1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:07,160 Yes, this is it Sir, £9 a week, no visitors, no music, no 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,600 dancing, no cooking, no hot water and no breathing after 11. 3 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:15,920 And if you want anything, all you have to do is to go and get 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,760 it, Sir. Get a typical English sporting 5 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:53,280 house. Hello and welcome to Goon Pot. 6 00:00:53,480 --> 00:00:55,520 Coming to you live from underneath a long flannel 7 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,360 nightshirt on Salisbury Plain and on the line all the way from 8 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,720 a far-flung former colony is returning guest Andy Bell. 9 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,000 Hello there. I've been flanked and flanged 10 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:11,320 and everything else in between, but there will be no flannel 11 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:16,320 night shirts here of any sort because they can lead to extreme 12 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,200 rudeness, as I think we will discover during our 13 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,280 conversation. No, no warm cheeks. 14 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:29,000 The word was never said the word, but it was implied. 15 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:31,520 It was implied, yeah, very strongly. 16 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:33,840 We should, we should return to that. 17 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:39,360 And Andy, Andy, third time guest, I think. 18 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:41,640 Is that right? That is indeed right. 19 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:47,000 I have done The Last Tram, Last Tram and also Christmas Carol 20 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,800 and there is a bit of a link between one of the audio gags on 21 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:56,400 the last Tram with this episode in terms of using audio to make 22 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,640 a joke, which was of course one of the great breakthroughs of 23 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,720 the Goon show is put. It is juxtaposition. 24 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:05,760 Juxtaposition of two things which in on themselves are not 25 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:10,600 necessarily funny, but do it the right way and something happens. 26 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,960 Chemistry. A weird kind of chemistry, yeah. 27 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:17,200 Regular listeners will already know your back story, but you 28 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:22,760 are a A a A originally a Scouser I think. 29 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:25,280 Is that right? Or a bit further north than 30 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:27,560 that. I'm a sand groaner from 31 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,000 Fleetwood. Fleetwood That's right. 32 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:38,040 But by happenstance and strange things happening, I'm a Welsh 33 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:41,920 speaking Australian citizen who runs a podcast about 34 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:45,480 broadcasting in the media from my bedroom in Canberra. 35 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,120 But it's it's, it's focused on Welsh speaking isn't. 36 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,440 It on, on Welsh speakers and it's as one of my guests who was 37 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:59,640 a professor of politics said on the thing the other day, niche 38 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:03,600 Andy niche. And it is and I am, I promised 39 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:07,040 previously on this podcast that I'm looking to do something on 40 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:10,120 the goons in the works now, because I've done a bit more 41 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:12,880 research and and found that there was quite a deal of 42 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:17,480 Welshness in the Goon show beyond the special about 5 43 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,200 minute thing they did when Cardiff was declared a city. 44 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:24,400 And of course, Harry Secombe and of course, or Sharon Ellis on 45 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:27,160 the harp. So I'm going to do what I call a 46 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:31,080 pod dog pod, Lydia dog venal. That's your actual Welsh, which 47 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:35,120 means documentary podcast unless and I put out the call. 48 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,800 If there are any Welsh speaking Goon show fans, fans of Harry 49 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:44,040 Secombe, all you know of someone please, please, please contact 50 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,600 me Roku body me know he are the Orthomoth. 51 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:50,760 I will be very delighted, but it's going to happen anyway 52 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,000 because there's quite a lot of material one way or another. 53 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:00,240 And of course, Sellers, it was in a film filmed in my the city 54 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:04,600 of my academic triumph, Swansea. So there's lots of linkage. 55 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:14,080 Raglen Cumbre RHAGLEN new word Cymru is the name of the program 56 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:18,320 or the podcast and Raglen Cumbre was the Welsh language title of 57 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,880 the BBC Welsh Home Service. Add over. 58 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:25,240 Only Two Can Play is a brilliant film. 59 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,560 I love it and when I see places like the Glen Vivian Gallery, 60 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,600 for example, and the library, I worked on Alexandra Road in 61 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:38,080 Swansea where a lot of those scenes were shot in the BBC 62 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,160 offices there, Alexandra Road, which have just been closed. 63 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:48,520 But you know the ugly, beautiful town which it is and continues 64 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:53,920 to be, and I can't shake it off. I'm still a mug supporter of 65 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,040 Swansea City. I was there in March this year 66 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:01,120 on a very wet afternoon watching rugby and having a Joe's Ice 67 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,480 Cream. But Only Two Can Play is a 68 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:09,280 splendid film and Kingsley Amis was briefly at University 69 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:12,440 College, Swansea, my alma mater, as a lecturer. 70 00:05:12,840 --> 00:05:16,280 And the other claim the other linkage for me of that film. 71 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:20,080 I have been at a dinner table with Kenneth Griffith. 72 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:24,600 The great Kenneth, who so you said to me before we started 73 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,960 recording that off the back of my interview with Roger Lewis 74 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:29,880 recently. You've been working your way 75 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:32,640 through the life and death of Peter Sellers, and Kenneth 76 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:35,160 Griffith is one of the key interviewees. 77 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,280 It's a wonderful book. It's a wonderful book. 78 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:43,680 I know it's divisive, but I having worked in broadcasting 79 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:48,440 sellers pathology is not unique. It's just on steroids. 80 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,600 The way he eats up, spits out, etcetera, etcetera. 81 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:56,040 And when you I've seen it with creatives, although I was in 82 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,200 news mainly, but I did some program production. 83 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:03,480 That's when create creatives are a particular lot. 84 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:09,240 But now Kenneth Griffith, that Sunday lunch, my then partner's 85 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:13,600 father was ABBC producer who did some documentaries with Kenneth 86 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,000 Griffith. So we used to have quite famous 87 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:17,920 people. It's the Sunday lunch table. 88 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:22,840 And I found Kenneth Griffith totally terrifying because he 89 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:25,200 was very intense. He was in his making 90 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:33,120 documentaries that never got shown era and very wound up 91 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:37,160 about it. But he he's brilliant in a 92 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:40,040 number of the Sellers film. I'm all Right, Jack. 93 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:43,560 He is particularly splendid in that film. 94 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,400 So I think he's, I think he's great in The Naked Truth, who 95 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:51,080 he's playing in Sonny McGregor's kind of fact totem. 96 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:57,880 That's one way of putting it. Yeah, I would. 97 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:01,600 I would love to have met him. I imagine he was very fierce 98 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:05,880 towards the end, or even. You picked it, you picked it. 99 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:12,040 He was fierce and what he was and I would have only been 2223. 100 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:17,680 He would challenge any any kind of confident statement and and 101 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:22,720 frankly rightly so. But I peeled the spuds. 102 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:30,200 Actually I peeled the spuds with with Vaughan's mum and and we 103 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:31,440 had a few sherries along the way. 104 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:34,760 But we were we're in a domestic situation. 105 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:40,200 But it's a great it's something to look back on when I think, 106 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:45,480 oh, I've had Sunday lunch with Kenneth Griffiths and and a few 107 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:47,480 others besides which I won't name drop. 108 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:50,360 How fortunate are you to see them? 109 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:53,160 Are they? But it always strikes me with 110 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:56,720 people like that when I meet them socially or the camera 111 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,520 stops were whirring. When are they ever off is a 112 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:04,000 performance? You get just a lower key version 113 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:06,840 of the big performance. And of course, going back to 114 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:11,200 Sellers again, he never wasn't performing. 115 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:15,880 In fact, friends were audience. I've just come up actually. 116 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:20,520 I literally put the book down before we started talking of the 117 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:24,480 going to the Duke Ellington concert in his Roller and he 118 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:28,360 couldn't part the damn thing so he went back with his friends to 119 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,880 show them a 16 millimetre version of The Producers before 120 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,039 it was released. End of story. 121 00:08:35,039 --> 00:08:37,640 He didn't have a take up sport, It never got shown. 122 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:39,640 He ruined the night for everybody. 123 00:08:39,919 --> 00:08:44,880 But they were his audience and perhaps some of that audience 124 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:47,760 never came back for more. Others did, of course. 125 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:51,600 So much of seller's life was a was a litany of ruined evenings 126 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:54,560 for people. Yes, we talk and I've heard you 127 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:58,440 talk frequently about, you know, Spike is the difficult character 128 00:08:58,440 --> 00:08:59,880 and we all know that and all the rest of it. 129 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:05,760 But Spike seemed to have his number from Roger Lewis's quotes 130 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:09,200 in the book and and Spike seemed to have picked him. 131 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:14,560 But perhaps is that just positing Spike's awareness of 132 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:17,720 mental health might have helped him a bit there. 133 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,960 Because he he, when you've gone through any kind of mental 134 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:26,520 health treatment, you tend to be more attuned to that. 135 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:31,520 But he was the 50s and behaviour was so different it isn't funny. 136 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:35,880 That's a very good point which I've never really thought about. 137 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,400 But yeah, I guess Spike recognised in Sellers maybe 138 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:43,680 elements of his own personality perhaps. 139 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:49,800 But yeah, just cycling back to briefly to try and get us onto 140 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:54,040 the subject of today's show. Getting back to the Welsh side 141 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:58,000 of things, are you aware of a of a BBC Radio show from the 50s 142 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,520 called Welsh Rabbit? Absolutely produced by my Jones 143 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,480 who who actually wrote We'll Keep a Welcome in the Hillsides. 