And a father of boys as well. Two boys and two girls.
Pigeon pair. So I mean you you you got the
message of that song, you can. You can see that song.
Yes you can. I can.
Yes. Two boys and two girls.
Andrew is the eldest boy, Jennifer's eldest girl.
And then there's David and Katie.
Did they all follow you into showbiz?
Well, Jennifer's here. The beam, you know, in the
publicity department. Bless her.
Yes, indeed, she does very well. You know Jennifer.
Dave is an actor. No, Andrew is an actor, rather
plays non speaking parts husbands.
It's struck home here and there. He's a good actor.
He just finished in The Invisible Man in Stratford.
E did very well. Katie's an actress.
She's at the Bristol Victoria, Old Old Victoria, Bristol Old
Victoria School. Did you encourage him to go in?
But not really, because you know, having been the business
yourself, you wonder what's going to happen to them.
And they've only seen the end product of years of work.
So you wonder, you know, is that where you are there?
It's a good idea. Have the end product of yours
hang in about. Hello and welcome to Goompod,
your weekly fix of comedy chat and recently, Heavy Breathing.
I must explain because a regular listener who shall remain
nameless, Mr. XI, shall call him.
He contacted me to say that occasionally on recent shows he
could hear me breathing like some dirty old man, which is
never nice. But yeah, I actually listened
back to the last couple of episodes and there are occasions
when you can hear me breathing, which I apologize, but I had a
mild. Respiratory episode, which
thankfully has passed now. So I I apologize if if this has
picked up on that. And I promise from now on not to
breathe or at least not not breathe any more than is
strictly necessary in order to stay alive because this podcast
would be next to useless with a with a dead host.
Apologize you had to hear some of that Katie.
That's. Fine.
So the the the lady you could hear.
Laughing there is my guest, my very special guest today and
recently we heard the the wonderful news that one of the
famously lost episodes of Hancock's half hour featuring
Harry Seekin has come to light and I'm thrilled to be joined by
by Harry's daughter Katie. Hello, may I just first
apologize for the sounds of heavy breathing from my dogs and
chirrups from my birds? So I'm just going to shut the
door. Hang on, just.
It's all madness here. There we go.
That's it. I'm back.
We have had dogs on the show
before and a cat oh. Good.
So I'm in good company. MM Haskins regular guest.
He his his dog Huxley has been on Jonathan Co, the novelist he
was on and his cat Archie, I think his name is He was on
Stick. Yeah, but you've got like, a
menagerie there, have you? I have got a bit of a menagerie,
yes, yes, I have dogs, cats and parrots.
Yes, it's mad, but there you go. Well, you very kindly accepted
my invitation to to come on the show and talk about your dad and
and I also thought it would be a good idea.
Perhaps, maybe not. I don't know how you feel, but
for us to to discuss what I consider to be one of Harry's.
Best showcase performances in a goon show, which does and so an
episode which doesn't really get talked about very much, but
we'll come back to that. We'll come to that later.
So yeah, So Katie, as I say, brilliant to have you on and you
are an actress. I am, I am, yes.
I'm currently in Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre.
There's a plug and and yeah, and.
And it's funny you should mention it because it's full of
very young people. The show, I mean, I'm 55 now, so
everybody's younger than me, it feels like and and one of our
it's an immersive show and one of our hosts, they're all in
sort of their late 20s to early 30s.
Her dad's a Goon Show fan and we have lots of chats about the
Goon Show when we're sort of waiting to go on.
So the legacy continues. Thank thank goodness for that.
Lovely. And yes, so that's what I'm
doing at the moment. You trained at the Bristol, Old
Victoria didn't? You.
I did, I did, yes. I had what's called a classical
training and I went to university before I went to to
drama school. So I had the full WAC and I've
been doing it for over 30 years now.
Lots of musicals, others in Les Mis and Mamma Mia and I've also
done lots of plays as well. So I've had a nice sort of
career that goes from one to the other, which is, which is quite
refreshing really and. What about comedy?
Do you do much comedy on stage? I'd like to do more.
I'm normally a comic character, so in Les Mis I'm Madame
Senardier, who's probably one of the most fun characters to play,
especially in a musical like me, Les Mis, where everybody pretty
much is dead at the end apart from me.
So that's that's quite good fun to play and she's she's a a
lovable monster, so she's great. And I've worked with the
wonderful Alan Aitbourne. I did bedroom fast with him
quite a few years ago now up in Scarborough.
But he directed it. So that was a great, you know,
master class in. And how to do good comedy, you
know and and also you know, he taught me how to make a bed
properly because I had to make a bed in the beginning of the
scene, the first scene of the play.
He was so strict about how I made it, but it it sort of made
me think, well yeah, comedy is really hard, you've got to be
really precise and really technical.
So yeah, I learnt a lot do. People make beds properly these
days because. No, you.
Don't use sheets much. Everything's duvets these days,
isn't it? Yes, everything's duvets.
And also this one, obviously the bedroom frost is set in sort of
the late 70s, I think early 80s, so they would have had.
Hospital corners but it was candle.
Wick Beds. Candle.
I had a candle Wick bedspread on the bed, you know and they are
not fun absolutely that to lie under.
But yeah, he was great to work with and of course I had had the
maestro really my dad. So when I when I got over my
teens and I started actually listening to my father.
I picked up lots of tips from Dad and and I actually got to
work with him as well in Pickwick musical that he did.
Oh, I saw that, yeah. Yeah.
That must have been amazing. It was fabulous because I had a
backseat view of his talent every night and the way that he
took everything in his stride really he was very.
Calm and about how he performed, even though he he had a lot of
energy, he had a lot of manic energy.
He was able to switch it on and off, you know, and he was very
technical. But I think that that's, that's
what you have to be if if you're a comic or a comic actor to know
what you're doing, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Somebody told me on this show who did.
They'd never met your dad, but they'd met somebody who'd worked
with your dad, I think, on Pickwick.
We're talking many, many years ago and it was possibly like one
of the dance. Did they have dancers in
Pickwick? They don't, do they?
They did, yes. Oh.
They did, Right, OK. One of the dancers, It was his
birthday and after a performance he wanted to take the whole cast
everybody out to the to the local pub and he wanted to buy a
round of drinks because it was his birthday.
Yeah. And Harry was there and and
Harry said, oh, no, you know, no, you don't need to do this,
you know. No, no, save you money.
Do you know, Don't be. Don't be daft.
But this dancer was insistent that he wants to and it must
have cost, oh, God knows how much back then, you know, But it
was a significant sum of money. And everyone had, you know, had
the drink and you know, chatted away and a fine time was had by
all. And then Harry had to go.
And he and he came up to this particular dancer whose birthday
it was, and he and he grabbed his hand and he pumped his hand
quite violently and said clapped him on the shoulder and said
happy birthday, you know, thanks again and all the rest of it.
Then he and off he went, and the dancer.
This chap looked down at his hand and Harry had stuffed, I
don't know, £80 in his hand. Yeah, that was Dad.
Yeah, that makes me sad. It's wonderful.
But yeah, Dad was like that. I I didn't know that story and.
But it was fairly standard with Dad.
He he had a thing when he was working at the Palladium, I
think he called it Harry's Happies.
So on a Saturday night he would fill his dressing room full of
booze and people could come in and have a drink after the show
on a Saturday. And I'd always believed in, you
know, being accessible to everybody in the cast.
He led a cast brilliantly. He was so kind and generous and.
Yeah, he, he, he really set a good example of how to lead a
cast with joy, you know, But also you could come and talk to
him if you had a problem or you know, he was always very open to
to helping people. Yeah, yeah.
I mean this, this podcast, we talk about actual Goon Show
episodes, but we also talk about anything that's got a Goon
connection. So it can be a Peter Sellers
film or Spike television series or a book.
With, With, or Michael Benteen. You know, we've done episodes on
Michael Benteen. Mike, yeah.
With, with, with, with Harry, we've done, you know some
episodes about, you know specifically about him we
covered Sunstruck a few months ago for.
Example. Gosh, yes, I was Babe in arms on
that. Oh, I'm going to ask you about
that if you can remember anything but.
But I'll be honest with you and say that, you know, the majority
of episodes of this podcast, just because of the breadth of
work, have tended to focus more on Spike and Peter.
