The Goon Show: The Whistling Spy Enigma
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2019
- John Cleese hosts the Goons, live, and in color, in Tales of Men's Shirts here: • The Goon Show: Tales O...
Lunacy from the BBC Radio series The Goon Show. Assembled from 3 shorter clips of the show posted on TH-cam by BitchinWallabies as a public service for anyone silly enough to want to see Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe reading scripts live on camera.
Source: / bitchinwallabies
even in 2023 the goon show is as good as it gets
Just so people are clear, this video is from a 1966 t.v. show called _Secombe & Friends,_ and it *is* a reading of a _Goon Show_ script, and it *does* feature the original Goons - Secombe, Milligan, and Sellers - but it’s just a recreation of the original 28 September 1954 _Goon Show_ episode “The Whistling Spy Enigma.” No video-recording of that episode’s broadcast exists, but the B.B.C. did make and preserve an audio-recording of the original 1954 studio broadcast, and it’s well worth listening to as well: the cast are twelve years younger and the asides and the ad-libs are of course all different, plus the live studio audience and the orchestra interludes add something quite wonderful to the whole affair.
thankyou 🙂
i have this episode on LP
can't remember what's on the other side..
the whistling really cracked me up!
and Peter sellers would've been doing lots of films and stuff by this point then?
"The crimes you are about to hear have been especially committed for this program" 😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
"What about you...darling?"
Love how Harry's giggle breaks Peter up after that line.
‘He’s fallen in de water’
I recently discovered The Goons at a recommendation of a friend. I had no idea just HOW funny they were going to be. The antics of Neddie Seagoon, with the scams of Grytype and Moriarity, bumping in Bluebottle and Eccles along the way, literally have me sitting at this computer and dying laughing, along with cowardly Bloodnok and clueless Crun. This is simply the best !
Your relatively recent discovery of these geniuses shows how timeless their comedy was. Even though some references to times in history or politicians etc at the time, the large bulk of the comedy is just incredible word-play and performance by consummate professionals.
My father had most of the Goon Show episodes on cassette tape, distributed by the BBC in the 70's. As a young lad of about 10 years, I absolutely loved listening to them over and over, to the point that I could recall large portions of many of the shows, including my rendition of each of the characters 🤣
The Goon Show is a British treasure and more people should discover it!
I had no idea about these filmed items until yesterday. I listened to the shows as a little kid in the late 50's in bed at night with my little crystal radio, its plastic earphone stuck in place. I barely had any idea what the heIl they were talking about, but it sounded hilarious.
The videos are equally hilarious; and now as an adult I still don't know what the heIl they are talking about.
And for some of us, the one-liners are as memorable as anything from later comedy such as Monty Python.
Anyone who knows "You rotten swine!" treasures the laughs
I also suggest you follow up on some stand alone skits within the performances. One brilliant skit is telling the time, by Eccles and Bluebottle: th-cam.com/video/ctM_Rvgjfpo/w-d-xo.html
so glad you found them
there are lots of episodes on the bbc sounds app
and here on TH-cam as well probably 🙂 x
eee's fallen in da water
oh and plenty of records cassettes and cds
We've patiently awaited your arrival. This acquired taste in Anglohumor is not an overnite thing. It took me only a few minutes (as a studio producer for an American NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO station, years ago).
The staccato delivery keeps you laughing as you try to catch your breath. You can hear the roots of Goonlore in BBC radio offspring such as ISIRTA (later yo morph into MONTY PYTHON, with a tip of the hat to Cleese, OTTY [spelling?] et al), FRYE AND LAURIE, and the like.
This is the quintessence of rabid rabid high-speed highbrow Britspeak humor, delivered by the MASTERS.
From all of your fans on this side of the Big Pond, THANK YOU FOR THESE PRICELESS ARCHIVES (it gets better with age)!
Spike wiping the tears of laughter from his eye. Simply hilarious.
I can only imagine what it must have been like for Spike to hear his creation brought to life each week.
The brilliant lines sounding funny in his head, but to hear and see Peter and Harry "play them" (and the inevitable ad-libbing) must've been a joy for him.
The Goons have never been equalled. Absolutely inspired!
Harry Seacombe’s giggle is the most cheering sound. 😆
His singing voice was gold as well.
One of the best things about the Goon Show is just the organized chaos of it all with all the giggling and and antics-and of course the super chill Ray Ellington.
"Organized chaos " sums them up !
Not so much of the "organised", I think. @@eahannan
It's amazing to be able to watch the Goons in action after all these years. Interesting to see that Milligan put a finger on his neck to help create Minnie's voice.
