Best Goon Pod Podcasts (2025)

1
Being There (1979) 1:24:23

5d ago1:24:23

1:24:23

This week we’re turning our attention to Peter Sellers’penultimate film (if we disregard those pesky ‘flogging a dead Panther’ posthumous farragoes), and the film for which he came closest in his career to carrying off a Best Actor Oscar: Being There from 1979. Very much a passion project for Sellers, the film, directed by Hal Ashby (Harold & Maude…

1
Monty Python & the Holy Grail (1975) - 50th Anniversary 1:22:13

9d ago1:22:13

1:22:13

Can you believe that for half a century student bars the length and breadth of the land have resounded to the excruciating cries of "Nii!"? Yes, the film the Spanish call 'The Knights of the Square Table and Their Crazy Followers' turns 50 and to mark the occasion here's a bonus episode with Tyler and writer, podcaster & performer Tom Salinsky in w…

1
The Histories of Pliny the Elder 1:14:30

12d ago1:14:30

1:14:30

"Do you want a taste of the lash?" "No thanks, I've just had some cocoa." In 1974 the BBC issued the first Goon Show Classics LP. On one side was The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea and on the other side was the show we're talking about today: The Histories of Pliny the Elder, Spike Milligan's attempt to pen a sword-and-sandals Goon…

1
The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1959) 1:15:06

19d ago1:15:06

1:15:06

According to Peter Sellers: “It all started because Spike Milligan and I once said we wanted to experiment in visual humour. We got as many friends together as we could and went and found a field. That was all we had – friends, a field, a roll of film.” What resulted was 'The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film' (1959), directed by the up-and-co…

1
Whoops Apocalypse (1986) with David Renwick & Andrew Marshall 1:28:42

1M ago1:28:42

1:28:42

A darkly comic satire about an increasingly deranged leader of a Western power, tensions with Russia and the threat of World War 3 breaking out – sound familiar? That’s the premise of Whoops Apocalypse, the 1986 feature film very loosely based on the sitcom of the same name, created by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall. Sadly where the film fails t…

1
Listeners Top 20 British Comedy Films Of All Time 1:45:08

3M ago1:45:08

1:45:08

In 2024 we asked Goon Pod listeners to nominate their all-time favourite British comedy film. It didn't have to have a Goon in it - no, we wanted to put together a comprehensive Top 20 chart which covered all the bases. This week as we wind up the show this series Simon Meddings from Waffle On podcast joins Tyler to count down the list from Number …

1
Billy Liar (1963) with Tim Worthington 1:29:13

4M ago1:29:13

1:29:13

A special Christmas bonus edition! As part of Goon Pod Film Club - www.patreon.com/GoonPod - every month Tyler and a special guest discuss a British comedy film and in August this year Tim Worthington came to talk about his favourite: Billy Liar from 1963. Here's the full episode for Goon Pod listeners to get a taste. As you’d expect from Tim the c…

1
Ted Kendall Q&A 1:26:21

4M ago1:26:21

1:26:21

The man behind the Goon Show Compendiums, audio engineer extraordinaire Ted Kendall returns to answer your questions in this Christmas edition!

1
A Christmas Carol 1:15:29

4M ago1:15:29

1:15:29

“For a shortened version of this programme, please read AChristmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and you won’t find much resemblance.” On 24th December 1959 the tenth and final series of The Goon Show got off to a thoroughly festive start with a show VERY loosely based on the classic Dickens story, in which Scrooge (played by Henry Crun) entrusts Eccle…

1
The Gang Behind The Goons 1:13:46

4M ago1:13:46

1:13:46

Who were the key figures in getting the Goon Show to radio? Which people were pivotal to the Goons' success? Join Tyler and Roger Stevenson as they rank those within the Goon Show's orbit in order of importance and show their working. Roger took the brief seriously and put a lot of thought and care into his choices; Tyler slightly misunderstood the…