Yeah. And and I've spoken to people
who've, I mean, I've spoken to Jane Milligan, for example.
Lovely Jane. Yes.
Yeah and and I've spoken to people that have known know a
lot about Spike and Peter and and it's and and it's fair to
say and I don't think anyone would beat me with fists for
saying this but both men had their issues and could be could
be challenging to deal with and. The the thing that we find time
and time and time again whenever we talk about the goons is the
the same sort of phrase or variations of the phrase.
Harry was the glue. He was, yeah, Yeah, he's, he
definitely was. He was.
He was by nature a a very calm, kind person.
You know, he had his human beings, so we had his moments
like we all do, but he was very generous and open person and I
think all of the goons, Mike, Spike and Peter loved him
immeasurably and and he never sort of had any issues with any
of them. So he came.
I think there was just so much love for him, and I think it
was. Hard and must must have been
hard for dad to be the glue, because it can be hard to be the
glue, you know because you have to keep everybody happy or feel
like you have to keep everybody happy.
But he was, he was very good at that because he was he was
really was full of joy. Dad you know he was a massively
positive person always looking forward in life.
He said don't look back, look forward.
And when he left, when he when he when he passed away.
You know, we really missed that in the family.
I think we were so spoiled because we had somebody who had
such a positive life force all the time.
When that goes, it's really hard.
It's kind of really remind yourself that that everything's
not as bad as it seems. So he he had a great kind energy
about him. Good evening.
They've given me the honour of this year.
I've introducing the Royal Variety Show.
Not because I'm the oldest performer, just because I carry
the most weight. This was brought home to me in
the day of the show. As I walked in the stage door,
all the fans started screaming. One young teenager turned to a
mate and said, oh look Elsie, it's the four Beatles trying to
sneak in under one coat. That was The Beatles music you
heard just now. I know they were a big hit.
They were as scared as the rest of us folks.
One of them told me after the show that they hadn't been that
scared since the day they came face to face with the Barber.
But the Royal Variety Show was a big night for show business.
It's a get together of the cream of entertainers and I was there
too. Well, it's I was a class amongst
the cream, isn't there? And it's it's very telling as
well that he had the same he was married to the same woman for
his whole life. My lovely mum, Myra.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were, they were
together for, oh goodness me, I don't know, 50 odd years, I
think. And they were a great team
because they used to laugh together all the time, you know.
So there was a lot of laughter in the house.
And I know that sounds a bit cliche, but they did.
They laughed. They he found her hilarious and
she, you know, put up with all his jokes, you know?
Didn't he? When he first met her on the
first date, didn't he pretend to be Canadian or something?
He did. He apparently said can I have
this dance or whatever? That's a terrible connection,
accent. And she said, Oh no, I don't
like him, no, no, no, I'm going to go home now because Mum, Mum
being all four foot ten of her. Worked in a dress shop or had
worked in a dress shop and then she was a head engineer I think
in a munitions factory during the war she was always very well
put together and she was with her friend Vera Chard and they
went to this dance on the Mumbles Pier and mum said, well,
I liked the boys from the RAF. That was her thing.
And this this spectacled Spotty young.
Lads, I think even his glasses were fixed together with a bit
of tape came up to her and said can I have this dance, you know,
and and she was like, no, I'm going home.
And Vera said, come on give the boy a chance.
He's just been de mobbed, you know Dad in his de mob suit
which probably didn't fit very well and and so she did and they
they made a date to meet a week later and Mum said she couldn't
remember what he looked like and it didn't start off very well.
But it it ended well, it went on very well for a long time.
Absolutely. What was her?
What was the name of her friend? You say Vera Chard?
Vera Chard. I think it was.
I think it was Vera Chard. That is the that is the name of
one of the girls that Bluebottle would have set his cap at in the
Goon Show. And it's probably all in the mix
somewhere. And you've got, so yeah, I mean,
you've got. Well, I say you've got you,
You've got David and Andy. David and yes and and sadly your
sister Jennifer died few years back.
Yes, she did, Yeah. In 2019, yeah.
Yeah, but there were four of you.
Yes. Well, he was working a lot
there, wasn't he? He was always working, I guess,
so he'd be away a lot. He was always working and he at
the beginning of the career, especially with the goons, I
think he must have been working constantly because.
I I always got they. They were called to them on a
Sunday, didn't they? So we lived in Cheam for years
and years and years until I was about 16.
But they, mum and dad moved there in like early 50s when dad
sort of hit the big time and Dad was working seven days a week.
I honestly don't know how they did it, how my mum did it.
I think my mum had help. I think her.
Parents, my grandparents came, and I think there's always
people in the house to bring up everybody, you know, because
there's so much going on. And Dad kept working.
Even when when David and I were growing up, dad's career changed
and morphed and he then found highway.
So it was, you know, he he began a different strand of his
career, but he was always working.
So yeah, and it's hard, you know, I'm 55, you know?
A jobbing actress I do very well.
But you know, it's it's hard to keep a career going.
You know, when you've got kids to bring up, it's difficult.
So yeah, I don't know how they did it, really.
So did you attend the Last Goon Show of All in 72?
I don't. I might.
I don't think I did. I have vague, hazy memories of
fantastic get togethers on a Sunday where everybody would go
into my. Parents bar, you know, and sit
and swap fantastic stories and I'd sort of sit on the floor and
sort of soak it all in really. I was going to ask you about
that. Did you certainly you will have
met Spike? Yes, and probably Mike, but did
you meet Peter? Did Peter visit much or I?
Don't know if I did. I know that he was.
He couldn't make it to my sister's wedding.
That was 1977. I might well have met him, but I
can't remember meeting him. I can remember meeting Spike and
and Mike. Yeah, What was what was she?
What's your memories of Spike with your dad?
I well, again, hazy, I I remember I got bad Jelly the
witch. We went to you know, like a book
launch I think for that. And then I met him when he was
much older and before dad died. But he was a lot more frail.
And he looked at me and my sister's sister and he went, oh,
you look like pre rafaelite paintings.
Got that from. Because we certainly what my
sister did, I certainly don't. But yeah, he was very he could
be very charming and he would phone up a lot and talk to dad
and and they would chat for hours.
And this is usually on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday
or something like that. So I've got memories of picking
up the phone to him. Yeah, Mike, we had.
Lovely lunches with Mike, Sunday lunches.
And Mike helped me on my dissertation when I was at uni
because I did my dissertation on the windmill.
Really. Yeah.
Which was fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.
And. I looked into, you know, was it
how Van Damme got away with making?
Well, this is if if it moves, it's rude.
But you know, we're recreating Venus coming from the waves, so
how can it be rude, you know? And all that double standard,
really. Yeah, the men.
Yeah, the men with the the magnified.
Spectacles. And everything else that was
going on, you know well. Because obviously your dad
performed there and and Mike was part of Sherwood and Forest.
That's. Right.
And and and Peter, of course, got a job.
Now I know Spike auditioned and I think he went out onto the
stage for his audition and his first words were something along
the lines of I'm sorry, I'm wearing clothes.
Something like he didn't. Eddie got show in the door.
That's brilliant. That's brilliant When you think
about how long ago that was. And then somebody saying that, I
mean, yeah, Incredible. Oh, my dog that very good.
Yeah. He just snorted.
Yeah. You mentioned you mentioned bad
Jelly, which was my first introduction to Spike when I was
when I was a kid, because it was huge.
I you may have detected from my accent that I was born in.
Well, I was born in New Zealand actually.
OK, and it's huge. Bad Jelly.
The the audio recording that Spike made of bad Jelly in The
Witch is really popular and it always has been.
Really. It used to be played on the
national radio station. There was a Kids Sunday Morning
kids show. Really.
Where they? 'D play things like Captain B
Key. Oh yeah.
Oh, I love Captain B Key. Yeah.
And. Bad Jelly, Yeah.
But. It's interesting because I
think, and I should know this, but I've got it in my head, was
Bad Jelly? Did Spike write Bad Jelly with
Jane in mind? I think he did, yes.
And of course I know quite little because she'd lost her
mum not long after that. I before that, I think.
Or. Something after, I think.
Yeah, she was certainly ailing by that point.