Yes, it looks like he pinched his larynx, wiggling it to get the vibrato for Minnie Bannister. Clever technique, but it must have hurt after a lot of Minnie dialog!
My god, I'm a small boy again, lying in bed with my dad's transistor radio under my pillow, tuned to 3LO, listening to The Goons as I fall asleep. Marvellous.
I was the same, but a later generation to you? I had these recordings on cassette tape and fell asleep to them as a child, however I was born in 1983!
Ahh a fair recollection of my own childhood growing up in the 1960s. These comic legends have never and will never be equalled.
I’m 25 and regularly listen to the Goons to fall asleep to with my phone under my pillow - I’m glad to know this is something that spans generations!
Thought I'd join in - I'm 15 and fall asleep to the goon show on my headphones and have done since I was 8 :) Spike had bipolar disorder like me and is the only reason I haven't given up so you can imagine why it's a huge comfort to me as well as being the funniest show ever and just objectively comforting in every way
@@gopro2804 This puts you to sleep?😅
As a silly person of many years good standing, I appreciate this public service! :D
I always loved it when Neddie would burst into an opera song, because I knew Gryptype was about to say, "You silly twisted boy you!"
The genius of the Goons! They changed the world! Thank you Spike, Harry and Peter!
And not forgetting Michael Bentine who claimed to be the original Goon
They were all splendid! Sunday at 2pm and before that I think it was a Friday night item. Perhaps someone could remember better.
@@glynluff2595I’d been listening to them already when they came on at 2.00 Sunday when we would be having the family meal. My dad didn’t get it at all. Thought they were ridiculous. Confirmed their genius to me.
@@patchamberlain6132 I think what people forget now is that all scripts had to pass the Lord Chamberlain’s Department. This meant that many of the adults with a recent Service past could be seen laughing in odd places. The trick was to quote the final line of a known dirty joke but in a transmittable form and the laughter was about the unspoken words that would have preceded it. This could be a little confusing to children of many households but the inclusion of strange voices often at these moments allowed a family to laugh together on occasion for different reasons. Pull up a bollard: open the window. Two different levels of humour!
Oh to have these all updated and modernized. They're so worth it. They're gold.
Wow- what a find. Thrilled to see this recording of Goons at top of their game. Whole production is brilliant , the cast having a ball, Sellers showing his acting genius, even the sound fx are timed to perfection. They set the standard for post war British comedy
a standard which no one ever subsequently reached.
I have 80 of these on my phone now. Modern technology connects my childhood with my retirement. God, they make me giggle...
Where do you get them?
@@christinewhitfeld7939 Downloads from iTunes…
I'm assuming the person who gave it a thumbs down was not well
Tim Skelton he probably thought he was looking for the Goonies but mistyped :p
oh no ... one of those people has 5 thumbs!
Needle naddle no Jim!
@@stevecrockett4414 Make that eight sad people...
Just bots or trolls, none of those 8 have watched one second of the video
'If I Had To Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You' later became an album title for Caravan.
Pure comic genius hurt myself laughing at neddie segoon , min, major Bloodnock , Eccles, morriarty , how I loved their humor along with Ken Horne in around the Horne absolutely fantastic with Betty Marsden Kenny Williams Hugh paddick never to be equaled we were so fortunate to grow up with these incredible radio programs
I loved Round the Horn’ as well. Silly but very clever the lot of them. I think the Forces engendered the humour through their war experiences.
Diiid yeeeewwwww knowwwwww daaaaaat, dis is the fiiiiirst time I haaaaave seeeeein iiiiit recorded on film.
-waits for applause. Not a sosinge
Thanks my cap-it-ain.
Exits stage left to eat the promised bag of toffees.
Yiiiheee!
🌊💦 Heees fallen in da worta
Well said, little string and cardboard nerk. Here’s an orange.
I remember the Goons from when I was at school. Hearing them again now is a wonderful reminder of those days.
In days prior to tape recorders and instant replay, we would go into school the next day and recall the jokes while twanging rulers and putting on Eccles and Bluebottle voices to relive the best bits .
Times have changed - good comedy hasn’t.
Thanks for posting, you silly twisted boy.
Spike and Harry both sufered from what is now called PTSD due to injuries received fighting in North Africa during WW2. Check out some of spike's books like' Rommel my part in his downfall', bloody terrifically funny, but a little sad if you read between the lines.