144 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:14,560 And Welsh Rabbit was incredibly popular because BBC in Wales, 145 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:19,360 because it was operating in 2 languages, did shows in 2 146 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:23,680 languages and therefore it's expertise in light int was 147 00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:27,040 probably there. I say of a higher level than 148 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:30,240 certainly Northern Ireland and possibly Scotland. 149 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:33,480 So it punched above it's weight. But yes, very aware of Welsh 150 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:34,960 Rabbit. OK. 151 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,040 And Harry, relatively early on in his career, did quite a bit 152 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:45,560 on Welsh Rabbit. I, I believe now, late November 153 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:48,400 1957, it transfers to television. 154 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:52,240 And the reason I mentioned that is because the topic of today's 155 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:55,960 show was broadcast in late November 1957. 156 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:57,760 There's a Segway for you, isn't it? 157 00:10:58,120 --> 00:10:59,680 Welder I. Love a pivot. 158 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:03,600 I I did know about the television program because I 159 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:08,040 believe I haven't got the genome project in front of me here, but 160 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:12,760 I believe the Co producer of that television program was the 161 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:18,080 man around whose dining table I sat with Kenneth Griffith 20 odd 162 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:19,880 years late. Well, there were only a couple 163 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:23,000 of producers in in and in those days they did everything. 164 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:26,520 But I know he did shows with my Jones and in he did Come 165 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:31,280 Dancing, he did rugby, he did the Eisteddfod and he ended up 166 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:33,400 making some amazing documentaries. 167 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:37,160 His name was Selwyn Roderick. He did a wonderful doco about 168 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:41,600 Tiger Bay in Cardiff, including early Shirley Bassey. 169 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:47,120 But anyway, we have to we yes. I'm going to mention, I'm going 170 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:49,200 to mention Shirley Bassey briefly later. 171 00:11:49,560 --> 00:11:52,400 So put a kid in her. Oh yes. 172 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:56,600 So everything's got connections, all these tendrils. 173 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:00,080 I'm just looking at another piece of paper in front of me to 174 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:03,080 try and work out if it's the same pin. 175 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:06,200 I don't think it is though. No, it won't be. 176 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:07,680 I can guarantee it. Oh, right. 177 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:10,400 Oh, oh, I love it. You see, people have to keep 178 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:17,600 listening, you poor buggers. And anyway, we'll get to that, 179 00:12:17,680 --> 00:12:19,840 we'll get to that. But but what are we here to talk 180 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:22,160 about today? Andy, tell the the ladies and 181 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:25,920 gentlemen at home. You gave me a list of pick an 182 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,800 episode and there were none of them were familiar to me, so I 183 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:32,760 chose the policy. They approached the spot where 184 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:37,200 Seagoon is fast asleep, standing ridgely to attention in his long 185 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,480 white night shirt. Oh. 186 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:55,760 Look bottle short fat tent. Yes, it is a tent. 187 00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:59,800 Here, let's cut inside out of the cold. 188 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:05,240 Yes, you hold the flap up and I'll crawl underneath. 189 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:10,200 OK, you first. OK. 190 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:14,920 Now me. Oh, that's better. 191 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:18,720 Oh yeah. Much warmer, nice and cozy in 192 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:21,960 here. Yes, I'm much warmer now because 193 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:24,160 you feel my cheek. Fit. 194 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:27,320 Dark. Oh yeah. 195 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:32,680 So you're, you're, you're warm. You're getting fatter too, you 196 00:13:32,680 --> 00:13:37,840 know. What do you mean you haven't 197 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:42,120 touched me yet? Yeah. 198 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:46,720 So the policy, so I was aware, it occurred to me that we've 199 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:49,560 been a bit on Goon Pod. I've been a bit unfair on series 200 00:13:49,560 --> 00:13:55,200 80 in this in the sense that it is generally considered to be 201 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,440 the weakest kind of established series of the Goon show, you 202 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:04,120 know what I mean? And I looked at just before we 203 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:07,560 started recording, I just checked to see so, so I looked 204 00:14:07,560 --> 00:14:11,360 to see how many times we'd covered a Series 8 show on Goon 205 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:14,240 Pod in, in the sort of four years that this this has been 206 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:15,840 running. And the number is. 207 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:21,760 We've we've so far, not including today, we've covered 4 208 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:28,320 episodes, Series 8. That's out of 26 in total and my 209 00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:32,280 maths is pretty ropey, but I make that around about 15% of 210 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:33,920 series 8 has been covered so far. 211 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:37,040 We'll have to get Professor John Curtis in for that. 212 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:43,960 Get him to Coba's hair first. I looked at other series that 213 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:45,960 we've covered. Let's put it this way. 214 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,800 We've covered over half of the episodes from series 5. 215 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:52,000 OK? Over half the episodes of series 216 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,320 7. Over half episodes from series 9 217 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,800 and half of the episodes from series 10. 218 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:02,360 There is only 6 episodes in series 10 and we've covered 219 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:06,120 three of them but and around about 40% of the episodes from 220 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:11,880 from series 6. So series 8 has been not well 221 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:15,480 represented on Goon Pod and the Vintage Goon series as well 222 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,480 that's been that's been overlooked as well. 223 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:22,040 We are going to rectify that. But we've so far we've only 224 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:26,560 covered 2 episodes out of 14 from the Vintage Goons series. 225 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:31,520 So yeah, what I've, what I wanted to do was to both Series 226 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:35,200 8 and Vintage Coons. I, I wanted to try and focus a 227 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:37,360 bit more on, on those a little bit. 228 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:41,480 And hence I came to you and said which of the I think there was 229 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:43,920 what, 3 or 4 episodes of Series 8I? 230 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:48,560 And I had no clue. I had no clue and I just pick 231 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:53,000 one at random and I'm very happy I did because I've been very 232 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:55,640 agreeably surprised. I will say this, at the 233 00:15:55,640 --> 00:16:00,720 beginning of our discussion, it didn't chime immediately. 234 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:03,880 And perhaps maybe an issue in this series. 235 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:07,200 The more you listen, the more you think about it, the better 236 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,960 it becomes. But it's not meant to be that is 237 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:12,600 it? It's disposable entertainment. 238 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,320 Yeah, I've called it, and I'm sure I'm not the first person to 239 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:20,720 call it this. Series 8 has quite a bit of 240 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:25,960 landfill episodes which are pretty a lot of them are fairly 241 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:29,480 indistinguishable from from others, unlike episodes from 242 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:33,040 series 567, for example. Even series 9, there's there's 243 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,280 there's a lot of episodes which are instantly recognizable. 244 00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:39,240 The very that they have a distinct singularity about them. 245 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:44,200 You you know that, you know, Tales of Montmartre is a 246 00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:48,440 completely distinct show from Tales of Old Dartmoor, for 247 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:54,240 example, whereas I don't know the Great British Revolution and 248 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,520 let's see the Junk Affair, the Burning Embassy. 249 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:05,000 You might struggle to provide a a distinct plot synopsis of any 250 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,480 of those shows. And you and you might think that 251 00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:13,319 gags and sequences from one show actually turn up in a different 252 00:17:13,319 --> 00:17:16,920 show. So yeah, there's a lot of series 253 00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:20,240 8 was a bit, I mean it was a bit unfocused. 254 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:24,680 It had about 3 or 4 different producers attached to it at any 255 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:26,680 one time. We are going to talk about one 256 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:30,600 of those producers today, by the way, a little bit later on. 257 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:36,000 But but no, this is a this is a the policy what I've always 258 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,200 been, I've always been fond of Spike had a had a bit of a 259 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:44,960 thing. A number of going shows hinge 260 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:47,880 around insurance policies. I don't know if you've noticed 261 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:49,080 this. Yes. 262 00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:56,120 And building societies, financial institutions actually 263 00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,000 wonder why, but we're going. To we're going to talk about the 264 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:01,080 show in a bit. I just wanted to talk about a 265 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:03,760 bit of stuff around it. So it's the 9th episode of 266 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:09,160 Series 8, originally broadcast 25th of November 1957. 267 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:14,120 And interestingly, and I never picked this up before, I used 268 00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:17,600 to, you know, I listened to it back in the day when I was first 269 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,000 got into the goons. I used to listen to it again and 270 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,320 again and again as I did all the good shows, really. 271 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,080 I never picked up on the fact that if you listen to the end 272 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:29,640 credits, Larry Stevens has given sole script writing credit. 273 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,200 I'm, I spotted that as well. And I I scrambled to the genome 274 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:39,000 project, but it's Spike and Larry in the Radio Times. 275 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:45,680 Yeah, but. It's it intrigues me that and 276 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:49,640 and so I'm not quite sure the actual script credits Spike and 277 00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:52,760 Larry, but it's weird that he gets sole credit on the actual 278 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:56,960 announcement at the end. So I was thinking about this. 279 00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:59,080 I'm glad you've raised it. I was thinking about this 280 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:02,760 listening to it. It's got a consistency and a 281 00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:05,080 strong narrative. It's got a beginning, a middle, 282 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:09,880 and an end. It's got a format where 283 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:14,720 characters come back unusually sometimes there are some goon 284 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:18,760 shows when everyone does their turn and it's in a certain order 285 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:20,720 and there's an explosion at the end and off we go. 286 00:19:21,120 --> 00:19:26,240 But in this one, the grip, grip type, Theina Moriarty are there 287 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,320 sort of at the beginning and they're there at at the end in 288 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:33,920 recorded form. But there were a number of 289 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:38,000 things in it, and I thought this sort of sounds like Spike 290 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:45,400 Milligan, but it isn't quite. And the audio gag, there's some 291 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:50,200 very good audio gags in this, but they just don't have that 292 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:55,200 flourish of incongruousness. Like we all know there's going 293 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:59,920 to be an explosion and a car crash and something like that. 294 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:05,800 But what makes some of those sound gags so good is the 295 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,560 inclusion of a piece of music, like in the last tram episode of 296 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:12,240 the Phone going off the Harry Lime Tude. 297 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,320 It's something you don't expect. You go, oh, that's really 298 00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:18,280 something. So it has this. 299 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,640 It's almost in recording terms when you use a limiter. 