Paddy. Yeah, but of course your dad
wrote Katie in the OR came out with Katie Yes.
Tell me about that. Oh, OK Well, so we had a
wonderful house in Majorca, which was sold now, but by the
side of it was, it was right on the sea.
And it had on one side of the house that there was a Cove,
sort of very small little sort of rocky Cove.
And one night I couldn't sleep. I was, I must have been about
seven or something. And I mean, you know, I'm an
older parent, so they must have been exhausted.
And I'm going, I don't let's go to sleep and said, I said, I'll
tell you a story, I'll tell you a story.
So he made-up the story on the spot about this sea monster
called Fred the Nuggler who lives in the Cove.
And this little girl called Katie goes on holiday with her
parents. It's very autobiographical and
she makes friends with this sea monster.
But Fred's secret is that he is an alien from outer space and he
was left on Earth millions of years ago and because he was
naughty. So in order to go back home.
It's very similar to ET, but well written well before ET, may
I just add, he has to love somebody.
Somebody has to tell him a story and he has to find true love or
something. There's sort of things he has to
achieve. And he achieves all of that with
with Katie, and then he goes back to the spaceship, but she
cries a tear. And then the tear becomes the
nurger and spirit. It's very beautiful story.
And I'm actually looking at the illustration.
I've got the illustration on the wall, which was done by a lovely
illustrator called Priscilla Lamont.
And she never met me, but she, she had photographs of me and
she's got me to a tee. It's a fantastic, fantastic book
now out of print. Very sad, but a wonderful story
nonetheless, and something I'm incredibly proud of.
Absolutely. You're immortalized in for the
ages. Yeah, Yeah.
Surely your dad could have had a case.
He could have failed. He could have well, he could
have done. Spielberg's people and said,
come on, come on, he did go. It's very similar, sweetie, you
know, But I don't think that was my that wasn't how he rolled.
But yeah, I mean, you know, it was very, very similar.
Yeah. I was practicing yesterday and I
split my trousers. So I thought if it happened
today. So I had all the trousers
reinforced. Unfortunately it was a nice high
stool and no bother. You didn't.
You didn't need to block and tackle that.
No, thank heavens, no. I have to get up in time.
Can you give us AI? Should stay at the old night,
Patrick. Yes.
There we are, Sir. I tried to do a little bit of
research for these podcasts and I was just earlier I was looking
at some photographs and I saw a photograph of you you must have
been about. I don't know. 13-14 at the
investiture. Your dad's knighthood with my
lovely grey hat on. Yes.
Oh Lord, yes. That was a look.
Yes, I remember that very well. I remember going to the toilet
in Buckingham Palace and being slightly horrified that it was a
wooden toilet, the wooden seat. Oh, you didn't you didn't smoke
weed like The Beatles did in. No, I didn't do that.
No, no. But it was amazing.
I mean, you know, you sat there in a the military band, played
songs from the shows. It was rather light.
It was beauty. It's not what you think it's
going to be. It's quite light hearted.
Yeah, but the night before, Dad had had worried because he split
his pants when he was rehearsing in the kitchen.
I think Mum was pretending to be the Queen God lover and sort of
stopping him with a wooden spoon.
And then he knelt down and he'd ripped his pants and he was
like, oh, what am I going to do? And then we had to get dad's
tailor, John Panifer, a wonderful John Panifer, to come
and reinforce the seat of his trousers.
Honestly, it was hilarious. Yeah, was.
That because that would have that was around the time of he
went. He went to the Charles and Di's
wedding as well. Yes, he did.
Yeah, they both did. Yeah.
And I never forget waving them off because they had to go
something like 8:00 in the morning or something to be
there, you know, at the Abbey or pause and pause rather.
And yeah, they my mother had, but my mother resplendent in
purple. Yeah.
And they, I think they bought them Charles and Diana.
They bought them for their wedding gifts.
I think they bought them two Walk.
Ones Oh really, Father? Yes, which I thought was.
Come on, you think that you might?
Look back and think that's a weird thing to but but they were
the height of fashion in Asian. Absolutely.
I mean I thought that was very far reaching of my parents even
then and I know that she used to like listening to Duran Duran
Spandau Ballet wandering around Balmoral.
So I often I I think there was a picture of her once with a
Walkman, I think. I wonder if that was what the
attack got. Someone like I'm going to say
Paul Weller. Came back from Japan in the
early 80s with a Walkman, really early 80s with a Walkman and all
His group of friends and fellow musicians would take turns
listening to tapes through, you know, because they they weren't
used to hearing music like that. It was used to the clarity and
the just the sound of it. I I never forget the first time
I heard music in a Walkman, and it was the most.
It was like being in a film. All of a sudden you've got a
soundtrack, you know, and and it's the shock.
It's literally the shock of the new, isn't it?
I suppose so, yeah, I thought that was quite, quite good of
mine. It was.
Very, very. Yeah, absolutely.
Because it was again around this time as well.
And I don't want to go too. It's not dark, I suppose, but
your dad was. Your dad was given, the doctor
basically said, you know, shape up.
In terms of your health and your fitness, otherwise you're not
going to be around much longer, yes.
That was because he liked. He liked to eat.
He liked to drink and he was a Bondi girl that's you know he he
he liked life and you know he'd got into he loved Italy and and
he loved Italian food and and I think he would have lived in
Italy but but Majorca was closer and and and that's where we
ended up and we loved it there anyway.
But you know we love to eat and drink we still do in my family
but yeah I I he'd got he'd flown to us what Dad would do and I I
really admire him for this because dad would do these long
concert tours of Australia and New Zealand I'm sure you're
aware of that and he would be away for quite a long time and
then he would fly back and meet us in Barbados.
That's terribly glamorous, doesn't it?
So that we could have Christmas together and this one Christmas
we would meet him at the airport and whatever.
And this one Christmas he really wasn't very well at all and he
sort of felt very ill on the plane.
And I think a stewardess, he's flown from somewhere like Lai
think he'd gone that way. So Barbados and the the air
Hostess had said oh you're not looking very well so and he
went, no, I'm just want to get home to get to Barbados to see
my family of course got there and then was rushed to hospital
and they, the doctor said it was colic and it wasn't colic.
It was the burst sort of it was colon.
I think it's something you know it was really bad.
It was, it was very, very touch and go and he was in hospital
for a very long time over there, saved by a wonderful surgeon and
then came back and then that was when the weight came off and he
started playing golf in earnest and and he stopped drinking.
What was that? Yeah, because the doctor said
you can't drink anymore and it wasn't because he was an
alcoholic or anything like that. I think it was just that the
lifestyle was was too much. I was at Twin Towns.
I've been working there for the week.
It's up there on the border, you know, and I had a bad stomach.
I wasn't quite sure was what was wrong with me.
And I got the plate of Barbados because I was there doing that
for Christmas and all the family had gone.
So I thought, I wouldn't see the doctor in case there's something
seriously wrong with me. I'll get a Barbados first and
then be sick with all the family, you know, all sit around
and watch it throb. And it turned out to be I had
what they call diverticulitis, Welsh disease.
You know, actually the colon have punctured.
And we came to a full stop. I was suffering from
punctuation. A dangerous, dangerous thing.
And you, you were operated on in a?
Second opinion for Witch doctor. Did you think it might affect
the old vocal cords? Well, it was, yes.
The other low down the scar was it.
Yeah. Everything's all right now.
Well, the light entertainment, British British light
entertainment, the establishment in the 60s and 70s, it was.
It was cocktail parties and BBC parties and just parties in
general where the wine flowed and the Brandy and the, yeah,
everything, even in my, you know, living memories, actors,
you know, was a lot more readily available than than it is now.
So it's a lifestyle thing? Yeah, definitely.
Just on that, you know. The the cliche is to say Toby
and Brucey and Bonnie Corbett and people like that.
Were they popping round to the house sometimes?
Those sort of people? Were you meeting people like
that? Yes.
I mean, we'd always see them at at events.
I I wouldn't say. I mean, you know, Mum and Dad
were. They were, I think, Dad when he
was, when he was off, you know, when he'd switched his off
button, Yeah. He liked to spend time with us
and he liked to read and he liked to play golf and he but he
was a voracious reader. My father loved history, got me
massively into history, and we both loved Roman history lots
and lots. And so he did have his sort of
private moments where he would like to be just dad in the
family. But yeah, we we Ronnie Corbett
was a big friend. Tarbi you know Jimmy was was
always a very, very big friend of my family's.