1
The British Comedy Awards 1994 1:45:14

4M ago1:45:14

1:45:14

On 4th December 1994 Jonathan Ross hosted the British Comedy Awards in front of an invited audience of the great and the good and Noel Edmonds. It was a good year for the likes of Steve Coogan, Michael Barrymore and the Drop the Dead Donkey team but almost from the off Ross was beset by problems, including announcing the winner of the wrong award, …

1
Never Let Go (1960) 1:22:42

5M ago1:22:42

1:22:42

A rare straight acting role for Peter Sellers in 1960, Never Let Go starred Richard Todd as a man for whom life outside of uniform has never been easy, as he struggles to put food on the table and his problems multiply when his new car is stolen. The vehicle has been stolen to order by teen tearaway Adam Faith, who supplies local garage owner and a…

1
Sellers Market (LP, 1979) 1:29:45

5M ago1:29:45

1:29:45

In 1979 Peter Sellers released Sellers Market, an LP of all newmaterial which was recorded mostly in Paris and included contributions from the likes of Alan Clare, June Whitfield and Irene Handl. While it failed to reach the heights of his previous hitrecords The Best of Sellers and Songs For Swinging Sellers, Sellers Market does contain some good …

1
The Cockleshell Heroes (1955) 1:21:09

5M ago1:21:09

1:21:09

Released 69 years ago this week, The Cockleshell Heroes was a heavily fictionalised account of the real-life WW2 Operation Frankton, in which a group of marines, headed by Herbert ‘Blondie’ Hasler, covertly entered BordeauxHarbour in kayaks (or ‘Cockles’) to sabotage German cargo vessels. The film starred actor/director Jose Ferrer and Trevor Howar…

1
The White Box of Great Bardfield 1:11:50

5M ago1:11:50

1:11:50

"In the little Essex hamlet of Great Bardfield, a tiger with influenza is mounting guard over a mysterious white box. What is the secret of the box of Bardfield—does it contain the dreaded International Christmas Pudding or is it really full of priceless Essex snow?" So ran the Radio Times listing that week for the show we are discussing, which has…

1
Oliver! (1968) 1:30:59

6M ago1:30:59

1:30:59

Everyone at Goon Pod Towers is very excited this week as this is the first time we've ever covered a Best Picture Oscar winner on the show, and this one features everybody's favourite beadle Harry Secombe who's in fine voice for this tremendous 1968 film based on the hit Lionel Bart stage musical! Joining Tyler are those incorrigible urchins Chris …

1
Spike Milligan: Face Your Image (BBC, 1975) 1:12:38

6M ago1:12:38

1:12:38

In 1975 David Dimbleby conducted an interview on television with Spike Milligan, and as the Fates would have it Spike was in the perfect frame of mind for such a probing and personal interrogation. They talked about his childhood, the war, his career, his mental health, the breakdown of his marriage in the fifties, his hopes and regrets and even to…

1
Forog 1:10:27

6M ago1:10:27

1:10:27

Young Ned Seagoon, walking the streets of London during a particularly thick 'pea-souper,' accidentally knocks over a Miss Selina Clutch. Her strange behaviour mystifies young Neddie until a chance meeting with Dr. Rheingold Fnutt puts him on the track of an underground terrorist organisation led by the reckless 'Overcoat Charlie' intent on wreckin…

1
The Moon Show 1:02:09

6M ago1:02:09

1:02:09

"There once was a beautiful moon, "It was up in the sky, chum, "When he said “What’s the time?” "They replied ‘What?’ "And the horse departed leaving spon." With poetry like that it's no wonder we lost the Empire. And it stands out as one of the most memorable bits of a Goon Show episode which is rather unfairly overlooked: The Moon Show from Janua…

