Goons producer marks show's 60th anniversary

[dipsydoodle]

It's 60 years since BBC listeners first discovered The Goons. None of the stars are still alive but producer Charles Chilton can still recall the pleasure and perils of putting Spike Milligan's extraordinary creation on air.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14342805

What Time Is It Eccles? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSSGiA4f5cs

[non sociopath skin]

1. The Goons were ground-breakers and deserve kudos for that ...

... but am I the only one to think that they were never as funny as they (or Prince Charles) thought they were?

The Skin

[dipsydoodle]

2. Might be age related

I'm 67 so grew up with them. Pure radio stuff which never converted successfully to visual despite a few attempts. Useful as memory test too - a few us could resurrect more or less an entire script at school the following morning.

I used to listen to on it crystal set. :rofl:

A few years later we'd all moved on to Tom Lehrer singalongs.

[T_i_B]

4. Some of it has definitely aged

Some of it however is still funny as far as I'm concerned. However I do have something of a surreal sense of humour to start with.

[non sociopath skin]

8. I'm not far behind you, so it can't be too much of an age thing.

Hancock, Round the Horne and I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again never date for me and still make me laugh out loud.

But the Goons, along with ITMA, are still firmly in the category of "Don't Quite Get What They're Laughing At" for me. Sorry.

:hide:

A propos of nothing, Mrs Skin (who, as you may know, is a new Yorker) loved the stage show recreating "Round The Horne" but couldn't make head nor tail of the stage version of Milligan's War Memoirs.

The Skin

[oldironside]

10. You should buy her...

... the DVD of Puckoon.

http://youtu.be/T9u4TtOE9qk

[non sociopath skin]

11. Ah. Loved the book. Never saw the movie.

Was fortunate enough to see Spike in "The Bed Sitting Room" at Newcastle Theatre Royal many years ago but didn't care for the movie version. Think that put me off Milligan Movies a bit.

The Skin

[oldironside]

12. Puckoon is very patchy...

... and not as good as the book, but it's still worth a look. Unfortunately they left out the Chinese policeman and Austro-Hungarian nobleman with his fantastical toilet, but a lot of the good stuff remains. Beware, however, of Elliot Gould's Irish accent. :hide:

[oldironside]

3. I refer you to...

... the episode entitled "The Treasure Of Loch Lomond".

IMHO great comedy never dates. Just as Python is still funny (to me, at least) so is the Goon Show (or, as one BBC announcer mispronounced it, the Go On Show), and even the likes of Will Hay can still make me laugh.

http://youtu.be/vD0ZnNQ6GSo
(the bickering exchange starting at 2.10 in this clip is sheer joy, and I still find it hard to believe how close Will Hay was to getting minced by the engine)

Being 45, I am of the Not The Nine O'clock News generation.

Classic stuff, for sure, but not necessarily funnier than any of the others I mentioned.

[dipsydoodle]

5. And a word from the Bona Party

By pure chance I came across what amounted to Round The Horn fan club run by guy out in North Carolina of all places. I think he must've been over here during the time period it was on the radio Sunday afternoons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMMSSseKCmM

[oldironside]

6. Ah, yes.

The thing is, acting like that outside of a BBC studio in those days could have landed you in the nick. It's quite touching that such a self loathing gay as Kenneth Williams (I've read his diaries and don't think that's too strong) could camp it up like that in public, and then go back to his solitary life in his solitary flat.

I'd also like to know what the audience were really thinking. Was it just a case of laughing at this open mockery of poovery or something else?

[dipsydoodle]

7. In some respects times remain the same.

Catherine Tate gets away with it with Derek :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lw_2NuS6i8

and Matt Lucas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0zUOzkHwAE

If wasn't taken in good humour I'm sure they'd both stop.

[oldironside]

9. I take your point but can't help thinking...

... that it must have been heartbreaking for any young gay man at the time to have that held up by society as your only role model. I wonder what those fifties and sixties audience members would have thought if they could have looked into the future and seen...

or...

I think the culture shock would have been a little too much.