You know Bruce Forsyth, we'd see it at at gatherings and things
like that and he we'd also have a that would have a a golf
classic at Effingham every year and lots of celebrities would
come to that and then everybody would come back to ours.
Or there was also the famous cricket match across Cheam Rd.
at Sutton Cricket Ground where everybody came back to ours on a
Sunday night and and that was fun.
He had lots of interesting times there.
So yes, there were lots of people that were incredibly well
known, but but they were seen as sort of family and friends, you
know? Yeah, and when when your dad had
to quit, you know the booze and had to slim down, did his nature
change in any way? Did he change in any?
No, I I don't think he did at all.
I think he had to slow. I mean I don't think he worked
as frenetically as he had before.
And I think my brother David and I had the benefit of that
because he was more accessible and available and around because
obviously you know when you're doing.
I mean, I do eight shows a week and I have a, you know, I have a
son. And it's hard, you know, when
you've got kid and you've got to do that much work all the time,
you only see them one day a week.
And so when Dad was doing things like songs, Praise Highway, he
was around a lot more. He was around for holidays and
birthdays and so we got to see him a lot.
Yes. And I think, you know with a
better lifestyle and a slow down pace of life, we got the benefit
of that. Not to say that my old brother
and sister didn't have a wonderful time.
So I think, I'm sure they did, but I think that that we had
more of of dad as a as a, as a constant presence, you know, not
as much as the huge star that he'd been in the 50s and 60s
because they were, I think the goons were kind of like rock
stars. They were so massively famous.
And then by the time that David and I were, you know, sort of
early teens, Dad's career had had changed.
Yeah, he. But he was still, you know, he
was still Mr. Light Entertainment, wasn't he?
He was still, he was really terrific, yeah.
And writing and Piece of Punch and writing novels and
presenting and concert tours. And we're still working
extremely hard and but I think we just saw more of Dad, you
know because the theatre life is is quite brutal, can be very
difficult when you're always performing.
You said about, he said always look forward, don't look back
now Peter Sellers, he was constantly looking back, OK.
He was very nostalgic towards the end of his life and it sort
of ramped up as well. And he and he would keep he had
recordings of, you know, audio recordings and video recordings
and city film recordings of so much of his earlier life, and
that included, you know, the goons.
Spike, you may have seen there was a documentary recently about
his archive and he kept recordings and so much stuff.
Amazing. A messing huge amount of stuff
from his whole career. I get the impression, and you
tell me I'm wrong here, but that Harry probably wouldn't have
kept much in the way of an archive.
Is that? Well, you'd be wrong there.
Oh, right. OK, so we have a quite a big the
sense of archive, which we've gifted to the National Library
of Wales, of Dad's scrapbooks, which were kept by my
grandmother, who I sadly never met.
But they started in like 48, and they go all the way up to about
60. My brother's the expert on this,
not me, but it goes up to about 64.
OK so my brother being the sort of custodian of the archive,
he's digitalized it all the original copies are in the
universe at the Library of Wales and and we have access to, you
know, we we have access to it. So although Dad and and also dad
was a prolific photographer and cameraman, he liked taking.
So we've got some amazing films that we're getting digitalized.
We were in talks about doing a documentary because we were
approached by a company to do a documentary, but we haven't
heard anything and it's great shame because we've got some
fantastic things that I think should be shared really.
You know spike in and and Peter's work is obviously
incredibly well known and for good reason.
But you know dad was also, you know, a fruitful part of the of
the puzzle And and he's, I mean some of these things we found
were hilarious. I mean dad was you know,
sponsored teas, maids and you know, all sorts of pictures
we've got. I mean it's absolutely
hilarious. That was in a regular column in
a comic called Film Fun. Yes, I know I've seen those, you
know, and we've got all those bits and we've got some
incredible finds and we've got dad's war Diaries.
We've got all sorts of things. But yet we haven't, yeah,
managed to do anything with it. OK.
Well, I know Channel 5, I mean there was a recent sellers
documentaries. Channel 5 is doing wonderful
things for, for, for people like the people that listen to this
podcast. Channel 5 caters for that
audience very well because there's a lot of.
There's been a lot of sort of 90 minute long documentaries.
There was a Peter Sellers one. There's one about.
One of my favorite sitcoms recently man about the house for
example Kenneth Connor Dick Emery you know the Channel 5 is
doing some kind of under the radar stuff and and it would not
surprise me and and a 90 minute documentary on on your dad would
be perfect for Saturday night on Channel Five.
Yeah, yeah, I think it would be great because what we we've been
approached before by companies that want to do documentary on
that being on highway and the lighter entertainment side,
which is absolutely fine and totally obviously viable.
But we also wanted to put in the the goon stuff, a lot of the
goon stuff because the, you know, I'm saying the dreaded
journey would, but the journey that they were on together was
extraordinary. It was incredible, not, you
know, very interesting, unique experience and we've got a lot
of this information there from Dad's point of view, so it would
be nice to say. Did he, did he talk a lot?
You know, when I'm talking in later years, when you were in
the 80s into the 90s, did he talk a lot about the goons?
Did he listen to goon shows? Did he do a lot about The Goon
Show? We would listen to The Goon
Show. I mean I was brought up on it
obviously, but I mean and and I'm what I'm very thankful for
is that that I have access to Radio 4 Extra.
You know it has it on all the time BBC sounds you know it's
but dad would talk about the The Goon show a lot.
I mean those they were his sort of formative years.
You know although he he would look forward you know I think
that sort of friendship you can't really bottle it's it's
it's very it it's what can I say about it it's it creates you as
a person it's it's that sort. Of character forming.
Character forming, friendship. It's so important.
That those four people got together, had that connection at
that time that was so, you know, that just after the war, and
that they took the stuffiness just after the war and they
broke through and they just provided the world with pure
joy, really, which is what I think it is.
It's heaven escapism, yeah. I think that's what it is and I
think he he was. I think that's the time.
When Dad as a performer was at his happiest, definitely,
because. And you can hear it on every
recording, I mean, you know in in the Man who Won the War, Dad,
you know, is is genuinely laughing.
Well, Sally's always said it was his happiest time.
Spike Spike's a bit less, Or Spike's a bit more ambivalent
about it, but he. Had Spike had a lot of pressure
on his shoulders. I mean, you know, he was under
enormous pressure. I mean, you know, having to
write everything toward her, you know, it's huge.
But but the the sense of play between them all is phenomenal.
It's great. And he's always held up as being
always up, never down, always laughing, blowing raspberries,
that sort of thing. And I and I guess there's a
couple of performances where he sort of gives, gives the light
to that and I'm thinking obviously Mr. Bumble, yes, but
also have you seen the bed sitting room recently?
I love the bed sitting room. You remind me of my first wife.
That's funny. You see.
I never met her, you see. What you do for me, what my
first wife did, Doris tries, but she she can't coordinate, you
see. Will you do it for me?
Well, as long as we get it over quickly before Daddy misses me.
Now. Now.
See. Reason.
Move it. Move it.
You're worse with your mother. I didn't move it.
I hadn't. She's a common grand secretary.
She's. Move it.
Please. I love you.
Please. She's accepted me at all.
Move it. Move it.
I love you. Move it.
Please. No.
The people next door. Get out.
Your slut. Go.
And leave me alone. That was my best dinner service.
The I think Dad had had the ability and he didn't roll with
it. I wish he had to have played
some really interesting characters.
He I think he was offered the Fool in Leah.
Oh really? It's.
I think so. I don't know whether that's an
urban myth, but I think that's true.
And he said no. But I think, you know, if you've
got concert tours, you've got a family of four, you know, life
passes, you buy, maybe your management isn't what it should
be. You know, there are things that
I think he could have done and I think he would have liked to
have done more interesting, stranger, difficult characters
because he definitely had the, the, the propensity to do it.
So yeah, that would have, I would have loved to have seen
him do a a a Shakespearean clown of some sort.
I think that would have been amazing.