1
Yellowbeard (1983) 1:31:29

6M ago1:31:29

1:31:29

Take three Pythons, a Goon, the father of modern satire, some Mel Brooks regulars, a Young One, a rock legend, a couple of stoners and a host of familiar British character actors and put them all into a comedy pirate film and what have you got? Arrrrrnswers on a postcarrrrrrd please. Joining Tyler this week to discuss Graham Chapman's ambitious if …

1
I Love You Alice B. Toklas (1968) 1:15:53

7M ago1:15:53

1:15:53

"... Sellers is very funny. Unfortunately, the movie’s general approach to hippiedom is what we’ve come todread. Hippies wear funny clothes, sleep on the stove, don’t wash, read the Los Angeles Free Press, bake pot brownies, put up posters everywhere and operatewith a sort of mindless, directionless love ethic. So the movie becomes conventional aft…

1
The Sandwich Man (1966) 1:22:25

7M ago1:22:25

1:22:25

In 1966, at the height of World Cup fever, an unassuming little British comedy film came out and caused nary a ripple despite a stellar cast of well-known faces. Michael Bentine stars as Horace Quilby, the titular Sandwich Man, who walks the streets of London and seems to know everyone he passes. Without anything so distracting as a plot the film m…

1
Comedy Shuffle (with Chris Diamond) 1:30:42

7M ago1:30:42

1:30:42

This week a slight departure as Chris Diamond returns to take a leisurely meander through the world of British comedy, randomly choosing from a selection of topics (such as Who Was The Fifth Goon?) and pondering upon the genius (or otherwise) of such performers as Kenneth Williams, Michael Bentine, Bob Monkhouse, Arthur English, Hinge & Bracket, Be…

1
Lolita (1962) 1:31:56

7M ago1:31:56

1:31:56

Seven years after the publication of Vladimir Nabokov's scandalous novel Lolita Stanley Kubrick brought it to the big screen, having adapted the author's screenplay sufficiently, assembled a fine cast and applied the directorial flourishes that would come to mark his films out as unique. As Humbert Humbert Kubrick cast James Mason, who portrayed th…

1
Six Charlies In Search Of An Author 1:10:13

8M ago1:10:13

1:10:13

Sean Gaffney returns to talk about a favourite Goon Show episode from 1956 - Six Charlies In Search Of An Author, loosely based on a play by Fred Pirandello. Was it a cry for help from Spike? A thinly-veiled portrait of a man whose life was beset by the weekly demand for a funny script, pouring scorn and contempt upon the very characters he created…

1
The Affair of the Lone Banana 1:16:12

8M ago1:16:12

1:16:12

Fred Nurke is missing! An over-ripe banana in a deserted Cannon Street shipping office is the only clue to his whereabouts. Inspector Ned Seagoon follows the trail to a British Embassy in South America. Why are Senor Gonzales Mess and his gang trying to cut down the only banana tree in the Embassy gardens, and what is the connection between Fred Nu…

1
Guy Siner 1:02:55

8M ago1:02:55

1:02:55

Best known to audiences around the world as Lt Gruber from 'Allo 'Allo! Guy Siner joins Tyler this week to talk about the show, his career and his brand new podcast - Listen Very Carefully - in which he and friends & colleagues Kim Hartmann (Helga) and Richard Gibson (Herr Flick) look back fondly and drink gin. Before landing the role of Gruber Guy…

1
Up The Creek (1958) 1:22:07

8M ago1:22:07

1:22:07

A chaotic naval lieutenant, who cannot be discharged due to his connections, is transferred from the Admiralty to a mothballed destroyer whose crew is running dodgy Bilko-esque money-making schemes. David Tomlinson stars as Lt Fairweather and Peter Sellers, with a whiskery Irish brogue, plays Chief Petty Officer Doherty. Returning guest Graham Rina…

1
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) 1:19:49

9M ago1:19:49

1:19:49

John Rain & Paul Litchfield join Tyler to discuss Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 1978 adaptation of the classic Sherlock Holmes story, an attempt to make a hit mainstream comedy but which failed to find an audience. Mostly owing to it not being very good. Directed by American Paul Morrissey this was the first major film project he made without the i…