300 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,520 This is an episode that is very neat and tidy in many 301 00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:28,480 responsible neat and tidy than many other goon shows. 302 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:31,840 I'd even argue that the music, particularly Ellington, is 303 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,840 fantastic and it's sort of and the music lands where you want 304 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:38,760 it to land in in in serving the narrative. 305 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:44,920 But there's whatever the secret sauce Bike Milligan had, if it's 306 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:53,000 there, it's in in reduced form or perhaps just in odd moments 307 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:57,760 because it just imagining how you would spike the performer 308 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:01,480 would deal with a script that didn't have his fingerprints all 309 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:04,160 over it. That will be another interesting 310 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:07,840 thing as well, which we we probably will never know because 311 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:11,160 people probably weren't watching for that at that time. 312 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,680 They just. Well, this you know for certain 313 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:17,880 that there's certain series 5 shows that Eric Sykes chiefly 314 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:22,520 wrote and so you can kind. In fact, I think the last tram 315 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:24,400 was one of them. You're correct. 316 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:31,360 Although Larry did, producer Peter Eaton said that Larry 317 00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:35,680 provided more structure to the shows, which was what they 318 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:37,120 needed. And there is, like you say, 319 00:21:37,120 --> 00:21:38,840 there is a beginning, middle and an end. 320 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:44,320 There's a what I would call a bit of a, will this do end into 321 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:47,720 this? But we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll 322 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:49,480 come to that. I just wanted to to before we 323 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:53,360 talk about the show, I wanted to talk about what the goons were 324 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:56,880 doing around this time and also what was happening in terms of 325 00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:02,040 the cultural landscape. Interestingly, the week that the 326 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,640 show is broadcast on the cover of the Radio Times. 327 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,440 Who do you think is on the cover of the Radio Times this week? 328 00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:15,160 3 gentlemen apparently sitting at a desk looking quite official 329 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:21,920 and in fact inside the Radio Times there's more photographs. 330 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:26,960 There is it's yet there's only a three paragraph little piece 331 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,280 about them which I found in Congress as well. 332 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:31,720 If you're going to be on the front cover, why isn't there a 333 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:34,600 big double? Page spread, Absolutely. 334 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:37,400 And also, why is it this week? Because it's the 9th episode. 335 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:39,160 It's not the first episode of a new series. 336 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:43,840 It's very odd but it is the goons and the the the subtitle 337 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:48,160 is a giggle of goons and you're right, there is a little puff 338 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,160 piece. Not even it's 2 paragraphs. 339 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,080 Oh, so sorry, you're absolutely correct there and it's not. 340 00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:58,680 Very good either. No, it says. 341 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,080 It says Goon Law. We went deep into the heart of 342 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,120 Goonland the other day to tell the three main characters that 343 00:23:05,120 --> 00:23:07,560 they were in danger of appearing on the cover of this week's 344 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,080 issue. Then we must remain anonymous, 345 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,640 said one, who was bearded. Let me sparkle in it. 346 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:15,520 But whose request we hereby honor. 347 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,680 And if your reader can identify us, we may make an award of a 348 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:22,440 leather Guinea. Having made contact with the 349 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:24,760 goons, however, we found it difficult to get them out of our 350 00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:26,840 hair or keep them out of our pages. 351 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,000 But we are assured by our psychiatrist, whom we have 352 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,960 inevitably had to consult, that there is no need for alarm. 353 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,760 It's all in the mind, he says, with a fetish laugh. 354 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:41,760 All in the mind and that's it. And that, that last bit, it's 355 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,760 all in the mind. We're going to come back to that 356 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,120 as well. There's all these, there's all 357 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:48,840 these connective, connective tissue. 358 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:50,320 We're going to come back to that line. 359 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:54,560 But it is, it is odd that they should appear on the flight, you 360 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,800 say, on the front cover of the nation's leading broadcast 361 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:00,960 magazine. And that's it. 362 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,400 That's all they get. I mean, why on earth haven't 363 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:10,080 they got the Silver Chords choir from Silver Chords from BBC 364 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,880 Wales produced by My Jones? Why haven't? 365 00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:14,240 Why aren't they on the front cover? 366 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:16,440 That's that's what I want to know. 367 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,640 Can you imagine Silver Chords on a Sunday morning on the light? 368 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,560 Hope someone hope someone got fired for that oversight. 369 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:28,000 Yes. Very, very strange. 370 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:33,040 But we're still in the 2 channel television world and three 371 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:39,080 channel radio world, aren't we? So yes, but you had the Royal 372 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:43,640 Variety Performance that week, but perhaps they weren't allowed 373 00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:45,920 to reveal who was in it ahead of time. 374 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:49,280 But they had Yeah, later in the which included Harry Secam. 375 00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:06,720 Robin, Robin, Robin. How did he do it on command by? 376 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:09,560 Coming OK, so on the right, let's let's look at what was 377 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:11,680 happening. So on the day of on the day the 378 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:13,880 show was broadcast, I looked at what was happening in the the 379 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:19,360 wider world and as I often say, not a lot, not a lot of interest 380 00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:22,600 anyway that that interested me. The only thing I I noticed was 381 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:26,200 that President Eisenhower had a stroke. 382 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:33,560 And so temporarily Richard Nixon was in charge of the country on 383 00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,320 television. Just to give you a, a flavour 384 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:40,960 of, as I say that the cultural landscape on on the the the the 385 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,960 day the show goes out, the 25th of November 1957, I looked at 386 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:50,440 what was going out on both BBC and ITV on television and on 387 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:56,520 BBCTV Hancock's half hour, the episode called The Elocution 388 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,680 Lesson, which I believe no longer exists. 389 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:05,200 But that was interesting in the sense that it featured a special 390 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,640 guest appearance by the actor Jack. 391 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,200 Hawkins the cruel scene. Sure you're aware of Jack Jack 392 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:16,040 Hawkins? Yes, he he, he lost his voice 393 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:19,520 box, didn't he had cancer. And yes, towards the end of his 394 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:25,360 career there was some fairly difficult performances, but he 395 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:28,480 was often that the officer. Wasn't he in war films? 396 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:30,240 He was in Zulu and things like that. 397 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:32,720 He was in the my one of my favorite films of all time, The 398 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:36,400 League of Gentlemen. Yeah, yeah, he, he did. 399 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,080 He lost his voice box or he lost his voice pretty. 400 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,320 He was in Theatre of Blood. I think that was possibly his 401 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:48,600 last, his last film. And but he towards the end of 402 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,240 his career, his voice was being dubbed by the actor, wonderful 403 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,360 actor Charles Grey. You know Charles Grey. 404 00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:59,520 Yes, who? Rocky Horror Picture Show. 405 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:03,840 He played the narrator and he also was in that wonderful 406 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:09,120 Englishman abroad as an actor in the company that went to Russia. 407 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:15,720 To oh, the guy changes. Yeah, he was sort of Coral Brown 408 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,360 sort of offsider in there, but he he played a lot of. 409 00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:22,040 He could do comedy. He could also do a bit of of 410 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,200 suave evil as well. Charles Bryan, Oh yeah, he was 411 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,680 in one of the Bond films. I'm not a big was it? 412 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:34,080 Was it You only lived twice? I think he was in maybe and and 413 00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,160 he was Mycroft in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. 414 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:42,640 So yeah, very, very distinctive guy. 415 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:47,520 Anyway, also on BBCTV this night, This is Your life 416 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:51,680 honoured the resistance fighter and Brusselman's who was a a a 417 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:58,600 Belgian resistance fighter I believe on ITVI looked at 418 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,320 associated Rediffusion to see what was on. 419 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,880 And I'll tell you what I was saying this to friends. 420 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:09,560 What a packed schedule. Just you know it was on. 421 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,320 If you watch it was on. Well, if you watch ITV now, 422 00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:14,800 which I don't, I don't tend to watch terrestrial TV anymore. 423 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:19,040 It's all, it's all dross really as far as I'm concerned anyway. 424 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:24,040 But on on the 25th of November 1957, if you were to get in from 425 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:29,440 work, hard day at work, sit down, you've got 644 gyms in. 426 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,640 Don't know what that is, Jimmy. Hanley, Jimmy Hanley. 427 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,080 Jimmy Hanley, It was an advertorial. 428 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:37,400 That's right. I've heard that. 429 00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:41,400 Someone told me that recently. Yes, 7:00 Superman. 430 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:47,480 So that'll be the George Reeves Superman 730 Shadow Squad. 431 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:54,200 That sounds exciting. 8:00 Criss cross quiz. 432 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,000 I remember that. OK. 433 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:06,600 It was, what do you call it, Crosses and zeros, 69 boxes, 434 00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,280 Noughts and crosses, noughts. And thank you very much. 435 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:10,920 We don't play much in this country. 