Yes, indeed. I mean the the bed, sitting
room, the character he plays in there, basically he's killed his
wife and his mother-in-law, I think.
Yeah. And he's OK.
It's played for last. Great.
Great because that's you know it's it's it's this sort of, I
don't know it would have, he would have been great.
He would have been great in in something more edgy bit darker
maybe. And of course Andrew.
Your brother Andrew has been keeping the sort of the the the
goon Harry Seekin alive in, in the sense that he's played
Harry's parts in recreations of not just The Goon Show but also
Hancock's Half hour. Yes, that's right.
Yes. And and how exciting that they
found this, this lost even more credible really.
So that's that's good news. So yeah, I mean the legacy goes
on. I I don't know how you feel
about this, but I think I think they should have.
Harry should have had a sitcom, you know, in the in late 60s
into the 70s. He should have had a sitcom
built around him, I think. Yeah, I think there was, I think
there was talk of. National Lampoon, the animal
sort of thing. National Lampoon.
Before they did The Animal House, somebody there was a
there was a television show or a television producer, somebody
from the state who had an idea for dad and dad was was about to
go and sort of possibly break America with this show and it
didn't come off and it really upset Dad.
And I think he would have loved to have done something like
that. But I think, I think fortunately
or unfortunately whatever way you look at it, he did the
highway and songs of praise came along and then you know the
personality of Dad was was seen differently.
Did you've just reminded me that was there either a pilot filmed
or there was a pilot screened in America with Harry like a I've
got there's a photograph of Harry dressed as a large blue
rabbit. Well, that's.
I've never I've that's amazing. I don't know.
But yeah, I think possibly this was what we're talking about
then, that there was something. And again, David, you know, it
was definitely, it was definitely filmed in America or
shot in America, whatever it was.
Maybe he did a pilot then. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
And it did, yeah, it must have done a pilot and it didn't take
off, or the network didn't take it, or all fell through.
But I think he, I remember once Dad said to me, oh, not long
before he died, I was the nearly man and I often wonder whether
he felt he could have done more. And I sort of poo pooed it at
the time I said, oh Dad, look, you're really famous.
I was, you know, 20 odd. But I now know how he you know,
there's missed chances along the way, even though you have a
fantastic career. Maybe, he thought he could have
done something more, but he was. Blessed with a more balanced
life and absolutely. Yeah, you know, he was
successful in his personal life. So maybe, you know, we have to
be thankful. Trade.
Trade one for the other, I think.
Yes, I think it is all about balance.
Sellers had a very successful, well, yeah, very successful.
Professional career, but God the personal life.
Yeah, terrible. Just awful.
Awful, you know. Terrible.
I'm cut the spit out Katie, because I'm just going to try
and send you a photo of Harry. And it wasn't Harry dressed as a
blue rabbit, but he's standing next to 1.
Oh my God, look at that. I think that must have been it.
Must have been it. That's clearly something filmed
in America. Yeah, you can just tell, can't
you? Well, yeah.
That's it. I'm going to send David that
picture. That's incredible.
Yeah. I think that must have been it.
That must have been it. Yeah.
I mean, you know, it's it's, it's sad because it was, it was
a polymath, really. He could do everything he had,
you know. So we have never mentioned the
singing, does he? Did he sing around the house all
the time? Was it annoying or?
He would only sing to warm up, which was he, Ma, And that was
it. If as long as he could hit a
Topsy, he was fine, He was. He was annoying like that
because he never really had to warm up.
He had a God-given voice. He would sing a lot and very
loudly and often in your ear, and when you're 14, that's
deeply embarrassing, but I'll forgive him for that.
But yeah, he was. He was an amazing.
I mean, his voice was absolutely astounding.
So strong and clear even, you know, all the way up to when he
had his stroke. It was, it just got better with
age. It was incredible, yeah.
And my aunt, back in the Old country, when I was a kid, she
had loads of Harry Seekem LP's, Yes.
And she was very, and I think she had a bit of a soft spot for
him, if you know. What?
I mean, now I know that I know that your mum and dad were very
happily married. I'm not implying anything.
But did did he did, did he get a bit of female attention?
I didn't go see, he didn't go seeking it.
But did do you think that his voice, his singing voice and
just his general character, you know, was he?
Oh, for sure. We had fans.
We we had one fan. God love her.
She was called Daphne. I think she named her children.
After us. Oh my God.
That was a bit weird. Yeah.
He had, he had a lesion of of of female fans, I think probably
male fans as well. Yeah.
I mean, you know, because his voice and his, his personality
and you know, the the package, you know, it's lovely.
So yes, I think, I think he did appeal to it.
But it's weird. I'm his daughter.
I don't know, but I but he did certainly have.
Very. A few very, you know, full on
female fans. Yeah, OK.
It wasn't getting knickers in the post or anything.
Like that, No. Not like Tom Jones, No.
OK. I have a brilliant plan that
sounds like a brilliant plan. If it works, I shall accept the
responsibility. If it fails, it was all his idea
in the 1st place aside good. If it went wrong, I would be
blamed. And then I'd get my ticket.
Normal aloud. This is the idea.
Build cargo tanks, put them on Salisbury plane and the Germans
will waste thousands of bombs on them.
Grab me scalabus and fad me gringers.
You. You.
You must be mad. Yes, there's a bit a man.
You tell my CEO. Want you a man.
Get out of here, you naughty doggy.
Get out of here. Hello, my secret.
Hello, War Office. I've had a brilliant idea.
Look, why don't we build cardboard tanks?
So my plan was put into operation 3 weeks later.
The air of a Salisbury plane was vibrant with the sound of German
aircraft. What a sight it was.
I saw it all on the newsreel. The silly Germans swallowed the
bait and bombed the cardboard tanks.
This is the BBC Home Service. Last night fleets of German
bombers dropped cardboard bombs on Salisbury Place.
I thought it would be a good idea if we talked about or
listened to a show where I the the The Goon Show episode that I
think is a really strong Seeker episode, OK?
And it's not one that gets talked about very much.
It's Had you heard it before? Do you know what I I had and
it's one of my favourites actually and I I thought it was
much later. I didn't realise it was 1955 and
yeah, well, I think it's, it's interesting because it was
literally two days broadcast two days before ITV was launched.
No, really. Good.
God. Well, I just, I think the thing
it's it's incredibly well written.
I think when Spike writes with Eric Sykes, the scripts are
great, yeah. Dad said that.
The dad said that they were always good.
Larry Stephen ones were good as well and obviously Spike as
well. But the, you know, they're
really sharp. The thing I love about this is
it's kind of sort of autobiographical on on Dad,
because Dad did, I think, go into the Army when he was 16
saying he was 17 and what I love.
It's it's Dad at his authentic best.
You can really tell that he's enjoying, you know, taking the
Mickey out of the Army and all this.
Come on chaps, you know, let's go to war.
You know, patting people on the head and the shoulder and
saying, I mean off you go, I think because Dad, when he was
in the 8th Army. In North Africa, I think he met
Montgomery and he was standing right in front of Montgomery
with like spots all over his face.
And Montgomery looked at him and went, yes, you know, yes,
that's. Right.
Dad didn't like authority. He had a bit of a scathing, you
know, take on authority, especially that kind of
authority. And I love the way that it talks
about. You know, it's very sort of
timely because everybody was bringing out their war memoirs
at the time, weren't they? So, Or there were films or
whatever. I didn't do it, you know, and it
wasn't me. And then, you know, I love it.
I love it. And you know, the Operation
Mincemeat type sort of thing about the cardboard tanks, and
that's great. Well, that's, yeah.
So we're talking about the man who won the war, which was also
known as Seagoon MCC. Yeah, first episode of series 6.
But yeah, I mentioned two days later, two days after this was
broadcast, ITV was launched. Well, at least I say ITVI mean I
think it was associated Reader fusion down in the the London
region and your dad was there on the opening opening night.
No. Was he?
Yes. There was a variety show at 8:00
PM called Channel 9. Not quite sure why.
And it had. It was a variety show.
It had some people that no one remembers.
Shirley Abacare, Leslie Randall, Elizabeth Allen.
And then your dad, Derek Roy, who Spike used to write for, who
was a sort of third rate comedian, Billy Cotton, Reg
Dixon and others. And it was during this show that
Harry was on that the first commercial break in Britain
occurred. Oh my, and what was that for?