Absolutely brilliant comedy , from a brilliant group of comedians, and still making many people laugh , which we can always do with
👍About to say the same thing. If I recall Spike was not particularly enamoured with Gracie Fields…..😂
Spike was a manic depressive. Bipolar as its called nowadays.
@pingpong5000 Shouldn't that be Hitler, My Part In His Downfall, and Rommel? Gunner Who?
@@grahamessex4838ààaà
Nice to see Harry the comedian as most people remember him as a singer and songs of praise presenter people forget his comedic back ground
Couldn't have been easy between two comic icons but Harry always held his own.. in that order.
The other two always praised Harry for his contribution and one of the main sayings from that show was what what what which I remember as a child became as saying when the goon puppet show was on just before Dr who Harry was a good comedian in his own right shame he's not remembered for that!
I can't imagine the Goon show without Harry Secombe.
Shear brilliance, the likes of which will never be heard or seen again, the comedy was /is years ahead of its time, and remains so.
Brilliant 👍I’m nearly 80 yrs old and have grown up with these beautiful men ,including Ray Ellington
Listening to the radio ( no television) Journey into Space,Top of the Form, Dick Barton Special Agent,
The Archers, Woman’s Hour, Desert Island Discs and lots more.🥰🏡
My wife and I were just sharing similar memories, after I told her I had stumbled upon this video. My word, My Music and of course Biggles. Oh and one Sunday as a lad, listening to the Goons, our ancient cabinet radio burst into flames.
Mrs Dale's Diary. 🤣
Journey into Space with Jet Morgan. Scared me silly when I was 10 years old. Lying on the floor with an ear stuck into the huge HMV Radio so as not to miss a word of the Goons. These were a big part of my childhood. Radio - truly a "hot" medium.
When it first appeared at the BBC , the powers that be asked what is this GO ON show about, still pure magic , no other show could be as popular all these years later, what memories!
Who's the singer that sung during the break? He had a pretty good voice. And when was this show made? I'm guessing early-mid '60s, since it's in black and white.
@@alondathomas293 G'Day Alonda, the singer was Ray Ellington, the show started on the Radio mid'50s!
@@paultanker5606:
Thanks! Was he related to the great Duke Ellington, btw?
@@alondathomas293 I doubt it very much, as Ray was born in London!
All these years later, we still have no idea 😅😂
they were THE GREATEST
Omg. You have to listen so carefully to get every last gag. But it's so fast. They will never be surpassed.
A lesson from my dad when I was eight - "To play the fool at anything and make it funny, you have to be the best in the game first!"
The Greatest Philosophers of All time from a Golden era of comedy. They taught me all I know.
My sons learned how to manipulate the english language to great effect thanks to this wonderful show.
What a treat to have seen them live.
You are so lucky I haven't even shared a day on this planet with any of them 😭
The greatest comedy ever. Love them and thank you for posting it
Now this is a reason to go back in time and sit in the studio listening these three ad lib.
What a team..
This is a gem. My favorite line is when Eccles says "No, it's not Dr. Who it's me!" 😅 Peter and Spike really shine in this episode. Not taking anything away from Harry mind you.
The most beautiful lunacy ever
Cheers for posting this brilliant performance with better audio.
Goodness, it's great being a Briton! What top comedy - it's taken me some while, but now I know why my dad loved this comedy so much. They did well holding a half-straight face!
Treasured childhood memories gathered round the radio in the kitchen, wetting ourselves at their antics. Thanks for posting.
Oh, thank you for this treat!!! I’ve always wanted to see them at “play”. This is great! You so made my night!!
Thanks! If you do some searching you'll find, as the Goons would say, "There's more where that came from!"
The wonderful, unique and irreplaceable Goons. Thanks for posting.
Love Harry Secombe's laugh. Reminds me of my dad.
I love how he breaks down in giggles mid script!
Comedic genius! I heard my first Goon Show in, I think, 1956 - was 7 going on 8.I have been besotted since!
Hilarious! Brilliant!
We grew up on this!
Seeing them perform confirms more than ever just how much fun they were having making these shows!
Love the comic escalation of the "Pull up a chair" routine with the hilarious sound FX. Spike (off camera) throwing out "Somebody open a window!"
Priceless!
Amazing stuff, what a rare treat to actually see them doing it! Perfect radio comedy. They were so anarchically brilliant yet nearly always followed the same template with the same characters playing the same roles in the plot.
Goons. Bloody chaos.... Lol xxxxxxxx 😂😂😂😂😂
Our uncles were avid ham radio enthusiasts and one "sent" the show as it was broadcast on the BBC Home Service to his brother who in the US who then recorded the broadcast on his reel tape recorder and played it to family members.