436 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,440 Yeah, noughts and crosses and quiz questions. 437 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:18,280 And I have a feeling that when I saw it as a four or five or six 438 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:22,200 year old, there was Shay something. 439 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:24,920 He was a Canadian. In the early days of commercial 440 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,120 television, anyone with a North American accent seemed to get on 441 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,040 the air because they were seen as being very Hollywood. 442 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:35,760 But I like crisscross quiz. OK, 830 on this this evening, 443 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:39,840 Joan and Leslie, which was just like a sort of comedy show, sort 444 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,640 of a sort of a sitcom. 9 O clock, the murder law, 10:30, 445 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,760 what the papers say. Then there's news and wherever. 446 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,280 Then, oh, you've got Max Wall in that's life. 447 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:56,800 Not sure what that is. And then Arthur Franz in Devil's 448 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:58,200 other name. Good. 449 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:03,080 Grief and And the Evening rounds out with 1130 Epilogue, and I'll 450 00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:06,640 just say what a packed schedule. If people don't know, the 451 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:11,000 British Newspaper Archive have just put TV Times into the 452 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:14,240 digital archive. And if you want to lose yourself 453 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:18,960 for a week, just go in. It's fantastic social history. 454 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:22,840 Yes. And what were the goons doing 455 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:27,120 around this time, end of November 1957? 456 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:32,040 You mentioned the Royal Variety Show already. 457 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:37,240 Yeah, Harry, Harry was. He gave a a proper proper 458 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:43,280 singing performance. This Vesti la Juba he sang. 459 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:44,920 Is that is that? Is that right? 460 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:50,520 From Paiach, from Paiachi, and I have the translation of the 461 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:53,600 lyric in front of me. Put on your costume and powder 462 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,280 your face. The people are paying and they 463 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,880 want to laugh here. And if Harlequin steals away 464 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:04,720 your Columbine laugh, clown and all will applaud. 465 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:09,640 Turn your distress and tears into jokes, your pain and sobs 466 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:14,680 into a smirk. So that was. 467 00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,840 And he also sang with the Morriston Male Voice choir and 468 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,880 was in a sketch with Joan Regan. Who's Joan Regan? 469 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:27,320 She, I think she was a singer, I think. 470 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:33,440 But there's a very interesting article praising Harry's 471 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:38,600 performance in the Royal Command performance and slagging off the 472 00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,600 Scottish bits. And it comes from the Scottish 473 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,480 column of the stage newspaper. Because I think they thought 474 00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:47,480 they were being a little bit too stereotypical as Harry strode on 475 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,520 and he would have been at the height of his vocal powers or 476 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:53,480 getting very close to it. Oh, yeah. 477 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:56,160 So who else was on that bill? It was. 478 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:58,400 It was also. Well, I should have flocked. 479 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:00,360 No, I've got, I've got it here in front of me. 480 00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:04,840 You'll never guess who presented the radio broadcast of it. 481 00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,080 Oh. Was it Greenslade? 482 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:09,800 Brian Johnston. Yeah. 483 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,760 All right. So working from the top, we've 484 00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:16,960 got Arthur ASCII, Winifred Atwell, Max Bygraves, Count 485 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:22,320 Basie, Alma Kogan, Tommy, Tommy Cooper, Jerry Desmond, Bud 486 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:27,280 Flanagan, Gracie Fields, Mr. Eddie Gray, Judy Garland, Dickie 487 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,560 Henderson, Ronnie Hilton. It goes on and on and on. 488 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:34,480 And not Alfred Marks, right? What's for effect there? 489 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:42,920 And Nori Paramore's banjo band, Tommy Steele, Frankie Vaughn, 490 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:49,560 Dickie Valentine, The Tiller Girls, Of course, Vera Lynn and 491 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,600 Larry O Lancer. And Jimmy Logan. 492 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,200 Jimmy Logan was the one that's and it was on because it wasn't 493 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:00,240 on television yet. It was broadcast a BBC recording 494 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,800 on the Light program on the Sunday of the recording of the 495 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:08,200 policy at 2:30 in the afternoon. Right. 496 00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:14,280 You mentioned Nori Paramore, his arch nemesis George Martin. 497 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,760 Around late November 1957, George Martin and Peter Sellers 498 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:23,560 were beginning to discuss the possibility of recording an LP. 499 00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:28,560 So this was the the genesis, if you like, of what was to become 500 00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:32,800 the best of Sellers, which came out in 58. 501 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,800 I think around about a week or so after the policy was 502 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:41,720 broadcast, the wonderful film which I referred to earlier, The 503 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:44,520 Naked Truth, was released in cinemas. 504 00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:47,480 But you've missed something out, haven't you? 505 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:53,040 You've missed something out. Well, I was born in mid August 506 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:57,000 1958. The repeat broadcast of this was 507 00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,080 on the 28th of November 1957. I just say for people. 508 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:05,600 Do the math. And I was three weeks overdue or 509 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:08,440 so. So who knows? 510 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,000 Who knows? Moving on. 511 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,360 So the policy, we'll, we'll talk about the show in general, but 512 00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:22,960 I'll just give a more detailed overview of, of what happens in 513 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:24,760 the show, if that's all right with you, Andy. 514 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:27,159 We can just. We can just run through it. 515 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,120 So Grip Pipe and Moriarty plan to escape dire poverty in the 516 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:36,600 Slagli on Ooze rubbish dump by taking out a £10,000 life 517 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:40,440 insurance policy on Neddy Segan. They tell him he can collect the 518 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:44,080 money the moment he's deceased, and they give him a book, 100 519 00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,280 Easy Ways to Get Deceased. He tries hanging himself from 520 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,600 the rafters, but his weight pulls them down. 521 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,000 His next attempt is to sleep in the open on Salisbury Plain 522 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:56,480 during a snowstorm, standing asleep in his long flannel 523 00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:58,400 nightshirt. He's discovered by Boy Scouts 524 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,160 Echols and Blue Bottle, who mistake him for a short fat 525 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:03,800 tent. When they find Seigun in the 526 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:05,840 tent, they March into Major Blood Knock. 527 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:10,280 Seigun finds out what deceased means and tells Blood Knock 528 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,680 about the villains plans to collect on the insurance. 529 00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,760 Blood Knock takes out a life insurance policy on Neddy and 530 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:19,560 tries to poison him with a toxic cocktail, but Seagoon scalpers. 531 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:24,040 He rents a room from Minnie and Henry at the Albert Memorial. 532 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,840 In his room he receives A gramophone record of Grit Piper 533 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,720 Moriarty trying to shoot him. Fleeing the room just in time, 534 00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:32,440 he finds Blood Knock and his regiment come to kill him. 535 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:35,440 Seagoon has left, trapped between the British Army and a 536 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:40,360 loaded record. So there, there we are. 537 00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,760 Would you listen to that? I mean, I'm no. 538 00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:44,920 Yeah, yeah, I guess so. I suppose so, yeah. 539 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,400 Trapped Seagoon, trapped between the British Forces Broadcasting 540 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:54,520 Service and the Light programme. But yeah, that's a fair enough 541 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,880 description. And it's, it's a, it's a very 542 00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:01,880 slight conceit, isn't it? But, and perhaps that speaks to 543 00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:07,720 what you were saying earlier, but it is, it is puffed out by 544 00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:13,800 quite a lot of audio 1/3 musical performance in the middle of it 545 00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,520 by Peter Sellers. And it sounds like to me, 546 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:19,680 perhaps they were experimenting with the kind of songs that the 547 00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:23,960 kids might want to buy if they happen to get onto a 12 inch 548 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,120 long playing record. Perhaps, who knows. 549 00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:36,440 And there are, it's quite a slow show, actually, the IT gets 550 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:43,000 manic at the end, but it's quite almost plodding at times. 551 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:49,480 And and very there's a lot of exposition which some of it in 552 00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:57,880 the hands of Will and Mike Cobblers and also Spriggs 553 00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:00,360 Adolphus or Jim or whoever. Jim. 554 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:04,400 Yeah, Jim has a couple of pages of script, which is he doesn't 555 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,160 come on, say a funny line and disappear. 556 00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:11,040 He actually is part of the exposition and it and very funny 557 00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:14,240 too. Oh yeah, he heads up the Spawn 558 00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:16,600 insurance company. As you would. 559 00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:20,920 You have to hang the usual medical examination. 560 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:26,920 Come along there. Come in. 561 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:31,080 Come in. Come in, Jim. 562 00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:37,080 Now strip to the waist, please. Now, then, pass me that hammer. 563 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:38,360 Thank you. Now. 564 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:41,240 Yes. Yes. 565 00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:46,760 His back seems fine. Ribs all right, and stomach. 566 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:54,360 OK. Open your open your mouth wider 567 00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:55,800 there. Swallow that. 568 00:37:58,160 --> 00:37:59,360 What was it? Cigarette dust. 569 00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:00,560 I didn't want to drop it on the carpet. 570 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:06,280 Well, Mr. C June, you seem to be 100% fat. 571 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,720 Here is your policy. Policy. 572 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:18,400 You mentioned Sellers has a, has a song, has a number in the 573 00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:22,640 guise of Blood Knock and this was interesting. 574 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:28,920 There's in series 8, there was a couple of occasions where 575 00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:35,120 Bludnock gets to sing a song. So in the Great British 576 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:39,600 Revolution, there's a there's an opportunity for Bludnock to 577 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:41,600 sing. I believe it's called My Bombay 578 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:43,640 BB. OK. 579 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:48,920 Oh dear. I'm sure that there's another 580 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,440 instance where he gets to sing a song in series 8. 581 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,360 I wasn't able to find which one in my head. 582 00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:57,200 There is one, but I just can't bring it to mind. 583 00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:03,480 But in this episode, he he gets to sing the Indigestion Waltz. 