1
Badjelly the Witch (with Roger Langridge and Jane Milligan) 1:07:53

9M ago1:07:53

1:07:53

It's 50 years since Spike Milligan recorded an LP version of his children's story Badjelly the Witch, with music by Ed Welch. The story is simple and hilarious. Two children, Tim & Rose, go in search of their lost cow Lucy and along the way have adventures with characters such as Binklebonk the tree goblin and his grasshopper Silly Sausage, Mudwigg…

1
The Evils of Bushey Spon 1:25:49

9M ago1:25:49

1:25:49

In early March 1958 the elderly actor A.E. Matthews staged a protest outside his cottage in Bushey Heath – he sat on a chair over a hole the council had dug with the intention of erecting a lamp post there. A minor squabble which quickly caught the ear of the media, Matthews’ stand against his local council became a cause célèbre and he was intervi…

1
Ted Kendall: Restoring The Goons 1:09:17

9M ago1:09:17

1:09:17

At last the Ted Kendall show! In 2022 Tyler spoke with genius sound engineer Ted Kendall about his career with an emphasis on the work he did in lovingly restoring Goon Shows to their original broadcast length and best possible quality. For a number of technical reasons this interview lay in the Goon Pod vaults for the longest time but finally it c…

1
How To Win An Election (Or Not Lose By Much) 1:06:52

10M ago1:06:52

1:06:52

60 years ago the Labour Party won the UK General Election, booting the Conservatives out of office after thirteen years. It is not known if Harold Wilson listened to the LP 'How To Win An Election (Or Not Lose By Much)' but even if he had it is highly unlikely he would have found it instructive. Leslie Bricusse brought together Spike Milligan and H…

1
A Shot In The Dark (1964) 1:35:06

10M ago1:35:06

1:35:06

“Then I submit, Inspector Ballon, that you arrived home, found Miguel with Maria Gambrelli and killed him in a rit of fealous jage!” The Pink Panther received its world premiere in Italy inDecember 1963 and was officially released in the US in March 1964. Despite David Niven topping the bill, the character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau - played by …

1
In Sickness and In Health 1:25:01

10M ago1:25:01

1:25:01

Johnny Speight, creator of Alf Garnett, had a long friendship with Spike Milligan, stretching back to the mid-fifties and the Associated London Scripts days. Speight wrote Till Death Us Do Part which delighted and shocked television audiences in equal measure, with Garnett given to frequent outbursts against what he perceived as society's ills: imm…

1
Hancock's Half Hour: "A Visit To Swansea" 1:02:02

10M ago1:02:02

1:02:02

"... Must admit he was very funny. I laughed. I laughed a great deal. Thought I was going to cry. I did." A Visit to Swansea was the fourth episode of the secondseries of Hancock’s Half Hour and was originally broadcast on 10th May 1955, two days before Tony Hancock’s 31st birthday. It was long considered one of the missing Hancocks until it was di…

1
The Reason Why 1:14:04

10M ago1:14:04

1:14:04

"Being the account of the hole, the wonderful way it was filled, and with what. Written for the wireless by Spike Milligan." On the 12th August 1957 a Daily Mirror reporter encountered Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan larking about around Cleopatra's Needle on London's Embankment: ""This is 1887!" yelled Spike Milligan, standing on t…

1
Where Does It Hurt? (1972) 1:14:06

11M ago1:14:06

1:14:06

In 1972 a film was released which is generally regarded asone of Peter Sellers' weakest films - Where Does It Hurt - and joining Tyler to kick it around for an hour or so are Jeremy Limb & Paul Litchfield. Sellers plays administrator Albert T. Hopfnagel at Vista Vue Hospital, described by Sellers' biographer Roger Lewis as being like “every over-th…