Thanks for conjuring swell memories.
spike mulima the well known typing error
I used to be sent off to the garden shed where we had a radio when this was on. Only one in family that liked it.
Even after all these years the goons still have me in fits of laughter.
Anybody who doesn't find this funny is lacking a sense of humour.
OR,.... wasnt born a hundred years ago.
@@stevehunt914 you’re wrong mate - they invented the genre of quick fire improvised surrealist comedy - you can connect the dots from this to Monty Python, to modern comedy shows like the Mighty Boosh.
@@amandaevans9869 No i get it,.. i was just commenting on the guy before me who said ''Anybody who doesn't find this funny is lacking a sense of humour.''
I understand why the goons were necessary and concede their value,...
but MOST of the things they say/said are purely valued from a nostalgic viewpoint.
Not due to any comedic mis-step,.. its more that comedy is the fastest aging medium there is, because it directly mirrors society which is ALWAYS in flux.
So,.. while i appreciate that they existed,.. i appreciate the people they inspired WAYYY more.
@@stevehunt914 : The beauty of the Goon Show's comedy is that most of - apart from current political leaders being mentioned - is that Spike wrote a very cerebral kind of comedy; not rooted in any place or time, and made the ludicrous seem logical - there was a logic behind the apparent madness of his comedy...it kind of made sense in way, a very abstract way...it always had it's roots in a sort of reality.
That's what makes it actually so timeless....and bloody hilarious!
If you don't get it, fair enough... just go and grow a better sense of humour...there's more to comedy than all the very safe, UnFunny American sitcoms that we've had to endure for the past 20-30 years.....
@Steve's Stuff I liked a lot of what you said, but then you lost me toward the end with the insult and assumption that i like american tv - it made me hate you a little bit and i was tempted to draw a comparison from your age to your propensity to flatulate mere dust from both ends. - but then i realized that would be rude and thought better of it.
you enjoying the goon show doesnt affect me in any way
you could enjoy it with both your arms behind your back and on one leg if you like
i promise i dont care
When the person who gave the thumbs down dies it will say on his grave stone " I told you I was not Well"
This is brilliant. The whole show!?
Including Max Geldray!
And I love how Sellers could not hold back the occasion giggle.
Of course Secombe was a notorious giggler too.
Unique, echoed unanimously over the decades, the continents and the years. Better than party balloons are the Goons! Of course,
worth many a chortle, a chuckle, and raucous laughter in over six, no, seven international languages. "Pull up a chair", "Thank You",
"Open a window!" .....
I LOVE the ad libbing!
I love it when they have audible gags that only work over the radio, like repeatedly pulling up a chair.
Stuck with this.
The funniest series (on any medium) EVER! Just brilliant!
It is so good to see the Goons again.
I still get the giggles with them
Thanks for this, I feel blessed to have grown up with the classic radio programs that played havoc with the English lanuage and consequently taught me more than school. Also introduced me to the wonderful humour of the absurd.
So glad this popped up, I listened to the Goons hundreds of times, but rarely saw any live recordings. This one is brilliant, and to watch them perform more than doubles the fun. I could not stop grinning all through it 😂. “Please don’t do that” delivered offhandedly is a phrase I adopted as a lifelong cherished habit🙃
Light years ahead of their time..
God how I wish that they were alive and going now adays!
I used to listen to these shows on the jolly old steam valved radio on Sunday afternoon after 'Two-way Family Favourites' music programme. Proper humour!!
This Is The Greatest Radio Comedy Of All Time, Never Get Tired Of it.
They Were Crazy Funny 😂, Thats What Made It So Successful.
There Will Never Be Any Crazy Nutcases As Hilarious As These Guys Again, People Didn't Relize How Lucky And Spoilt For Comedy Choices There Were Back Then.
"Here Are You The One Who's Been Doing The Whistling" ?
Yeah.
"Well Turn It Down Mate, Were Trying To Get Some Bleeding Kip Up Here" 😂 😂 😂 So Funny 😂.
I Love This Radio Comedy And I Hope Many Others Do Too.
"Bluebottle = My Trousers 👖 Are Licensed To Thrill 😂 😂 😂."
"You Rotten Swine You, While Laughing You Drop A dynamite Down My Trousers And Exposed My Secret Parts" 😂 😂 😂.
turn it up*
@@AstrosElectronicsLab Sorry 🙏, I Couldn't Quiet Hear The Word (It Was A Little Difficult Know If It Was Turn It Down Or Turn It Up) So Thank You For Correcting Me 👍.