584 00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:06,440 I mean, it's no great shakes, is it? 585 00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:08,280 Let's face it, it's it's pretty basic. 586 00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:10,200 And that's my cat crying outside the door. 587 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:11,240 I don't know if you can hear that. 588 00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:14,120 I can hear nothing. I can hear nothing because our 589 00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:16,160 our cats have been put in the garage. 590 00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:22,920 They're in jankers. Well, a cynical person like 591 00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:30,600 myself wondered whether there was some half idea that maybe it 592 00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:34,920 could be released as AAB side to another Goon single or something 593 00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:37,520 like that, because they were releasing quite a number of 594 00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:41,880 singles around this time. Russian Love Song had come out 595 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:43,880 very recently. In fact, I think it was earlier 596 00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:49,040 this month in November. And I just wonder whether that 597 00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:51,840 was the the reason that they decided to do this. 598 00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,080 I'm not sure. I What are your thoughts? 599 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:59,480 I I tend to concur with you. It's also Peter Sellers doing an 600 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,400 early Dan Leno. Perhaps. 601 00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:04,560 He loved his Music Hall, didn't he? 602 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,760 He did, but the Blood Knuckles says send only two and six boots 603 00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:13,040 for a copy of this record, which of course he does on the EP 604 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:16,400 which has a 5 or 6 year old. I played to death and actually 605 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,880 broke. So blood knocks rock'n'roll rock 606 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:24,160 and. Roll and yeah, it's used quite 607 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,560 well when Blood Knock is phoning to take out his own life 608 00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,240 insurance on Nitty Seager and that's pretty well done. 609 00:40:30,240 --> 00:40:34,000 But it it sort of speaks to the the fill element of it. 610 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:38,840 It was there was a lot of business to fill out the half 611 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:42,160 hour and one of the things I have read about some of the 612 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:47,200 Larry Stevens shows it alternate versions in that he produced far 613 00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:49,040 too much material. For 1/2. 614 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:52,240 Hour and I think Max got cut on on one occasion. 615 00:40:52,240 --> 00:40:56,680 But I tell you one thing, it struck me often the band really 616 00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,040 have fun with some of these little bits and pieces. 617 00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:04,880 They didn't really sort of throw themselves into pastiche of of 618 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:07,760 Music Hall there. It was sort of done as a very 619 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,880 tepid party piece. Perfunctory. 620 00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:15,480 Thank you. That still serves as as a list 621 00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:18,080 of favorite, though. I believe the the indigestion 622 00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:21,840 waltz. Yeah, it gets it gets talked 623 00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,080 about. Blood knock is mistaken. 624 00:41:24,240 --> 00:41:27,240 Seagram I think for Myrtle Prong. 625 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,680 Yes. An old flame. 626 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:35,800 I never forget a night shirt part of a number of extremely 627 00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,760 naughty. If you know, you know, and if 628 00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:41,560 you don't, you don't. But once you've heard one, you 629 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:45,520 can't stop hearing the filth that runs through this and the 630 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,960 sexual illusion that runs through this. 631 00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:50,800 And I love. It what do you do? 632 00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,240 You want to take me by the hand and lead me through some of the 633 00:41:53,240 --> 00:41:57,120 films. Pretty pretty early on. 634 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,040 Attract those flies, Moriarty. I can't think what attracts 635 00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:03,040 them. I think that's an innuendo. 636 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:05,440 You know, We all know what attracts flies. 637 00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:08,080 Stop doing that disgusting thing. 638 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:10,120 RIP type thing, says to Moriarty. 639 00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:14,400 Implants me. You can tell I've gone through 640 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:20,600 this with a fine tooth comb. With lips tightly pursed. 641 00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:24,240 Exactly. I will be writing a stiffly 642 00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:27,520 worded missive to the editor of the Radio Time. 643 00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,080 I'm getting there. We've also got, oh, this is it, 644 00:42:32,240 --> 00:42:36,920 Sprig says to about Neddy. We have to have the usual 645 00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:40,240 medical examination and there's a bit of giggling off Mike 646 00:42:40,240 --> 00:42:42,480 there. And I think that's there's a lot 647 00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,400 of forces humour in this too. And of course Larry Stevens, 648 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:49,200 commando and all the rest of it. So and that sort of sets it up 649 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:54,160 and then keep on going. When Neddy is in his nightshirt 650 00:42:55,480 --> 00:43:01,680 from the middle of Salisbury plane to the two boy soldiers 651 00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:07,200 stumble over him. And what is And there's this 652 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:13,320 thing about Blue bulls wearing a kilt that's already suggested. 653 00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:16,320 Han can come to a young lad wearing a kilt. 654 00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:18,000 What kind? Of harm. 655 00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:23,240 Then, if you have children listening listeners, please 656 00:43:23,240 --> 00:43:26,480 place them to one side, Greenslade says. 657 00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:30,560 They approach the spot where Sea Goon is fast asleep, standing 658 00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:34,600 rigidly to attention in his long white night shirt. 659 00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:38,480 Next line, it's a short, fat tent. 660 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,080 I'm now going to pause for dramatic effect. 661 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:49,040 And then blue bottleneckles get into the tent, and we've already 662 00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,480 alluded to this. They feel something lovely and 663 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,200 warm, but it's not either of them. 664 00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:03,320 And the one joke they don't do is when he strikes a match. 665 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,440 When blue Ball strikes a match, they don't do the old Horry gag 666 00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,800 of striking a match against a hairy leg or something like 667 00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:11,920 that. That's true. 668 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:13,880 Then we have a feather duster gag. 669 00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:17,440 Oh, hairy, hairy bum. Yeah, a feather duster gag about 670 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:24,080 little kilted boy, and then we're running up to page 14 here 671 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:27,480 and blood knocks. I never forget a nightshirt. 672 00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,840 And there's a lot of whoa, you know, actually, Eccles says. 673 00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:36,240 You naughty man to blood knock. And of course we know blood 674 00:44:36,240 --> 00:44:40,920 knockers had things excised from scripts which have alluded to 675 00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:45,960 certain activities. Men having sex with men, as they 676 00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:50,120 say. And I think there's no more 677 00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:53,960 filth because we actually get to some jokes after that. 678 00:44:54,160 --> 00:45:00,960 But it's it's, it's there and I didn't mind it at all. 679 00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:05,680 And but also to come back to our state, was it Larry, was it 680 00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:07,040 Spike? Was it a mixture? 681 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:12,080 Spike did those kind of gags, but not on such a consistent, 682 00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:17,840 concerted way I don't think. Off the top of my head anyway. 683 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:22,080 Maybe, maybe not, maybe not. There's a lot of filth and 684 00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:26,000 there's a quite a bit of giggling and oh, there's a 685 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:30,440 that's the other thing. Walgreenslade is also involved 686 00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:34,520 when he says the night shirt line, which I of course cannot 687 00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:39,360 find as I'm I'm constantly ramping to already, he says, 688 00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:46,640 standing rigidly to attention in his long white nightshirt. 689 00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,560 He's quite deliberate with that and I think he is. 690 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:55,800 That's part of the gag for us filthy minded people I think. 691 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,840 Well, either that. Either that or that's like take 692 00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:02,920 10. Yeah. 693 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:09,720 Now just on that point, there's at least three that I picked up, 694 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:16,520 three what what sound like clear edit points and I looked at the 695 00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:19,600 original script to see. So there's a, there's a bit 696 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:25,440 right near the beginning when Sea Goon first meets Thin and 697 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:29,880 Moriarty, who are by now firmly in the grip of moral and 698 00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:35,440 physical degradation and they and they are subsisting on the 699 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,480 slag Leon who's rubbish dump. And there's a bit near the 700 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:45,160 beginning when when they meet Sea Goon and Thin talks about a 701 00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:49,520 £10,000 life insurance policy. That's there's a clear edit, 702 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,560 right? Like it's, it's obviously the 703 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:58,040 best job that Roy Spear, the producer could do at the time 704 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:01,280 to, to, to, to, to do that. But I looked at the script to 705 00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:03,560 see if there was a like a big chunk of dialogue which had been 706 00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:07,480 cut out, but there wasn't. So I think there there's 707 00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:12,760 obviously been something of either a massive flub or some ad 708 00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:16,880 Lib or whatever it may be and they've just cut that out. 709 00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,440 As a tribute to your great mouth type, Singing Account would like 710 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:23,960 to give you, free of charge, a valuable £10,000 life insurance 711 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:26,120 policy. When we first meet Blood Knock 712 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,720 we have the Blood Knock theme and and Blood Knocks doing his 713 00:47:29,720 --> 00:47:33,160 usual sort of moaning sounds. Yes. 714 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:38,040 And there's a clear edit there as well, so again you wonder if 715 00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,240 it was, but there was nothing in the script to indicate anything 716 00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:44,160 near the knuckle or whatever that had to be removed. 717 00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:46,720 Singes is mentioned but never heard. 718 00:47:46,720 --> 00:47:49,440 From never heard from. No, that's right. 719 00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:52,040 And is the third. Is that the third? 720 00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:53,800 Yeah, there's another one as well. 721 00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:57,000 What was the other one? I can I can help you while you 722 00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:02,720 look because Plugey has this been dust on Goon Point over its 723 00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:05,600 hundreds of episodes. Plugey mates. 724 00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,240 Well, Plugey's the nickname for Max, obviously. 725 00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:17,000 It also is a slang word for a piece of male genitalia, says 726 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:21,280 the Urban Dictionary really says it. 727 00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:25,560 And you know, I went through with a, as I say, a fine tooth 728 00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:28,880 comb, found all the filth and then googled the hell out of it 729 00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:34,200 to try because there's some other snap stuff in Chickadee 730 00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:37,880 Snitch or something like the script which is actually used 731 00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:41,280 also in Hancock in the reunion. I can't find what that means. 