It's the Go Ons! - I've found a very good Goons flash site which deserves further investigation. The site has been constructed using cardboard, string and flash animation tools.

Meanwhile on with the introduction...

A wide selection of colourful characters populate the Goon Shows. The hero is Harry Secombe's, Neddie Seagoon who is amiable, cheerful and patriotic, but is also both gullible and greedy for money. The latter traits often involve him in being swindled by one of Peter Seller's characters, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, who is both crook and con man.

Count Moriarty, played by Spike Milligan, is the side-kick of Grytpype-Thynne. Moriarty has gone from being one time dance partner to Lady Astor at the Café Royal to being a trainee corpse at the Leith Crematorium.

Peter Sellers is also responsible for Major Dennis Bloodnok, a notable coward who deserted from the British Army. Afflicted by a troublesome stomach, it is that that announces his arrival.

The extraordinarily ancient Henry Crun is a Seller's character, he defies old age using "Get Fit" hormones and spends much time flirting with Spike Milligan's, Minnie Bannister. At the other end of Sellers' age spectrum is the endearing and enduring boy Scout, Bluebottle, whose confused and confusing conversations with Eccles occur in many Goons' scripts.

Minnie Bannister, spinster, saxophonist and siren to the Goons is the mistress of Henry Crun but has also been the lover of Major Bloodnok.

Musical Interludes and character parts are provided by Max Geldray, Ray Ellington and the Wally Stott Orchestra. Wallace Greenslade is the announcer.

               The Goon Show - By David Bouchier of WSHU Public Radio Group

The last of The Goons died last month. This may not mean much to you, but it was a sad moment for the senior citizens of Britain. My e-mail filled up with messages asking "Did you hear about Spike Milligan?" At the age of 83, he was the last living member of a radio comedy team that shaped the minds of a whole generation.

first Goon Show erupted on to the British airwaves in May 1951. It was a depressing year. Food and gasoline were still rationed, the first hydrogen bomb was exploded, Norman Vincent Peale published The Power of Positive Thinking and the most popular song was "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Nobody had television. We depended on radio for entertainment, but most radio comedy shows at the time were dim collections of old jokes, silly songs and cartoon characters. The Goon Show was something completely new. It's a mystery why the staid and conservative BBC ever allowed it on the air. But, once it was there, it became enormously popular, and the half-hour show continued for 243 maniacal episodes, ending in January 1960 with an drama titled "The Last Smoking Seagoon."

It is very hard to describe the Goon Show to anyone who never heard it. It didn't just break the boundaries of traditional radio comedy, it exploded the definition of comedy itself, and paved the way for surrealistic television shows like "Monty Python's Flying Circus." The Goon Show was anarchic, incredibly fast-moving, violent, and verbal - a gleeful pot pourri of madness bubbling up from the subconscious minds of its three creators and performers.

There were only three of them. Harry Secombe was the central figure. He played the character of Neddy Seagoon, a greedy but likeable fool. Peter Sellers played at least four parts: Grytpype-Thynne, an educated con man, Major Dennis Bloodnock, a devout coward but a heroic drinker, Henry Crun, a disgusting old man, and Bluebottle, an idiot boy who read his own stage directions, and almost always got blown up during the show. Spike Milligan played the half-witted Eccles, the spinster Minnie Bannister, and the evil French Count Moriarty.

You're beginning to get the picture. The Goon Show was about as far from political correctness as comedy could get. Funny accents and ethnic stereotypes came thick and fast. There was always a sort of plot, such as an expedition to climb Mount Everest from the inside, or the search for the oldest British Railway sandwich. I can still remember some of my favorite episodes. "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea," that was a good one; "Napoleon's Piano;" " Fu-Manchu and his Bamboo Saxophone;" and "The Nasty Affair at the Burami Oasis."

Because it was radio, they could do anything. Imagination supplied the visual details. The Goon Show used sound effects shamelessly. When Major Bloodnock poured himself a drink, for example, the sound effect of liquid sloshing into a glass might go on for a full minute. Then he would say: "I'll just top it up a bit," and they would play the same sound for another full minute. Nobody else on radio dared to do anything like that.

When I first discovered The Goon Show I was about twelve, and I remained an avid fan until they went off the air. It's not too much to say that the comic genius of the Goons changed my view of the world. Good comedy is subversive. This was some of the best, and I was lucky to hear it at the right age. If a young person's mind is not thoroughly subverted by the age of fifteen, it may be too late.

More to follow...