Was it something like sunlight? Soap or something?
Toothpaste. I'm not sure which coming.
What? I didn't write down what the
brand was Toothpaste. There was also an advert after
that for drinking chocolate and then margarine a few days later,
again still on ITV, there was a short series began of the Harry
Seekum show. Never, Yeah, written by Eric
Sykes and the first episode or the first show of the Harry
Sikkim show, I think it was out on the the Saturday of that, the
Saturday of that week. OK, OK.
Was it a one off? I think it was one of three or
something like that. OK, but the first episode
featured guests Norman Vaughan, Johnny Vivian, who used to work
on the show called Fred Series with Spike and Peter, and also
Wilson, Keppel and Betty. No, Norman Vaughn.
Apparently he's credited on IMDb.
So, you know, take that with a pinch of salt, but he's credited
as being called a character called Fred Nurk and Fred Nurk.
And you said Fred Nurk, didn't you earlier?
Yeah, well, I mean, it's definitely from the back of my
dad's mind somewhere. Yeah, Fred Nurk was a semi.
Not even a regular character. Was an occasional character in
the Goon Show that your dad would play a Yorkshire voice.
Oh. Yes, OK.
Oh, well, there you go. Yeah, that's where that's where
it's obviously come from. That something, you know, I mean
we all, you know, my, my, I mean my, my dog's mini banister.
So that we oh, really brilliant. The.
One that's sort of snoring quite loudly.
That's Mini Banister. She's 14.
Yes, I've got mini Banister. Yeah, yeah, so there.
So and also with every goon show, Spike would write around
this period, I should say Spike would take the time and effort
to actually write a little synopsis for the front of the
script. And these were often these
synopses were often printed in the Radio Times to accompany the
shows. But it says here the man who won
the war. Seagoon MCC says, drafted into
the armed forces at the outbreak of the last Great War to end all
wars. Young Neddy Seagoon, a civilian
part time Dustman C Bear Stains Around My Trouser Tops, Bidley
Bonds, 4 Shillings and Sixpence found himself unable to face the
task of sharing a barrack room with other men.
CI was Fred Merck's Batwoman Price, 13 shillings and sixpence
at all good chemists. His endeavours to secure his
discharge on the grounds of insanity led to a series of
fantastic inventions which drastically altered the course
of the war. C bagpipes over Alamein Price 7
shillings and sixpence at all good.
This is a war story to end all war stories Price 1 shilling and
sixpence or sent post free in a plain wrapper from Knight Soil
Publications, London, right. This is 1955.
This is what I mean. This is the genius of the Goon
Show. What they were doing was must
have been like. And watching aliens come back to
them, you know, I mean, no wonder they were such a
breakthrough group of people. Because it must have been.
It was literally the shock of the new, isn't it?
Yes. It's absolutely, it's frenetic.
It doesn't stop, you know, but I think.
What I love about The Goon Show, apart from the fact that my
dad's in it obviously, but is that that it actually it tells a
story. It it tells a story and fits and
starts, but it tells a story and you know tell story at the war
or you're going about, you know the lurky or you know there's
there's there's an adventure. Will Ned C can make C Goon make
it. You know what I mean?
It's that sort of thing. And to me, I brought my son up
on. Listens to the Goon Show, but I
think he's sort of getting there with it, I think because it's on
the radio and it's hard to make pictures in your mind sometimes.
But he loves The Mighty Boosh, which I think is very similar in
the sense they're going on a journey on an adventure.
And I think it really is very it's very similar.
And I think that's what what's so great about it is that yes,
it bounces around all over the over the place, but it does have
a narrative structure. Well, it's always, yeah, Ned.
Ned is always the central character and and he's usually,
almost always cowardly or he's on the make.
He's he's never heroic, let's put it that no, he's he's
pompous and he's pompous, positive.
Gets pricked, you know? It's that sort of thing as well,
isn't it though? I think I I I love them.
I think they're great stories. And I think perhaps we live in a
in an age where we have to be told what things are like and
what, you know, maybe you have to kind of use your brain a bit
more if you're thinking about the goons, because obviously the
the soundscape it creates is much more diverse and difficult.
And also, as the show went on, I mean this.
Is this is right smack Bang. And then what we would call the
golden period. It's the Goon Show.
Yeah it's a. It's a real golden one, yeah.
But as as the show went on, there were more.
And more sort of surreal elements.
Yeah. And there are.
Yeah. And there are episodes where it
just sort of stops. Well, this right, I was going to
say. Yes, it's a Eric and Spike
script, but I think this has got a lousy ending, yes.
I mean, it's not perfect. I think a lot of it is possibly
alcohol fueled. Oh, I'm sure the.
Brandy. Did he talk about going back?
Back into the wings to drink Brandy during Max and Ray's
numbers. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of
Brandy drinking and whiskey drinking going on, you know?
Yeah. I mean, they were just having a
lovely time. I think it was their Sunday
night off. You know, there are, there are
episodes where I think, oh, God, really.
OK. And even that you can tell the
audience are a bit like, is that the end, you know?
And you can even hear Dad going, yes, I'm going to finish it and
that's it. And you know, aha, but it was
never your dad. It was always Spike.
Spike was. Because Spike wrote these, you
know, either with or without collaborators.
So your dad, your dad was always, very rarely does do I
listen to a game show where your dad is not giving it 100%.
There's the odd one, maybe when he's maybe a bit under the
weather or whatever. But this episode, I mean, it's
interesting as well because you've got this cowardly soldier
who's who's trying to buy his way out of the army.
In fact, it's interesting about it's right at the beginning he
pretends that he's a he's American, which is.
How? It's back to him pretending to
be Canadian with your mum? Exactly.
Well, that's why I'm saying it's so, you know, biographical
because it's that. And then and I there's that
lovely bit where he goes into the Hello buddy, yeah.
And then he pretends to be Mad Seagull.
Why are you hanging around? I'll tell you why.
I took out a roll of pound notes and tossed the rubber band into
his lap. Wait.
This Rubber Band is Empty, Chapter 5 in Which Seagoon.
Tries to work his ticket, Yes. As I sat in my padded cell,
chained to the wall in a double straight jacket, I thought, I
know what I'll do. I like mad what?
I want to join the lovely British Army.
Sign here and then of course you've got the the great
cardboard tanks, cardboard bombs, cardboard Great Britain
and then pull the plug out, which I think is genius
actually. That's absolutely that in that
gets a well deserved. Round of applause.
My dad used to love The Goon Show.
And that the towing. What was it?
Towing England out and then pulling the plug out?
Yeah, he would often. And it surprises me that, right,
because he would often quote that or or mention that as a
great gag from the Goon Show. But this show was never released
as an LP. It was never commercially
available back in the. Day.
So my dad must have heard it upon the original broadcast
because it was never repeated either, but he remembered it.
But yeah, but he would be in the 80s, in the 19. 80s he would be,
he'd be talking about that scene or that that line, you know?
Which it just shows the impact of this show.
You know, when the writing and the performances were so strong,
it would stick in the mind, the gags, you know, Yeah, it was
timely as well because of course people had lived through the
ward put up with, well, there's no street signs, there's no
train signs. There's we've got to do this,
we've got to do that, and it's basically taking the Mick out of
that, isn't it? You know, And it's both had
taken the Mick out of barrage balloons as well, you know,
blowing sort of skins full of air.
And you know, but I'm also the whole.
Idea of cardboard tanks that was used during the war, wasn't it?
It was as decoys weren't they? They were decoy.
They they did. They didn't they do a mock up of
a village or something, complete sort of to throw the scent and
they did all sorts of things. Yeah.
Cardboard. It's interesting model villages
maybe that at the at the time that this was.
Written that wasn't public knowledge.
No, maybe not. Mustn't have been because it's,
it's obviously. Included as a joke.
I mean the the cardboard bombs. It's brilliant.
Where does it come from?
It's fantastic, you know, I mean, I don't know, I I don't, I
honestly know, don't know how he came up with, what he came up
with. But yeah, it's a it's a great.
I'd say it's a great. All rounder Goon Show because
you've got Ray Ellington, you've got, you know you've got them
working as a team. The music's great.