732 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:44,040 But anyway, well. Greenslade says Chickadee 733 00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:45,560 snitch. At one point in a good show. 734 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,880 Oh yeah. But anyway, no. 735 00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:53,720 I looked it up and apparently it's a a a fat or chubby 736 00:48:53,720 --> 00:48:57,080 appendage in a blue G. Do we? 737 00:48:57,120 --> 00:48:59,440 Do we know what the where, what the derivation is of that? 738 00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:02,040 Whether? I I didn't write it down, it 739 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:05,440 sounds it could be Dutch, and if it is Dutch of course that that 740 00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:08,400 chimes with Max. That would make sense. 741 00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:10,120 He wasn't an actor, but he was Dutch. 742 00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:13,040 He's well, absolutely. And he was in the resistance 743 00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:17,200 getting back to the lady from Belgium that was the subject of 744 00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:19,200 This is Your Life. So it's all these connections. 745 00:49:19,240 --> 00:49:20,400 I love these things. Yeah. 746 00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:24,720 By the way, the beginning of this show you won't have heard 747 00:49:24,720 --> 00:49:29,360 this because the the you heard the cut down version right at 748 00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:34,640 the beginning of the show. You've got Harry mocking Wallace 749 00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:38,880 because Wallace is is putting on the old posh chat. 750 00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:43,560 Mr. Siegun, this is my normal voice. 751 00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:45,720 Don't give me that. Well, I've heard you. 752 00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:46,960 I've heard you. Went on. 753 00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:49,400 Doris, shut you around. I'll fetch your man with a 754 00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:56,160 please for the old shirt. I've seen you, Walt. 755 00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:02,960 Hello, Walt in his shirt sleeve. I've seen him in his shirt 756 00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:06,480 sleeve. Now tonight to be our I've seen 757 00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,480 you on the Friday night Walt staggering on with all your wage 758 00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:13,800 package spend silence or John Snaggle here of this he knows. 759 00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:16,360 He knows. Who do you think was holding you 760 00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:19,480 up, Mr. Here we are following that one. 761 00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:24,120 He'd just been given the flick, I think, from television news 762 00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:28,240 reading at this point, which I find incongruous. 763 00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:32,160 Wallace Grace, I mean, the fact that they put him on the news on 764 00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:34,320 television and he was doing the Goon show. 765 00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:37,960 But of course, this was the era of the personality announcer. 766 00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:41,680 Ronald Fletcher was making a similar reputation for himself, 767 00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:45,320 particularly with Bernard Braden and we've talked in the past 768 00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:49,080 about Douglas Smith. But they were, and of course 769 00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:52,960 they are ex service people or in Wallace's case he was in the 770 00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:57,080 merchant Marine I think. So they, their life experience, 771 00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:00,880 they're all in the same boat. And I'm guessing that some of 772 00:51:00,880 --> 00:51:05,640 the the BBC off air types, the production staff and, and the 773 00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:10,640 various producers, they had a common life experience and 774 00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:13,400 language which may have have helped it a bit. 775 00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,440 But yeah, I think we've come to the conclusion that whatever 776 00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:21,240 Pluji means, there's quite a bit of lewd, lewd, suggestive. 777 00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:25,160 The entendres are double if not triple. 778 00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:29,960 Well, there's also You've forgotten Minnie and Henry. 779 00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:33,440 Oh my God. Where Minnie Minnie's been at 780 00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:37,440 Been at the Centrepod wine. You know, Peel football, but. 781 00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:41,760 Stop. Stop that Jane Mansfield type 782 00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:47,960 walking, Yes. Yeah, it's all good. 783 00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:55,080 But in fact, in the script, the original script, Henry who's 784 00:51:55,280 --> 00:52:00,160 shouting at Minnie, says I haven't, I haven't jotted it 785 00:52:00,160 --> 00:52:02,160 down just from memory, from reading this, looking at the 786 00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:04,120 script. In the script, he says You're 787 00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:09,440 driving me sex mad. Woah, 1957 in the home service? 788 00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:10,840 That's a bit. I'll have to go back and check 789 00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:11,760 that. I'm sure that's what he said 790 00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:12,960 then. But obviously in the in the 791 00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:15,000 actual show, he just says you're driving me mad. 792 00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:22,440 And I've just remembered one another one as well, which is 793 00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:29,320 Flower Dew makes an appearance one line and it's about the 794 00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:33,200 Albert Memorial. Let us just say in that era 795 00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:37,000 Kensington Gardens where the Albert Memorial stands was a 796 00:52:37,080 --> 00:52:42,920 well known place where same sex attracted men billied. 797 00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:45,680 And dallied. Thank you. 798 00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:49,080 Do you know what I spent yesterday afternoon? 799 00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:52,240 Watch out, your Internet history is going to catch up. 800 00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:55,640 With you. So the bit that we're talking 801 00:52:55,640 --> 00:52:59,760 about here, Seagoon arrives somewhere and he says, what is 802 00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:02,320 this thing, thing of grace and fragile beauty? 803 00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:04,640 And then flower juice says it's the Albert Memorial. 804 00:53:05,240 --> 00:53:07,480 And it gets a huge laugh, huge response. 805 00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:08,840 And I'm thinking, and I'm thinking, what? 806 00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:11,760 OK, what? And so I was thinking, OK, 807 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:14,760 there's obviously something in the news about the Albert 808 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,160 Memorial being an eyesore or something, you know, And that's 809 00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:21,960 why what Seagoon has said is ironic and that's why it gets a 810 00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:23,120 laugh. That's what I was thinking. 811 00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:24,720 And I was trying to, I was trying to look at, look at 812 00:53:24,720 --> 00:53:28,160 contemporary newspaper reports for someone slagging off the 813 00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:30,040 look of the Albert Memorial or something, you know what I mean. 814 00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:34,520 But you've you've you've. Yeah, I think I'm right because 815 00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:38,800 it's I, I detect it's a big laugh and the band are laughing 816 00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:41,600 and musicians know things like that. 817 00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:46,760 It was as could be said, it was notorious, that area of London 818 00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:52,200 notorious. That sort of place that Wilfred 819 00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:54,320 Bramble from Steptoe would have been frequenting. 820 00:53:54,840 --> 00:54:00,240 And Charles Hawtry and and all manner of because this was pre 821 00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:04,160 67 and a decriminalization and all the rest of it. 822 00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:07,080 Yeah, yeah. So yeah. 823 00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:10,200 So flour juice in it and Cyril's in it as well. 824 00:54:10,560 --> 00:54:13,080 He is, well, Cyril or Loo, I'm not quite sure. 825 00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:15,600 Yeah, I've seen it. I've seen it, I've seen it. 826 00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:18,840 Yeah, I think it is Cyril. Let's say it's Cyril and the 827 00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:26,800 whole, the whole, the whole plot hinges on the fact, the rather 828 00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:32,120 improbable fact that Ned Sea Goon, who's a grown adult, does 829 00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:34,680 not understand what the word deceased means. 830 00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:41,440 Well, you know what? Who are we to pass judgement on 831 00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:45,240 that? It is flimsy, it is thin, but 832 00:54:45,240 --> 00:54:48,880 it's construction is actually quite solid in it. 833 00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:53,480 You can take it apart and, and it's, it's plotted. 834 00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:58,600 And perhaps that's the reason it it just in that plotting, 835 00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:03,560 Perhaps there's, it lacks what other goon cheese goon shows 836 00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:08,760 have, which is sometimes there are a minute or three where it 837 00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:12,520 it's a bit lots of blowing of raspberries and mentions of 838 00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:16,080 Brandy and stuff. And then you get 64 seconds of 839 00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:20,400 absolute genius. There is no genius in this show. 840 00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:25,040 It's it's good enough, it's funny enough, but it doesn't 841 00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:29,040 have those moments which are truly memorable. 842 00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:33,760 You're right, you're right. Even the cocktail, which is a 843 00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:37,800 great gag, Blood Knock is trying to poison Neddy and he mixes a 844 00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:40,880 cocktail of of all kinds of terrible poisons. 845 00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:44,520 Neddy has disappeared and the Echols and Blue Bottle come 846 00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:46,880 back. And it's not Blue Bottle who we 847 00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:49,640 think is going to be dead, but Echols who drinks it. 848 00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:53,600 And then there's a this parade of sound effects. 849 00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:58,640 And there's a great tagline, but the sound effects aren't quite 850 00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:02,440 crazy enough. No, the sound effects were were 851 00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:04,920 I'll chosen. I would say most of them anyway. 852 00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:12,920 And so I think you've touched on it when you talk to Julie 853 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:16,560 Warren, who wrote the book about Larry Stevens and and others 854 00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:20,280 have mentioned it, that Stevens could perhaps he could channel 855 00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:24,600 Spike the best, but it was always going to be somewhat of a 856 00:56:24,600 --> 00:56:27,640 carbon copy. Whereas the Sykes scripts in 857 00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:33,280 particular really stand out. They have peaks and troughs. 858 00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:35,720 This one doesn't have peaks and troughs. 859 00:56:35,720 --> 00:56:38,960 It just has. It's almost a a straight line of 860 00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:44,760 regular chuckles and laughs, but there's no boffo moment. 861 00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:48,600 You're right. And and and and and at the end, 862 00:56:50,040 --> 00:56:54,280 it's all in the mind, you know, delivered by Wallace Greenslade. 863 00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:58,360 Delivers that line really well. He's got great comic sense, 864 00:56:58,360 --> 00:57:03,200 Wallace Greenslade. But even with that, the last 865 00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:08,680 drop of comedic potential is wrung out of it. 866 00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:13,640 And yeah. Yeah, overall you're absolutely 867 00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:15,200 right. And I haven't thought about this 868 00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:20,200 till you vocalize it or put it into words, but overall it's an 869 00:57:20,200 --> 00:57:22,760 enjoyable show. But there is, you're right, 870 00:57:22,760 --> 00:57:27,440 there's no stand out zingers or sequences. 871 00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:30,280 It's a fact. Similarly, almost of a of a of a 872 00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:34,360 good Spike Milligan script, but not quite hitting the mark, 873 00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:38,120 hitting the heights. Small sitcomy, perhaps because 874 00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:42,600 sitcoms tend to be sitcoms have really moments of brilliance, 875 00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:47,800 but they are, they are required to deliver laughs at a fairly 876 00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:52,760 regular rapidity, except in the case of Raise a Laugh. 