.
I like how cozy and clean and glossy The Goon Show is by
comparison. Possibly the jazz music also
adds that layer of glossiness to it and and good old Railington
and his crooner voice that feel to it.
But it's yeah, it's it's very differently spikes humor in
audio than it does in visual. It does.
But he's also, he's accompanied by, well, he's accompanied by
two consummate professionals and very, very good comic performers
in sellers and seeking particularly sellers.
But then, yeah, yeah, but then you've got Blue Soul, you know,
That's it. Yeah, I think.
I think Sellers adds that adds a layer of gloss as well, doesn't
he? Yes, not in everything he does.
He's done some grimy, grotty things himself later on, but.
Yeah, I know, but he really gives a terrible performance.
Do you say like in like in The Muppets, for example, he would
say he's a glossy presence in that he's.
Oh no, he's he's definitely, he's shabbing the place up a
bit, but certainly in the goons he's he's adding a layer of of
class to it. Yes, indeed.
Yeah. OK, there's one.
There's one last Q spike Q thing that I'm not gonna go into much
detail about, but is completely unrelated.
But do you know the story of Spike interviewing Van Morrison
for Q magazine in 1989? I've heard of it.
I haven't read it, but I've heard about it.
Yeah, cuz Van was Van who's known as Mr. Chuckle trousers in
the industry. Yeah, I love the song.
Which one is it? The The what?
Where the lyrics is. He's laughing in a running and
skipping and joking, whatever it is.
Oh well, Brown Eyed Girl is it Brown Eyed Girl?
Yeah, whatever the lyrics are. I'm laughing in the running and
the skipping and the joking. Like it's the very things you
can't imagine Van Morrison doing.
Yes, So Van, I think Q magazine had been pushing Van for an
interview and he said, well, I'll only interview give you an
interview if I can choose the interviewer and I want Spike
Milligan to do it. Wow.
So they contacted Spike. He was living down in Rye and he
agreed and this was this was 89 and so I think Paul Denoyer was
with him with Van. They were in a car, they drove
down to Rye and at one point the car had to stop at a railway
crossing as the barriers came down.
And the barriers were down for ages because, you know, I don't
know, freight train or whatever. And Van got fed up waiting.
So we just got out the car and stormed up, stomped off up the
street in the opposite direction, right.
God knows where he thought he was going, but but then the
barriers opened and the car had no choice but to drive off and
cross over to the other side. And Van saw this.
He turned around, saw this and began making his way back.
And just just as he got about 10 feet away from the from the
line, the barriers came down again and he was stuck on the
other side. By the time he gets to
Milligan's, Van is in a is in a foul, filthy mood and Spike
greets him wearing a long particularly long phallic shaped
nose and like A and like an oversized hat and apparently
this this didn't even make Van crack a smile.
You know, he was just, he was just in a shitty mood for the
whole, you know hour that he was with Spike and at one point
Spike said to the Said to the photographer, he's a bit odd
isn't he? Which from Spike?
I kind of. I have no sympathy for either of
them, frankly. I I relish just minor
misfortunes before Van Morrison anyway, just because it's funny.
And also Spike ending up with interviewing someone who's
really grumpy and difficult. It's just feels like poetic
justice, doesn't it? In a way there's a story.
I heard this on the word podcast many, many years ago.
Peter Gabriel had a some sort of festival music festival
somewhere in, I don't know, southwest of England, not quite
sure where, let's let's just say sort of Somerset way and and
apparently Gabriel had a big mansion or sizable house in the
area. So after this festival was like
a two day festival, something loads of different acts and
bands and musicians had appeared, including Van
Morrison. And at the end of the festival,
Peter Gabriel was throwing a big party back at his back at his
big house and everyone was invited including Van And Van
said no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not coming.
I'm going back to the hotel or whatever, you know, with his
with his usual good grace and yes indeed.
And anyway, so that they all get back to Peter Gabriel's place
and and and high jinks and chew and drinks and all the rest of
it that you would expect. Okay.