@@neroroseumu3023 lol no worries
A mate and I used to be able to recite some excerpts from goons programmes...with voices!
Then I bought a few script books...then everybody could join in.
A great way to kill time on a long landrover trip.
Wonderful,crazy, humour...
We had those books at home.
@howler
Nerd alert or what...
Brilliant. Humour at its best. And no one ever dropped the four lettered word that has become standard for standup comics.
Listening to the Goons in the day of steam radio and no TV in our house. The family in stitches at their strange humour that didn’t come out of the mould and set the stage for some great crazy comedy in the years to come. Sad there are no ingenious writers like Spike Milligan.
I can imagine it 😂
Absolute perfection . We dint see this sort of humour any more . What a shame .
I had no idea this existed! Thank you so much for posting it.
It’s a joy just seeing three friends goofing off together
Without the Goons there would never have been Monty Python
Don’t forget beyond the fringe , the filling for that humerus sandwich.
Or The Beatles
“ Constable, 4:18 How would you like to join the River Police”………SPLASH!
These guys were idiots, that's why I love them.
You can see where monty python got their style from, the goons were the greatest
This is a performance that needs no outtakes as they blend seamlessly in to the mayhem. Brilliant priceless stuff which probably will never be created again. The 21st century is all about copying, criticising then sanitising the lost creativity of the 20th and previous Centuries.
Somebody open the window.
The Beatles Eight Days A Week brought me here.
I loved the show in the sixties. We wer fortunate to get them in South Africa
I grew up up on this stuff, my parents could never understand it !
My dad introduced me to The Goons and I passed them on to our sons. Every Saturday at 12 noon a half hour of insane genius. Then I read all of Spikes books. Puckoon probably my favourite. I started reading it on teh train to work of a morning and couldnt stop laughing. People asked me what I was reading and soon I heard others reading and laughing in the carriage.
Mine, it was not allowed! As it was not their diction!
It was my parents that introduced the Goons to me by just having the radio on (early 60s) when 'they' were on, and laughing like idiots at the shows....I loved it, and do to this day! :-)
Seagoon "Maj Bloodknock, I must ask you to peraid your men."
Bloodknock "Why?"
Seagoon "I'm looking for a criminal!"
Bloodknock"You find your own, it took me years to get this lot!! "
Ray Ellington was a terrific singer.
He looks pissed off.
Great, thanks, I had been trying to remember his name. Such a distinctive voice and as daft a sense of humour as the rest of them. when did Michael Bentine appear on the show i wonder.
@@ianwilkinson4602 Bentine was in the first series. Back when it was more of what we'd think of nowadays as a sketch show and didn't have a single continuous narrative per show.
Bentine and Milligan didn't see eye to eye on how the show should develop.
@@nowster Thanks for the heads up Michael. I have always thought that Michael Bentine was very under rated as a comic.
@@ianwilkinson4602 If you've never seen his "broken chair back" routine, I can recommend looking out for the film "Down among the Z Men" which is very Goon-like in nature and stars the original quartet.
They were right steaming twits but they were very comical and I am
If I Had To Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You - the source of a Caravan album title.
Hands up! Who are you?
Mother Brown!
Knees up!
😂
Good lord.. I love The Go On show (the BBC thought it was a play on.Go on not Goon) then it was jimmy graftons crazy people... these guys have an unbelievable legacy in comedy.. and indeed on myself and family xx
OMG I have missed this hilarious comedy it so funny. We used to listen to it on a Sunday night
Love this amazing humour from when I was a little boy.... soooooooo funny..
Incredible footage. What a joy!
Them were days.
I read some of the comments and realized there were many crazy people who watched this --I though i was the only one silly enough to listen to it
Loved these guys, their comedy was so refreshing and unique.
Been years. Thanks for reminding me goonie! Whoooooo!!
Went to BBC Paris cinema studio London 1952.To see a recording. They were exactly like that, brill.
So I was thinking.What do you compare this with?You can't.It"s college humour elevated to a higher level.Either you enter their world or you resist.Butvsurely you miss out on something precious.
Well put. Incomparable indeed. Indee-hee-eeeeed....
As a person who appreciates goons silliness, I prefer to do it sitting down, to fully savour its ying--tong-ness.
I also enjoyed Im sorry I'll read that again.
A Spike Milligan love song: "If I Had to Do it Again, I'd Do it All Over You." :D