The Goon Show

Hugely popular, fondly remembered and vastly influential, The Highly Esteemed Goon Show was created and written by Spike Milligan (with occasional help from Eric Sykes, amongst others) and ran from 1951 to 1960. Starring Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe (Neddy Seagoon), with Micheal Bentine in the first two series, The Goon Show mixed surreal plots and ludicrous situations with terrible puns and bizarre characters.

Milligan and Sellers played dozens of characters between them, most famously Eccles and Bluebottle (“he's fallen in the water”), Mor-eye-arty and Grytpype-Thynne. Though both were talented mimics, Sellers was able to cover for the missing Milligan by doing all of Milligan's characters. On the other hand, when Sellers was absent a host of additional actors had to be brought in. Dick Emery stood in for Secombe in two episodes.

As well as its plots and characters, The Goon Show was famed for its strange sound effects, many of which were used on BBC programmes for years after.

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The Goon Show Intro