And anyway Van Morrison obviously after a couple of
hours decided you know, no actually I wouldn't mind a free
sausage roll wouldn't you know bit of yeah, yeah.
So he decided he would go to to this do.
So he turns up at Peter Gabriel's front door, knocks on
the door, somebody opens it who doesn't know who Van Morrison
is, and he turns around and shouts out.
Did anyone order a mini cab, Which I'm sure improved Van's
mood immeasurably? I want a whole book of anecdotes
about Van Morrison being insulted and inconvenient.
Whenever I'm feeling low, I'll just dip into my book.
Well, the story I won't touch on, which everyone knows about
the sack full of mouth organs. About that, but yeah, I'll tell
you. Another time we've been going on
a while, we have begun and and look, we, you know the last
thing before we wrap up, I would just like to share some thoughts
from Mark Lewis and no less because are you aware that Mark
Lewis and wrote a book that's very dear to my heart back in
the 90s, late 90s, which was the, was it the Radio Times
Guide to TV Comedy? You know, because I do know
about that. But yeah, I haven't read it but
I know it's a brilliant book. It's got everything in it.
You know pre pre Internet. It was invaluable for someone
like me, okay. But he he wrote about the Q
series Okay and I'd just like to read you this this bit here
because I thought I just think it's it sort of sums up the
series quite well. Okay.
So he says, although their importance within the
development of the genre is recognized, the queue shows did
not enjoy the same posthumous reverence among fans and critics
that is reserved for Monty Python's Flying Circus.
There are arguably 3 main reasons for this.
Firstly, the queue shows were comedically less consistent with
moments of genius squeezed in between bouts of charmless corn.
This was probably because Milligan himself, with Shand,
did the bulk of the writing, and his own idiosyncratic flights of
fancy could be hit and miss, whereas the Pythons all wrote
the members exercising a kind of quality control mechanism over
the other's writing, ensuring that flimsy material was
rejected. Secondly, there's the question
of taste. Milligan's rather oldfashioned
shock value, usage of racial jokes and sexual situations were
acceptable in the climate of the 1970s, but don't age as well as
the python's shock material, such as homosexual brigadiers
and cannibal undertakers where authority figures bear the brunt
of the humor. And lastly, there is the
construction of the programs. Whereas both Q and Python had
almost limitless freedom to leave a sketch at any point and
played with the reality of the show and the genre of
television, Terry Gilliam's brilliant animations permitted
Python to affect seamless transitions from one sketch to
the next, which when coupled with the Python's faultless
sense of program continuity, gave their shows a greater all
round balance. That's true.
That's very well said. It is very tempting to compare
it to Python, and with good reason.
It's tempting to compare it to Python.
But I think if you compare Q to other sketch shows from the time
and from the 80s, it stands up really well because a lot of
sketch. So it's only ones I've seen.
I haven't, I haven't seen all of them.
But the the sketch shows I watched quite recently Cannon
and Ball, which is a bit later and I have a lot of affection
for Cannon and Ball as as comics and as like cultural figures,
pop culture figures, but the actual sketches themselves.
They they run with the most obvious idea.
Often I lost the sketch, sketch and then the earlier ones, the
70s ones, will tend to have the girls with big boobs and the,
you know, the racist overtones and the homophobic language.
But they also won't have the level of invention or the level
of sheer frenetic pace and throwing as much at the wall as
possible. I think this is what.
Spike is quite good at it's just throwing everything at the wall
and some of it will stick, some of it won't.
I'd agree with that. And so I think it it's it's
unfortunate for Cue that Python is the one that is the sketch
show from that area that is best remembered because it doesn't
stack up. I think actually cute may be
funnier, although it's that's possibly because I'm more
familiar with Python, so I'm less likely to laugh at sketches
that I'm familiar with. So.
But but it has better gags. But certainly if you compare it
to other sketch shows of that era, a lot of them are a lot
slower and a lot less dense and energetic and creative.