877 00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:58,200 But this one, those are there. Yeah. 878 00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:02,720 There's something it's not, not so much, not quite right, not 879 00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:05,560 quite there. There's something missing. 880 00:58:05,560 --> 00:58:12,400 It's as if you've got own brand cola rather than Coca-Cola in in 881 00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:14,080 a in a drink or something like that. 882 00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:17,280 Yeah, yeah, it's. Hard to put my finger on it. 883 00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:21,440 And of course, in the background here, you've got the gathering 884 00:58:21,440 --> 00:58:24,280 clouds. Larry Stevens will be dead 885 00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:27,560 within what just over a year. Spike was having bad times. 886 00:58:27,560 --> 00:58:31,880 There were all these producers. It's again, one of the great 887 00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:36,400 tensions is imagining these three men, the three main 888 00:58:37,240 --> 00:58:41,240 characters, Milligan, Sellers and and seek him. 889 00:58:41,840 --> 00:58:45,480 They're almost at a junction and which line are they going to 890 00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:48,120 take? And they come back together in a 891 00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:53,200 way that school almost like a reunion and it's very enjoyable. 892 00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:56,680 But their career paths, particularly Sellers and seek 893 00:58:56,680 --> 00:59:03,520 them, are diverging, diverting tremendously from this program 894 00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:08,800 that's given them the platform. Hey Decker, have you ever tasted 895 00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:11,960 any her Carl relic Decker? No. 896 00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:12,440 Have you? No. 897 00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:15,520 Well, go on then. Don't drink. 898 00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:17,040 Drink this. Don't drink. 899 00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:18,360 Drink that. Then drink. 900 00:59:20,360 --> 00:59:24,400 That I'm frightened. You drink it, then you can tell 901 00:59:24,400 --> 01:00:00,080 me what it is like. Not. 902 01:00:06,190 --> 01:00:07,350 Bad. Not bad at all. 903 01:00:14,500 --> 01:00:20,560 Now this show when played today on the radio, I'm sure it 904 01:00:20,560 --> 01:00:24,480 doesn't, but you'd think that possibly, you know, it might 905 01:00:24,480 --> 01:00:29,400 come with a trigger warning at the beginning, contains themes 906 01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:34,680 of suicide or at least attempted suicide. 907 01:00:35,320 --> 01:00:39,240 Well, there's a book, there's a book how to get deceased. 908 01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:43,240 And so that Neddy's got a couple of tries, a couple of times to 909 01:00:43,240 --> 01:00:47,520 kill himself basically and, and wittingly the stupid idiot. 910 01:00:48,280 --> 01:00:51,120 But there is a bit in the script, the original script that 911 01:00:51,120 --> 01:00:53,640 was not recorded. And I know it wasn't recorded 912 01:00:53,640 --> 01:00:59,280 rather than recorded and cut out because so we get the bit where 913 01:00:59,560 --> 01:01:05,000 after Max's number, we get the introduction of William, who is 914 01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:09,960 Ned's manservant. And I mean, there's a, there's a 915 01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:14,320 typical straightforward gag. There is my jacket on straight. 916 01:01:14,320 --> 01:01:16,000 Yes, Sir. And I must say, a straight 917 01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:20,600 jacket suits you, you know, which is not necessarily. 918 01:01:20,600 --> 01:01:22,440 I don't think that's that's a Spike joke. 919 01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:25,200 I think that's more a straightforward gag writer joke, 920 01:01:25,240 --> 01:01:26,760 You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. 921 01:01:27,400 --> 01:01:32,240 And and we've got Neddy asking William to assist him to get 922 01:01:32,240 --> 01:01:36,800 deceased. And in the script, the first 923 01:01:36,800 --> 01:01:41,720 method is that Harry's reading from the book. 924 01:01:41,760 --> 01:01:44,840 He says open window and you hear the sound of a window being 925 01:01:44,880 --> 01:01:47,440 opened. Then Harry reads from the book 926 01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:51,360 and says stand on sill and you hear the sound of boots stepping 927 01:01:51,360 --> 01:01:56,520 onto a windowsill and Harry says and jump out and then the the 928 01:01:56,520 --> 01:02:02,320 effects says pause then thudding crash off and then you hear off 929 01:02:02,320 --> 01:02:08,640 Mike William going oh mate. Then next thing door opens and 930 01:02:08,640 --> 01:02:10,400 William approaching the microphone ear. 931 01:02:10,800 --> 01:02:12,440 I hope I don't have to do this regular. 932 01:02:13,000 --> 01:02:15,480 And Harry says, you fool, I was supposed to jump, not you. 933 01:02:16,240 --> 01:02:18,880 And William says cool, I might have done myself a injury. 934 01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:23,000 It's a good thing we're in the basement, so. 935 01:02:25,680 --> 01:02:29,720 That's a bad little little routine that actually, but. 936 01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:32,560 No, I know, but they didn't use that one because, and I know 937 01:02:32,560 --> 01:02:34,720 they didn't, it's not the case that they recorded it and cut it 938 01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:40,080 out because in the actual show, as we hear it, Ned talks about 939 01:02:40,080 --> 01:02:43,800 method one and William reads take a nice bit of rope, stand 940 01:02:43,800 --> 01:02:45,160 on a chair, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 941 01:02:45,480 --> 01:02:48,080 And then Solsbury plane is, is method 2. 942 01:02:48,480 --> 01:02:50,920 So yeah, it's just a little bit of the script that was was 943 01:02:50,920 --> 01:02:53,120 quite, quite good. But they decided for whatever 944 01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:56,960 reason, maybe for length or whatever, they they cut that 945 01:02:56,960 --> 01:03:00,360 out. Now you just mentioned Max, this 946 01:03:00,920 --> 01:03:04,760 bit coming after Max's bit, and I did mention earlier the music 947 01:03:04,800 --> 01:03:06,480 and I just like to draw attention. 948 01:03:06,720 --> 01:03:09,760 You've got the Great American Songbook in Butnut, your 949 01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:13,920 Overcoat from Max Gild, and then Ray, you've got Duke Ellington, 950 01:03:13,920 --> 01:03:17,640 Billy Strayhorn number, which is I think really swings. 951 01:03:17,840 --> 01:03:21,120 You better know it. And one of the glories of the 952 01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:26,200 Goon shows having survived is that this kind of live music 953 01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:29,120 was, was meat and drink, particularly on the light 954 01:03:29,120 --> 01:03:33,880 program in the 1950s. And a lot of those kind of shows 955 01:03:34,040 --> 01:03:38,480 would have just never been recorded or the acetates or 956 01:03:38,480 --> 01:03:41,480 whatever. And I and I have warmed over the 957 01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:44,800 years, having hated the musical interludes when I was a teener. 958 01:03:45,400 --> 01:03:48,760 I have warmed to them as a historic artifact. 959 01:03:49,560 --> 01:03:53,680 And I would like to plead that case and and with Wally Stark, 960 01:03:53,680 --> 01:03:56,520 Angela Morley, fantastic arrangements. 961 01:03:57,000 --> 01:04:01,560 And I think in the Ellington number there's a great sax solo. 962 01:04:01,800 --> 01:04:06,000 But you had the very good musicians who would just go from 963 01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:09,480 show to show to show to show. And the expense of it. 964 01:04:09,840 --> 01:04:13,640 I mean, is there any live music in anything that passes for 965 01:04:13,640 --> 01:04:17,800 comedy on Radio 4 these days? I don't know because I can't 966 01:04:17,800 --> 01:04:20,480 hear it anymore because of BBC sounds being taken away. 967 01:04:20,760 --> 01:04:26,640 But no glorious. And it it would have been a 968 01:04:26,640 --> 01:04:28,080 better show with Ellington in it. 969 01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:32,240 This one, I think, and but balanced by the fact Max wasn't 970 01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:36,760 in it, which always poor old Max, poor old Max. 971 01:04:36,760 --> 01:04:40,680 But I listened to it and went, Oh, it's all right. 972 01:04:40,680 --> 01:04:42,480 And the more I listened to it, the more I enjoyed it. 973 01:04:42,680 --> 01:04:47,400 And then I sort of I was in cruise control. 974 01:04:47,840 --> 01:04:54,080 I wasn't I wasn't finding things out from the performances. 975 01:04:54,920 --> 01:04:58,160 What I was finding out was wait a minute, I've got a notion 976 01:04:58,160 --> 01:05:00,520 about the Albert Memorial. I just double checked that, 977 01:05:00,880 --> 01:05:03,240 which is not, I think how these programs were meant to be 978 01:05:03,240 --> 01:05:07,760 listened to. But there you, I mean, it's, 979 01:05:07,840 --> 01:05:13,000 it's a very nice way to pass 1/2 hour when you're not watching 980 01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:19,200 some really good stuff on ITV 830 on the home service, 9:00 on 981 01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:24,680 the light program. That's in the television era. 982 01:05:24,960 --> 01:05:30,800 Funny times. But I guess they, the BBCI think 983 01:05:30,800 --> 01:05:35,040 still hoped that radio could sort of stem the tide of 984 01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:41,120 television, hence kept on making terrible radio serial drama way 985 01:05:41,120 --> 01:05:44,360 into the way into the 60s when it's time had gone. 986 01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:49,720 But but there we go now have we? Have we got to the bit where 987 01:05:49,720 --> 01:05:52,600 you've told me what I don't expect to be told? 988 01:05:52,600 --> 01:05:57,560 You had a a pinned fact. Oh, I'll come to that in a 989 01:05:57,560 --> 01:05:58,640 minute. Come to that in a. 990 01:05:58,800 --> 01:05:59,880 Minute, You're still just finished. 991 01:05:59,880 --> 01:06:02,320 You're still dangling. Oh yeah, yeah. 992 01:06:02,480 --> 01:06:05,080 Let's let's just round off our our chat about the particular 993 01:06:05,080 --> 01:06:08,320 show, this particular show. OK, there's a couple of little 994 01:06:08,320 --> 01:06:11,320 things I just wanted to mention. I love the bit where Henry Cron 995 01:06:11,320 --> 01:06:17,280 is explaining the the terms of of Ned's stay at the Albert 996 01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:19,360 Memorial. We've all been to one of these 997 01:06:19,640 --> 01:06:22,640 rooms where you can't do anything, including was it 998 01:06:22,640 --> 01:06:27,800 breathing after 11:00. Yeah, fabulous. 02 things about 999 01:06:27,800 --> 01:06:32,440 Ned I do, I did enjoy in series 8, he would often do is he would 1000 01:06:32,760 --> 01:06:35,000 address the audience through a speaking trumpet. 1001 01:06:35,000 --> 01:06:35,720 Yep. Yep. 1002 01:06:36,840 --> 01:06:38,400 That's only where that came from or what. 1003 01:06:38,400 --> 01:06:40,000 Who decided that that was a good idea? 1004 01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:42,600 But there's just something so dumb about it. 1005 01:06:42,600 --> 01:06:47,800 I just, I love it. And also there's a reference, 1006 01:06:47,800 --> 01:06:51,680 the second reference ever to Ned, Ned's grandmother owning a 1007 01:06:51,680 --> 01:06:55,480 duck farm and Kent. Oh, it's an actual thing, is it? 1008 01:06:56,320 --> 01:06:58,040 Yes. And and eggs and every. 1009 01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:00,360 Oh, righty ho, no. No, no, he he used. 1010 01:07:00,360 --> 01:07:03,280 It's like a non sequitur that Ned throws into the conversation 1011 01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:04,880 whenever he's panicking about something. 1012 01:07:05,160 --> 01:07:07,280 Didn't he have Ducks disease as well in one of? 1013 01:07:07,280 --> 01:07:08,840 Them. Oh yeah, the curse of the sick. 1014 01:07:08,840 --> 01:07:12,920 The sick. But him him saying my 1015 01:07:12,920 --> 01:07:16,120 grandmother owns a duck farm and Kent was first used, I think of 1016 01:07:16,120 --> 01:07:19,400 the third episode of series 8, the burning embassy and then 1017 01:07:19,400 --> 01:07:22,160 it's used in this and it's used probably another 5 or 6 times. 1018 01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:31,280 I think the end of it is is very rushed and very, as I said, sort 1019 01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:34,080 of will this do. I think with the with the with 1020 01:07:34,080 --> 01:07:36,840 the gramophone record and and blood not with the firing squad, 1021 01:07:37,080 --> 01:07:41,960 which had slight echoes of the end of the rent collectors to 1022 01:07:41,960 --> 01:07:47,480 me, but with Blood not just being sort of bloodthirsty and 1023 01:07:47,480 --> 01:07:49,320 wanting to wanting to kill everybody. 1024 01:07:49,760 --> 01:07:52,960 You know what, you know what, what you were saying earlier, it 1025 01:07:52,960 --> 01:07:55,000 could be any interchangeable show. 1026 01:07:55,240 --> 01:07:59,480 That finale could just be tacked on to the end of many shows 1027 01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:02,520 because it's Cyril comes on, says there's a record for you, 1028 01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:05,200 and then you just. Yes. 1029 01:08:06,040 --> 01:08:08,600 And it's funny in of itself and the audience seems to quite 1030 01:08:08,600 --> 01:08:12,960 enjoy it. But it it has it has something 1031 01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:15,720 to do with the life insurance. But there are plenty of episodes 1032 01:08:15,720 --> 01:08:19,720 where it could just have been blood not grip type thin and and 1033 01:08:19,720 --> 01:08:25,279 Moriarty trying to kill Neddy. So anyone got a spare finale 1034 01:08:25,279 --> 01:08:29,040 they can Chuck in? Well, they would usually, and 1035 01:08:29,040 --> 01:08:31,080 here we. This is a nice way of bringing 1036 01:08:31,080 --> 01:08:32,960 us to the end of our chat about this show. 1037 01:08:32,960 --> 01:08:40,080 But it ends, like you said before, with Wallace very sort 1038 01:08:40,080 --> 01:08:44,640 of ominously saying, yes, it's all in the mind, you know, now, 1039 01:08:45,359 --> 01:08:49,960 which Spike was quoted as saying in that little Radio Times piece 1040 01:08:49,960 --> 01:08:52,319 earlier, It's all in the mind now. 1041 01:08:52,680 --> 01:08:57,120 Larry came up with the line. It's all in the mind, you know, 1042 01:08:57,120 --> 01:09:01,520 That's a Larry line. And it was only ever used in 1043 01:09:01,520 --> 01:09:06,760 scripts that he he worked on. And it was used a lot to end 1044 01:09:06,760 --> 01:09:12,080 goon shows when there was sort of a dangling ending and they 1045 01:09:12,080 --> 01:09:14,640 needed something just to kind of put a full stop on it. 1046 01:09:15,040 --> 01:09:16,279 Wallace would say it's all in the mind. 1047 01:09:16,279 --> 01:09:20,399 You know, cue music, right? I looked at a copy of Larry's 1048 01:09:20,399 --> 01:09:23,920 script and he'd written. And so the end in the actual 1049 01:09:23,920 --> 01:09:26,279 typewritten script there. We leave Neddy at present 1050 01:09:26,279 --> 01:09:28,240 trapped between the British Army and a loaded record. 