There is a cohesive story. Even though it gets a little bit
lost at the end, it is funny and it it it goes somewhere and I
think it's and I think the performances are great as well
and you've got pretty much all the characters in as well,
haven't you? You've got got Minnie and you've
got Henry and you've got Eccles, you've got blood, you've got the
the works, so you've got pretty much everybody in there.
You've got sellers. Had this thing where I don't
know if you know this, but because often he and Spike would
argue and fall out and and often your dad would be the one, the
mediator, you'd have to smooth things over.
But if if Spike was in in Peter's eyes overacting or
whatever and it didn't take much to wind up.
Peter Peter Sellers. But he had a kind of a a code
word that he would use to let Spike know that he was really
well, because obviously you've got the character of grip.
Pipes then. And then you've got Moriarty
that Spike plays and grip pipes then.
If Peter was annoyed with Spike, he would pronounce Moriarty as
Moriety. Yeah, OK.
And there's a number of occasions in the.
Goon show where you hear him say moriety right.
And I just wondered whether he had a similar one for on the
very rare occasions when he was annoyed with your dad.
Because in this episode he refers to at one point as C
June. Oh, well, then he must have
been. I mean, no.
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. I mean, I I yeah, I don't.
I I now want to listen to them. All again, see what I can, what
I can. You know.
Obviously your knowledge is far broader than mine but yeah I
just, I just think it just it it sort of the episode puts them
all at the height of their powers I think and I honestly
thought it was it was later on in the in the Canon the boon
shows I think and talking about. War time comedy.
Dad's Army, right? What's?
You mentioned Dad's Army. What's the the line that
everyone quotes from Dad's Army if you think of Dad's Army?
Oh, the German officer. The Germans, Absolutely.
And they say your. Name will go on the list.
What is it? And then don't tell them.
Don't tell them, Pike. Right.
Now, I'm going to argue that that gag was first used in The
Goon Show, because there's a bit in this episode.
Now which one of you two is Mr. Cron?
I'm Miss Banish. Never mind who you are.
Which one is Henry Cron? Don't tell him.
Henry No. Yes, yes.
Well, it all goes in the same pot, I suppose.
I suppose it does, yeah. And and of course.
Harry would always tend to just play Neddy.
As I said, he played Fred Nurk. Sometimes he did.
He'd play the odd minor character.
But this show is the debut of an occasional character he played
called Old Uncle Oscar. Oh yeah, who?
Who? Sort of.
We, we believe, on and off, seems to live with Minnie and
Henry sometimes, and he was looking for his teeth in this
episode. Have you Seen My teeth?
Henry. He had them this.
Morning. I had them first thing.
This morning please stop my pigeon stop in there so.
Long. I didn't know that was Dad.
It's not. Yeah.
Have you seen my teeth, Henry? That was your dad.
That's me. I know.
It's funny. I don't know why.
I mean, I don't. I think because Dad and I when I
was growing up, we we do this. He go all right.
Missus missus. Hardcastle.
Mr. Hardcastle. We just used to talk about and
he did a very because dad was a huge admirer and I can't
remember the name of the comedian but he would terribly
were eating all them he do and all them you know.
But I think dad's strength was the sort of, yeah the kind of
lead anti hero slash I'm having to drive the story forward which
is why you know it it worked because you've got the sort of
lunacy of the other two and then Dad kind of going OK, I've got
to keep going with this energetic performance says boy
oh boy, boy. You can tell how much energy is
he's expending to keep it going even though he's loving it.
He's having to drive the performance forward.
Oh yeah, and and and also his. Voice is so distinctive.
Oh God, the other two sellers, obviously.
Particularly could change the voice.
Yes, your dad could change his voice or do different voices,
but you could always tell it was him, couldn't you?
Yeah, he was. He always just say I'm not very
good at blending in with other people.
I went, yeah, no, no kidding, Dad, Really.
Yeah. If you've got quite a pingy
voice. I have a similar problem on
stage when your voice is quite pingy.
It's quite so, I think. It's a family thing.
Must be a face structure thing or something.
But yeah, yeah, I guess that that would that would make
sense. Yeah, definitely one of the,
yeah, I mean, one of the most joyful.
Aspects of Eddie Goon Show was when, well, your dad as Neddie
is overacting When Neddie is overacting.
Yeah, yeah. There's quite a bit of it in
this. In this show, was he always, you
know, was he always blowing, blowing raspberries around the
house? He was always playing
raspberries at home. Yeah, he was always doing that
and he always used to, you know, do silly things like we used to
go, oh, whatever dad, you know, if, if, if, if, if I was
laughing as a child, you know, a teenager, I'd go and they go,
oh, it's a, you know, he just, he just, it'll be a constant
stream of consciousness stuff, which is very difficult to
explain when. We just got on with, you know,
we interviewed Dick, Emery's son.
A couple of months ago. Nice guy, Nick Emery.
OK. And he was telling us we're
talking about everything and you know, just going through talking
about so much about British comedy of a certain of that
period, if you like. And And he was talking about how
much GAIL Morgan would be embarrassed bringing boyfriends
home because her dad, Eric, would just be insufferable in
terms of embarrassing her. Right.
Did you, did you have like did you?
Yes, it was. Well, Dad.
Dad wasn't very keen on any boyfriends.
That Dad was a bit of a Victorian Father didn't.
Like that. So we go.
I'd always know that he didn't like a boy because he'd go how
do? Oh really?
Yeah. So you knew you were, you were
in trouble. And then he he would say, oh,
how's well, smiling Fred, asshole.
He would often call people. So yes, record that, but yes, he
was. He was quite damning sometimes,
and I think people were. When I brought boys home, it was
a bit like, your dad's really famous, but there he would be
watching the telly with the remote in his hand, going all
right, doing his thing, you know, So he was, he wasn't
terrifying. But I think if you didn't like
your boyfriend, I think I was used to know it, right?
OK. Oh.
Blammy. I didn't.
I I would never have thought that, that he'd be like that.
Oh I think you know he could he could have a he has a a slight
Victorian side to him you know but but not bad bad but just
sort of like Stern did your did your girls.
'Cause your anxieties over the years.
Yes, the song was true. Yeah, I began to get a bit
Victorian when they bring. Boys home, you know, what time
do you call this? 8:30, You know, that sort of
thing. But what was he like with?
Religion was he was he religious was he was it just, did he, was
it light sort of sprinkling of religion or.
Yes, I think he was religious person.
I mean, you know, otherwise he wouldn't have done highway or
songs of praise. Yeah, my uncle was vicar and he
yeah, Fred and they'd my dad had been in the church choir.
I sing in my church choir as well when I when I'm not working
eight shows a week. So I think he was always around
the church and felt comfortable with the church I think and but
he but he didn't go to church. He didn't go on a Sunday, but
that might have been something to do with, you know, not
wanting to be recognized with nature.
I don't know. I don't know.
I never really sort of got to the bottom of it.
But I think I remember when I was growing up, I didn't want to
be confirmed because I said, well, I don't know whether I
believe in God or not. And my mother was like outraged
and my dad said let her decide for herself.
So I think he was, you know, quite, he was quite sort of open
and he you. Know he was spiritual?
Probably rather than religious, maybe because you never got the
impression. At all that he was.
I mean, yes, you would often see him on songs of praise and all
the rest of it, but you never got the impression that he was,
and you know, and this is no inference on church, church
going people or anything, but never got the feeling he was God
fearing or anything like that, you know.
No, I think, I think he was basically a deeply.
You know for So what can I say he was deeply sort of Christian
sense that he believed in the good of other people and in
making the world a better place and being kind to other people
which is kind of basically your Christian ethic I would say.
So all your Muslim ethic or any religion, any religion at its
heart is being kind to other people and offering love and
support to other people and and not judging.
So I think that's probably what Dad was all about.
And he was, you know, he radiated.
Good, but not in a saintly way. Just.
He was just. He wasn't pious or anything like
that. No, no, he.
Definitely wasn't pious? No, not at all.
Not at all. I just think he was deeply
interested in other people. He was deeply interested in
other people's religious beliefs because I think Highway did all
sorts of different religions as well.
Yes, they did. Yeah.