So I actually think it does stand up really well if you if
you look at it in that light, rather than necessarily only as
a, you know, the next the next nearest thing to Python.
The Radio Times call this show Q7.
Aren't they clever? You know, recently the Guardian
raised its price to 15 P and that took it out of the fish
shops and onto the smoked salmon counter at Harrods.
Harrods. The new name is Harrods.
Recently from The Guardian. They quoted the thing they said,
what's it Q7? Oddball comedy show.
Yes, folks, it's the oddball comedy show and you have to
guess which one of us has it. We watched 5, just five episodes
for this and I would say half the time I was if not laughing
out loud, I was chuckling. I think so.
I bought the DVD. Did you?
Yes. And I'm going to watch the rest
of them. So it's not just gonna sit on
the shelf from now. And I am actually at some point
gonna watch the rest of them. So I think that's a
recommendation. There you go.
Yeah, the DVD. How much did it cost you?
It cost me £11.00 but I bought it at work so I had staff
discount £11.00 though £11.00 for 15 hours plus of content.
All right. Well, Adam, it's been a mammoth
it. Has, but it's been a lot of fun.
Thank you for it has been thank you very much and lot going on
in your world. Do you want to give a little
sort of hint as to what's coming up?
Yeah, so normally, and I say normally we haven't done one
since March, but normally I do the Retrotube Archive TV podcast
with my best friend Heather, which is looking at TV from the
60s, seventies, 80s, and we discuss it between us.
So we pick one each. We have very different tastes.
So Heather is very into glossy 60s shows with Spies and.
Marionettes, Thunderbirds and that sort of thing.
Whereas I like the the weird, creepy, ontological, strange,
murky TV shows of the 70s and 80s.
So. So we we have quite a good split
and we introduce each other to our shows that we grew up with
and shows that we really like. So the last one we did was Moon
Dial, but we've done the Thunderbirds and Man in a
Suitcase, we've done the Adventure game and all sorts.
We've we've got quite a few. Episodes in the can now.
So that's that's Retrotube. I'll repeat that.
That's Retrotube. But I also have and this is an
ineffective plug because it's not happening till May.
It's bad timing on that front, but I'm I am having a novel
published, actually properly published, and not just being
photocopied by me and stuck together with seller tape
published by an actual publisher.
Brilliant. So hopefully we'll be in all
good book shops. It will be called.
I don't know if I should say the title.
I wouldn't say the title, cuz I'd say the title how secretive
it should be, but it's a keep an air of mystery.
Yeah, it's a literary, magical, realist folk Horror Story.
Brilliant. That will hopefully will be on
schedule coming out in May next year and not soon after.
I'm sure that Netflix will option the rights to turn it
into a. Series.
They'd better and you will buy a solid gold house.
Or a Netflix subscription so I can watch it.
Thank you. Thank you very much as always.
And don't be a stranger and come back again sometime soon and
talk about I'll. Come back in May.
Just.
By coincidence, yes. And we'll be talking about
magical realism, folk horror literature, and somehow
shoehorning a goon connection into that.
Exactly. Okay mate.
Well, great to speak with you and thanks everyone for
listening. Please check out the back
catalog. There's a hundred and God knows
how many now 120 plus I think shows in the archive and they're
all crackers. And please rate and review.
What you're going to say then please write and review in Apple
Podcasts and Spotify and all those places as well, because it
really does help the show's profile.
And I will be back next week with a new guest.
Not sure what it will be yet, but I'm sure that it would be
better than this one. Any joking?
I think this one's been great. Cheerio.
Cheerio, mile after mile. He galloped and started, but
never once left the ground. You're running too slow, said
the passing crow. Try reaching the speed of sun.
Reaching the speed of sun. So we put on the spurt.
By God, how it hurt. The souls of the speed caught on
fire. There were great plans to see
fancy race super strings, but he still didn't get any.
Higher, still didn't get any higher.