1051 01:09:28,479 --> 01:09:32,000 And frankly, I don't think much of his chances now. 1052 01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:37,760 Larry has added in in Biro to that he's he's added, I don't 1053 01:09:37,760 --> 01:09:40,279 think much of his chances of ever getting to the tiddlywinks 1054 01:09:40,279 --> 01:09:46,920 match, which is a a nod to the forthcoming tiddlywinks match 1055 01:09:46,920 --> 01:09:49,800 that we I'm sure we will cover at some point on this show cus. 1056 01:09:52,000 --> 01:09:57,480 Cus cus cus cus cus, Cambridge should never have beaten us. 1057 01:09:58,440 --> 01:10:00,040 Any message of consolation from the Palace. 1058 01:10:01,040 --> 01:10:04,600 He's a lot of good any my life, every word dressed up like 1059 01:10:04,640 --> 01:10:16,560 idiots popping little buttons into a cup and still no signs of 1060 01:10:16,560 --> 01:10:21,800 a knighthood. And then it ends in the script 1061 01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:25,000 with Bill phoning the Spawn insurance company taking out a 1062 01:10:25,000 --> 01:10:27,240 £10,000 life insurance policy on Eddie Segan. 1063 01:10:27,680 --> 01:10:32,240 That's how it ends in script. But Larry has written in Biro 1064 01:10:32,680 --> 01:10:38,480 after that, yes, it's all in the mind, you know, And it's just an 1065 01:10:38,480 --> 01:10:42,760 odd little, it's like a little signature of Larry's, that line. 1066 01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:48,160 And as I said earlier, Wallace delivers it brilliantly to try 1067 01:10:48,160 --> 01:10:52,480 and get a tie in and potential support from Netflix. 1068 01:10:52,720 --> 01:10:55,520 Did you know that the Guinness Company offered the goons 1069 01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:57,960 Guinness for training for the Tiddlywinks batch? 1070 01:10:58,640 --> 01:11:02,600 No, I didn't. I went to a Tiddlywinks website 1071 01:11:03,800 --> 01:11:10,720 and found this out and one of the one of the pages of the ETWA 1072 01:11:12,040 --> 01:11:16,040 is winking world right? Right. 1073 01:11:16,600 --> 01:11:19,200 Yes. Can't wait for the Spot the Ball 1074 01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:20,840 contest. Let's get it, all might have 1075 01:11:20,840 --> 01:11:23,480 said. But anyway, yeah, there was a 1076 01:11:23,760 --> 01:11:27,240 that that tiddlywinks thing was a big media thing, wasn't it? 1077 01:11:27,240 --> 01:11:29,000 It was. Oh, it was. 1078 01:11:29,160 --> 01:11:31,680 It was filmed and everything. And there was a goon show about 1079 01:11:31,680 --> 01:11:33,920 it, of course. Yeah. 1080 01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:38,480 So is there any anything more before we wrap up about about 1081 01:11:38,480 --> 01:11:44,040 the show you want to show in I? Think we're this has been an 1082 01:11:44,040 --> 01:11:48,760 interesting conversation because I've been various little bulbs 1083 01:11:48,760 --> 01:11:52,040 have gone off for me hearing what you've said and then I 1084 01:11:52,040 --> 01:11:53,600 built upon it and all the rest of it. 1085 01:11:53,600 --> 01:11:58,480 And I feel that we've sort of come to a conclusion. 1086 01:11:59,360 --> 01:12:03,640 It's odd when something is pleasurable, but you wouldn't go 1087 01:12:03,640 --> 01:12:08,240 out and tell everybody about it. And and in a way, mediocre is 1088 01:12:08,240 --> 01:12:12,680 such a difficult world and and adequate is even worse. 1089 01:12:12,680 --> 01:12:16,520 Probably. But I guess the show was getting 1090 01:12:16,520 --> 01:12:20,480 to the point where they were almost being strong armed. 1091 01:12:20,480 --> 01:12:23,760 Weren't they into doing this? Certainly in terms of and the 1092 01:12:23,760 --> 01:12:27,440 recordings were also these ridiculous double recordings and 1093 01:12:27,440 --> 01:12:28,320 stuff. Like that? 1094 01:12:28,680 --> 01:12:30,800 Not this week. There wasn't a vintage games 1095 01:12:30,800 --> 01:12:32,920 recorded this week. Well that's good, but I just 1096 01:12:32,920 --> 01:12:36,680 wonder I'm I'm glass half full time. 1097 01:12:37,320 --> 01:12:41,480 Aren't we fortunate that we're 3 producers and four writers that 1098 01:12:41,480 --> 01:12:48,560 something that is still of great quality 68 years later is here 1099 01:12:49,040 --> 01:12:53,920 and, and, and so in in our world, in the goon pod world, we 1100 01:12:53,920 --> 01:12:56,440 go, Oh yeah, it's fine, it's funny, but it's fine. 1101 01:12:56,640 --> 01:13:01,520 But actually go through the schedules of of the home service 1102 01:13:01,520 --> 01:13:05,120 and the light program that we can pull anything else that was 1103 01:13:05,120 --> 01:13:09,000 comedy and probably most of it wouldn't have been much chop. 1104 01:13:09,760 --> 01:13:13,760 So that's right. Thank you for opening my eyes to 1105 01:13:13,760 --> 01:13:19,040 the policy and and for me discovering what Pluji means 1106 01:13:19,040 --> 01:13:23,920 after all these years. I'm always giving Andy. 1107 01:13:24,480 --> 01:13:28,560 So I just want to round off, you mentioned producers. 1108 01:13:28,560 --> 01:13:31,480 The, the, the, the fact they had three or four producers, 3 1109 01:13:31,640 --> 01:13:33,360 producers. Yeah, something like that. 1110 01:13:33,360 --> 01:13:37,040 There was Charles Chilton, there was Tom Ronald, who was a bit of 1111 01:13:37,040 --> 01:13:40,200 a disaster, and in this case it was Roy Spear. 1112 01:13:41,480 --> 01:13:43,440 And I just wanted to quickly talk about Roy Spear. 1113 01:13:43,440 --> 01:13:46,040 I'm not going to go into detail about Roy because who knows, 1114 01:13:46,040 --> 01:13:50,040 maybe one day I'll do a show specifically about the Goon Show 1115 01:13:50,040 --> 01:13:55,240 producers, but Roy Spear. Famously for Guin Show fans, he 1116 01:13:55,240 --> 01:13:59,720 was the man who gave Peter Sellers his first radio gig in 1117 01:13:59,720 --> 01:14:02,160 1948. Sellers phoned Roy Spear 1118 01:14:02,800 --> 01:14:09,240 pretending to be Kenneth. So Roy Spear. 1119 01:14:09,240 --> 01:14:13,080 This is the first Goon Show episode we've covered on Goon 1120 01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:15,360 Pod in which Roy Spear was producer. 1121 01:14:16,960 --> 01:14:20,840 But I I discovered fascinating little fact about Roy Spear what 1122 01:14:20,840 --> 01:14:23,760 fascinated to me. You might think it's Dulles 1123 01:14:23,760 --> 01:14:30,840 Ditch water, but did you know that in early 1951 he was on 1124 01:14:30,840 --> 01:14:34,280 trial at the Old Bailey? He was a bit of a naughty boy. 1125 01:14:35,680 --> 01:14:38,680 What did you know about this? I, I, I knew he was on trial and 1126 01:14:38,680 --> 01:14:40,920 there's something about plagiarism or something like 1127 01:14:40,920 --> 01:14:44,000 that, but I know nothing more. Well, it wasn't plagiarism, 1128 01:14:44,320 --> 01:14:48,800 right? He was charged with corruption 1129 01:14:50,360 --> 01:14:54,200 and he pleaded not guilty to 4 counts of corruptly obtaining up 1130 01:14:54,200 --> 01:14:59,680 to 80 lbs. And and the the the charge was 1131 01:14:59,680 --> 01:15:02,560 that that Roy Spear, being an agent of the BBC, corruptly 1132 01:15:02,560 --> 01:15:06,960 obtained for himself, it says he had £20 from Albert Rostron 1133 01:15:06,960 --> 01:15:11,960 Parker and inducement or reward for showing favour or forbearing 1134 01:15:11,960 --> 01:15:14,880 to his disfavour in relation to his principal affairs. 1135 01:15:15,080 --> 01:15:17,720 Basically what it means is that there was this character called 1136 01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:23,120 Ross Parker who was a scriptwriter and songwriter and 1137 01:15:23,120 --> 01:15:29,800 the, the charge was that Roy Spear had lent on Ross Parker to 1138 01:15:30,040 --> 01:15:35,240 pay him some money and Spear, being ABBC producer, would get 1139 01:15:35,240 --> 01:15:38,520 his material broadcast on the BBC. 1140 01:15:38,520 --> 01:15:41,240 That was the, that was the, the charge. 1141 01:15:41,840 --> 01:15:45,440 Goodness. But he was cleared of all 1142 01:15:45,440 --> 01:15:47,840 charges. You'll be, you'll be pleased to 1143 01:15:47,840 --> 01:15:52,840 know his defence. His legal costs were partly 1144 01:15:53,280 --> 01:16:03,800 covered by Denis Norton, Frank Muir, Ted Cavanaugh, wrote Itmar 1145 01:16:04,120 --> 01:16:07,760 and the scriptwriter Sid Collin and other colleagues. 1146 01:16:07,760 --> 01:16:15,360 So they stumped up quite a lot of money to cover Spears legal 1147 01:16:15,720 --> 01:16:19,120 costs. Now the The thing is, I'm not 1148 01:16:19,120 --> 01:16:22,840 going to dwell too much on this, but Ross Parker, the 1149 01:16:22,840 --> 01:16:26,800 scriptwriter and songwriter, he and Roy Spear had served 1150 01:16:26,800 --> 01:16:30,280 together in India during the war and had been very good friends. 1151 01:16:31,080 --> 01:16:37,560 In fact, they had appeared on the BBC Home Service in 1940, in 1152 01:16:37,560 --> 01:16:41,680 December 1940, in a program called Grand Pantomime. 1153 01:16:41,760 --> 01:16:46,080 Babes in the Wood or the cadets who could, right? 1154 01:16:47,680 --> 01:16:52,080 They play piano, so it says at the pianos Cadets Roy Spear and 1155 01:16:52,080 --> 01:16:56,320 Ross Parker. And interestingly for you, it 1156 01:16:56,320 --> 01:17:00,120 was recorded quote somewhere in Wales. 1157 01:17:00,400 --> 01:17:07,600 Bangor, BBC Bangor. OK, so these two Roy Spear and 1158 01:17:07,600 --> 01:17:09,840 Ross Parker were were best of powers by all accounts. 1159 01:17:10,720 --> 01:17:15,160 And it turns out I don't know the background to it and it's 1160 01:17:15,160 --> 01:17:17,040 obviously something on Ross Parker. 1161 01:17:17,320 --> 01:17:25,760 Ross Parker owed Roy Spear up to 80 lbs because Roy Spear had had 1162 01:17:26,600 --> 01:17:29,560 had bailed him out during the war financially. 1163 01:17:30,840 --> 01:17:33,280 So I don't, I don't know the background to it. 1164 01:17:33,280 --> 01:17:36,800 I don't know. There's obviously some something 1165 01:17:37,200 --> 01:17:42,400 gone on here, but I mentioned Shirley Bassey earlier on. 1166 01:17:43,040 --> 01:17:45,280 Ross Parker was a fairly successful fact. 1167 01:17:45,320 --> 01:17:50,000 He, he was very successful back in the 30s and 40s particularly, 1168 01:17:50,520 --> 01:17:54,600 but he was, he was writing songs right up until I think the 60s 1169 01:17:55,200 --> 01:17:58,880 and he wrote Shirley Bassey's first single, Burn My Candle. 1170 01:18:01,520 --> 01:18:06,960 My good night the the the warp and weave of this episode is 1171 01:18:06,960 --> 01:18:09,440 extraordinary. Oh, but there's more. 1172 01:18:09,440 --> 01:18:12,480 Oh goodness, there's more. He's probably most if he's 1173 01:18:12,480 --> 01:18:16,200 remembered at all, which he's not Ross Parker, but if he's 1174 01:18:16,200 --> 01:18:25,080 remembered at all he Co wrote two very important songs, one of 1175 01:18:25,080 --> 01:18:28,400 them being We'll Meet Again. Right. 1176 01:18:29,200 --> 01:18:31,960 You mentioned Vera Lynn. Yeah, yeah. 1177 01:18:32,760 --> 01:18:36,200 But he also Co wrote they'll always be in England. 1178 01:18:37,480 --> 01:18:41,480 Right, All right. And I just all I want to say is 1179 01:18:41,480 --> 01:18:47,880 that Roy Spears, so he produced the policy 2 episodes earlier, 1180 01:18:48,640 --> 01:18:52,200 the episode the Red Fort that Roy Spear also produced. 1181 01:18:53,280 --> 01:18:56,400 Listen, if that's the right sound effect, it sounds like 1182 01:18:56,520 --> 01:18:58,680 hostile natives. Don't worry Sir, I'll go 1183 01:18:58,720 --> 01:18:59,680 outside. And sue them 1184 01:19:15,080 --> 01:19:20,200 and musical swine. And I've had to fade 2 goodies 1185 01:19:20,200 --> 01:19:22,000 of time to hear that the played in my life. 1186 01:19:22,600 --> 01:19:27,920 I wonder if Roy Spear was rather rueful when he heard that, or 1187 01:19:27,920 --> 01:19:30,840 philosophical. Philosophical possibly because 1188 01:19:30,840 --> 01:19:36,480 it ended his career, but I am with Roy Spear being supported 1189 01:19:37,280 --> 01:19:41,120 in a very practical sense. Mira Norden take Kavanaugh C 1190 01:19:41,120 --> 01:19:43,640 Collin. That's an that might would make 1191 01:19:43,640 --> 01:19:46,280 you feel a lot more confident going into the court case, 1192 01:19:46,280 --> 01:19:47,680 wouldn't that in terms? Of yeah. 1193 01:19:47,960 --> 01:19:51,560 The the jeopardy there. But of course, everybody had 1194 01:19:51,560 --> 01:19:55,280 lies beyond doing this show, whether they were Bobby Jay on 1195 01:19:55,280 --> 01:19:58,800 sound effects or whether it was Roy Spear in the booth or 1196 01:19:58,800 --> 01:20:02,760 Wallace Greenslade. And his mysterious life outside 1197 01:20:02,760 --> 01:20:07,560 of the Goon show. But so yet to get this universe 1198 01:20:07,760 --> 01:20:10,800 never fails to give. That's right. 1199 01:20:11,280 --> 01:20:17,040 That so just a little, a little. I want to tag that on to our 1200 01:20:17,040 --> 01:20:21,400 discussion because I thought it was an interesting what if you 1201 01:20:21,400 --> 01:20:23,000 know what if he'd been found guilty? 1202 01:20:23,360 --> 01:20:26,600 Royce Bier, Oh. Goodness, Alistair Scott Johnson 1203 01:20:26,600 --> 01:20:28,480 would have produced the Goon shows. 1204 01:20:30,600 --> 01:20:36,440 That's a very in gag really. But anyway don't explain it. 1205 01:20:36,600 --> 01:20:39,240 He did the Navy luck he did because they always used to do a 1206 01:20:39,240 --> 01:20:42,400 spiel in recordings before the thing started and they always 1207 01:20:42,400 --> 01:20:44,320 appeared as if they're ex servicemen. 1208 01:20:44,320 --> 01:20:46,720 These producers, they were of a certain type. 1209 01:20:47,480 --> 01:20:49,760 Yes, yes, right. OK. 1210 01:20:50,040 --> 01:20:54,280 Well, Andy, it's been enjoyable beyond words. 1211 01:20:56,440 --> 01:20:58,600 If you want to give another plug to and I'm not going to try and 1212 01:20:59,000 --> 01:21:00,960 announce it, pronounce it very. Kind of you. 1213 01:21:01,280 --> 01:21:03,640 Thank you very much. I'm doing an episode around 1214 01:21:03,640 --> 01:21:06,200 Christmas on Harry Secam and probably the Goon Show and how 1215 01:21:06,200 --> 01:21:08,960 they do with Wales and it's a Welsh language podcast. 1216 01:21:08,960 --> 01:21:13,120 So any of you skin shadow can like if you speak Welsh or you 1217 01:21:13,120 --> 01:21:16,400 know someone who speaks Welsh muttering it under their breath. 1218 01:21:16,960 --> 01:21:21,680 You can contact me through Chagling Company, RHAGLEN, New 1219 01:21:21,680 --> 01:21:29,320 Word Cymru, or my Twitter handle which is O Bell Oz OZ. 1220 01:21:30,160 --> 01:21:33,480 Thank you. Thank you, Andy. 1221 01:21:33,480 --> 01:21:37,040 And it is always a pleasure, never a chore having you on. 1222 01:21:37,120 --> 01:21:40,440 And we will get you back maybe next year to talk about another 1223 01:21:40,440 --> 01:21:42,640 Goon show, maybe another one you've not heard before. 1224 01:21:43,240 --> 01:21:47,080 I look. Forward to that and I they're 1225 01:21:47,120 --> 01:21:50,960 always great, but there's been some absolute belters recently, 1226 01:21:50,960 --> 01:21:54,600 so more power to your editing system. 1227 01:21:56,240 --> 01:21:58,640 Thank you very much and thank you all for listening. 1228 01:21:58,640 --> 01:22:03,400 I will be back next week with I think another show. 1229 01:22:03,400 --> 01:22:04,320 Well, there will be another show. 1230 01:22:04,360 --> 01:22:07,680 I can't think which one it will be now, but I'm sure it will be 1231 01:22:07,680 --> 01:22:09,480 as, as Andy said, it will be a bouter. 1232 01:22:11,160 --> 01:22:15,760 Keep rating and reviewing and all that sort of jazz until we 1233 01:22:15,760 --> 01:22:17,440 speak again. Take care. 1234 01:22:17,960 --> 01:22:20,800 Bye. Bye dance the whole night 1235 01:22:20,800 --> 01:22:25,640 through the indigestion waltz with you. 1236 01:22:27,640 --> 01:22:32,640 We gave a kick up with each naughty hiccup, and up in the 1237 01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:41,320 air we flew. You wore a pale pink rose and I 1238 01:22:41,480 --> 01:22:48,920 wore a big Red Nose. With every sharp turn I got such 1239 01:22:48,920 --> 01:22:52,080 heartburn. The indigestion walls, dear, 1240 01:22:52,320 --> 01:22:53,800 with you. With you. 1241 01:22:54,720 --> 01:23:12,960 The indigestion walls with you. Send only two and six months for 1242 01:23:12,960 --> 01:23:13,920 a copy of this record.