And I think that's what. He was interested in.
He wasn't really interested in one particular religion.
OK, I think that's where he came from.
Drifted away from this show and look, I appreciate the time as
well. We'll have to start wrapping up,
if you don't mind, but just a couple of quick things.
Yeah, there's a there's a there's a couple of cracks.
About Harry's weight in this episode.
What do they call him? Let me just find it.
He's referred to as a fat bladder of lard by grip, pipe
thin. At one point, did your dad, I
mean, your dad just seemed to to take it on the chin.
He didn't seem bothered. You get the impression.
He didn't seem bothered by jokes about his weight.
Was or was he quite sensitive? Do you know or was?
Actually, I don't think he was. I think he'd been AI, think he'd
sort of been quite fit and healthy when he was in the Army.
But he was then, Yeah, he was slender.
He was in as a rail. And and I think then found a lot
of pasta I think that's what did and milk stout as well and and
and and good living and we're all all of us in the family are
prone to to going that way So I I I I don't know if it bothered
him. I think it probably did on some
level because some of the cracks are very harsh.
I certainly wouldn't like it and I never asked him.
I think when he got very heavy he wasn't happy, but that's and
I think he knew. That he had to stop, you know,
drinking and and eating too much.
And he was much happier when he'd lost the weight.
But I don't think he was obsessed with it because we're
talking a different time as well.
So it's difficult to know. And also, men weren't as sort of
judged as women are on it, I think, as a different thing.
Possibly. I don't know, or they might be
now, but, you know, in those days maybe it wasn't.
It was seen as a term of endearment rather than a
difficult term, as it would be now, I suppose.
Yeah. I think if he took it badly, he
certainly didn't talk about it. Sure, Yeah.
Yeah. Did you have a particular You've
got you've got a dog called Mini Bannister, but do you have a
particular Goon Show character that you like better than
others? I think I like Eccles.
Really. Oh yeah, because he's sweet.
And that's how we all say we always say that to each other.
Wonderful. So that's nice.
And that's sort of that's, you know, that's sort of in my DNA,
really. I think I'll say that to my son
without even thinking, you know, because he's so guileless.
So I I do love Eccles. Yeah, definitely.
I I really, if I get another job, which I really hope I
don't, so I've got 3 already. But if I do, which you know, I
would try and call him Eccles. But Eccles is quite a hard word
to say when you're calling a dog across the field.
So I don't know what's the name of that.
Do you remember that? That.
Video that went viral about 10 years ago of it middle class,
very middle class man whose dog had run off on oh in Richmond
Park. Is it Fenton or?
Something he was, yeah. Fenton.
Yes.
Screaming across the Wilds of Richmond Park.
Yes, Fenton. Oh, Jesus Christ, Fenton.
Yes, it is embarrassing. I've got Simon.
That's. Bad enough?
Oh, my sister had a dog called John.
Oh, there you go. So Simon Simon was a was.
Was an adopted rescue. He's already called Simon, so
And we've got Prince and we've got Minnie.
So yeah, I mean, Eccles mate, Why not?
Why not right now? And just a couple of quick
things because. For for for listeners who are
interested in these sort of things about this particular
show. Sellers has slightly changed
Henry Cron's voice from from this episode onwards.
Henry Cron's voice is slightly deeper, slightly deeper than it
had been before. So Sellers had because it
slightly more high high pitched previously.
So he's he's just dropped an octave or what?
I wonder why? I think because.
To distinguish it a little bit from the likes of Bluebottle and
also to a degree the William Mate character that he would do,
who at that time also had quite a higher pitched voice that he
right. So it's a technical thing, isn't
it? Rather than.
Yeah, yeah, It was just. I think it was just just just.
To make it more distinguishable. Also because a lot of people
that listen to this this podcast are big fans of the music as
well and. Judge Proctor.
Joined the Ray Ellington Quartet from this episode onwards.
He replaced Don Fraser as the guitarist in the Ray Ellington
Quartet. And so it's a it's a show with
quite a number of sort of like firsts and I believe it's the
first use of the phrase And I didn't go and check, but I've
I've been told from my reading it's the first use of the phrase
needle nod, Will knew. From this episode?
Really. Yeah.
That might be wrong, but. That's that's my understanding.
I wonder why it's not better known.
It should be, I mean the the one that the usual.
Catch phrase that people refer to with the goons as Jing Tong
Ed Lai pose yes, but need or not or.
No, I. Suppose it's the second one that
yeah. Oh, Dad always should say used.
To use it all the time at home? Yeah, so.
But we've barely talked about it.
But yeah, I was I. Wanted to to kind of for us to
listen to 1 show just to to ease us into talking about your dad
in the green show. OK.
But we've not, we've not gone into any detail but is there
anything about the show that jumped out at you any particular
scene or line or I think for me the thing that.
That jumps out. I've listened to it about three
or four times this week. I think the I just as a
performer can hear the connection between those three
men that real love the the sort of they're really loving what
they're doing and it's it's the it's the joy in their voices.
That's what I get. That's the thing that that
really comes across to me and and the fact that they're
because they will they've been there.
They've been in the war. They've done it.
It really speaks to them, I think.
You can tell them, you know, they're all getting their own
back on all this. I was, you know, Monty's Batman.
I was this, you know, all that. They're just really, yeah,
they're they're enjoying every second.
There's little, there's little gags.
Throwaway gags almost, that just fly by.
And if you, you know. If you don't, if you're not
sharp, you miss them. Curses, dear listeners, dear
listeners, All my cunning skirt, urchin, cut, high heel shoes had
availed me not. Never mind, dear listeners.
No army can hold a sequence for long.
I had ideas, after all. Money talks.
Silence. I'll put.
The covers on you. It's very clever and.
Worth a 7th or 8th? Listen, I think before
everything can, yeah, because you miss, you pick it up on us
in a second. Or third or fourth.
Listen, There's There's Blood not refers to one of his one of
his many warm memoirs. Entitled of Blood Knock Never
surrenders by Major Dennis. Blood knock POW.
Oh, and there's the bit where he offers Seagoon a small shot of
snaps. Ned says.
I don't like small snapshots, says.
Say that again. I didn't risk it.
No, it's great. It's great.
And I and I. Like the?
And I just like the the the story of it really, the way that
it has a narrative that's very different.
Yeah, So, absolutely. Cracking episode and as I say,
it doesn't get talked about very much in Goon Show circles
unfairly I think. I don't quite know why.
But anyway, if you haven't heard it listeners, please seek it
out. It is, It is available YouTube,
Spotify, probably BBC sounds. I haven't checked but I think it
is. Yeah, I've used some BBC sounds
here. So listen, Katie.
We've been talking for so long. I'm so grateful for, you know,
you taking my pleasure. I'm sure you're busy.
You love talking about your dad. Oh yeah.
Yeah. Absolutely love it.
And alive and. You know, is there.
AI know I know. It's fair to say.
And you? Kind of alluded to it before
that these days sellers and Milligan are more remembered or
talked about at least, but. What would you, you know, if
your dad, if you could sort of summarize what you would like
your dad to be remembered as or for, you know, could can you
sort of come up with a pity sort of five or six word?
Goodness me. Somebody who had the bravery to
step outside and do something different but also remain loved.
Yeah, I think. I think he was, he, he was, he
was a real lovely mixture between quite edgy and quite
lovable, and he always had that sort of slight undercurrent of
what's he going to do now about him.
And I I would like him to be more remembered for I think my
brother David, and I'm sure Andy would.
To be remembered more for the stuff he did when he was younger
and and his his real sharp comic wit.
You know, he's more than just Highway and songs of praise.
He's more than just Highway Harry.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
And I think. Let's hope that we can get some
a documentary out about the archive sometime soon.
Absolutely, I'm sure, yes. Indeed.
And if, if. The plans are not already afoot.
They should be, and hopefully they will.
They will be. So if anybody's listening that
wants to help, yes. Sure.
The Monster Wheel. Thank you.
She's actually under the hears the show.
Sure, the Monster Wheel did sport and play.
Amongst the Gibson innocent little fish is in the beautiful.
Tea until he was seen by some men one day, and they resolved
to catch him without Gimme. Then the water did descend on
the men in the boats. Going to be a hard night
tonight.