1
Man About The House (1974) 1:30:23

11M ago1:30:23

1:30:23

The British sitcom film of the seventies - doesn't the very mention of the genre make your heart sing? Sure, there were some stinkers, but this week we're talking about one which we consider to be a fairly successful adaptation: Man About The House from 1974. Why is this being covered on Goon Pod? Two reasons. Firstly, Spike Milligan is in it, play…

1
Casino Royale (1967) 1:27:15

11M ago1:27:15

1:27:15

“Something’s been worrying me. You’re a Frenchpolice officer and yet you’ve got a Scottish accent.” -“Aye. It worries me too.” Before Daniel Craig was even a twinkle in his father's eye (give it a couple of months) there was the 1967 original big screen version of Casino Royale, a far-from-subtle James Bond spoof based extremely loosely on Ian Flem…

1
Associated London Scripts 1:30:25

11M ago1:30:25

1:30:25

In 1954 Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, along with Ray Galton, Alan Simpson and Frankie Howerd, formed Associated London Scripts, envisaged as a comedy scriptwriters' cooperative, situated above a greengrocers in Shepherd's Bush. Soon it would swell in number, with the likes of Johnny Speight, John Antrobus, Terry Nation, Brad Ashton and Dick Vosbur…

1
Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel 1:31:24

12M ago1:31:24

1:31:24

In 1990 the airwaves were set alight with the arrival of Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel to BBC radio. Based on material from a series of the same name broadcast on American radio in the early thirties, these modern adaptations benefited hugely from great production, excellent scripts and a highly talented cast, particularly the two lead performers Mi…

1
Doctor In Trouble (1970) 1:30:40

12M ago1:30:40

1:30:40

It is June 1970. Ted Heath is days away from becoming British Prime Minister. Mungo Jerry are riding high at the top of the charts. And popular television personality Simon Dee's career is just about to collapse in a spectacular fashion. How ironic then that Dee should co-star in the film we're discussing this week, playing a popular television per…

1
The Last Tram (from Clapham) 1:18:55

12M ago1:18:55

1:18:55

"All trams have been melted down and made intomelted-down trams." In 1952 London's last tram rolled into the depot. Two years later the Goons decided to mark the occasion with a show - better late than never! At the London Pleasure Transport Board, Redundant Tram Department, Inspector Ned Seagoon receives a phone call informing him that there’s sti…

1
Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest/Robin Hood 1:35:57

1y ago1:35:57

1:35:57

"In ye year of Grace, Mary and Uncle Fred, 1190, WallaceGreenslade, an itinerant announcer, was bounde for Nottingham when ye coach was stoppd inne Sherwood Forest by Robin Hood who did persuade himme to join hysbande as second sackbuttist and part-time dustman. Greenslade did don Lincoln Green and did assiste ye outlaws in their recklesse adventur…

1
Milligan Preserved 1:17:29

1y ago1:17:29

1:17:29

"One small brown pot containing... another small brown pot." With its memorable cover, photographed by Angus McBean and voted Number 25 in the NME's list of Genuinely Disturbing Record Sleeves, Milligan Preserved was released in late 1961 and featured a series of songs and sketches written and performed by Spike Milligan, with assistance from the l…

1
Clive Anderson 1:18:20

1y ago1:18:20

1:18:20

This week's guest is a man more used to asking the questions - the writer and broadcaster Clive Anderson. A former barrister, Clive turned to comedy and wrote for the likes of Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones before gaining radio & television fame as the host of top improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway? He then went on to present a s…

1
The Nasty Affair at the Burami Oasis 1:24:15

1y ago1:24:15

1:24:15

"Excuse me, what is the price of sliced ham per portion?" And so this enigmatic enquiry opens the first episode of Series 7 of The Goon Show - and to launch the new series of Goon Pod Graeme Lindsay-Foot returns to talk about it! Broadcast in October 1956 as the situation in Suez was worsening, it was a busy period for the Goons - The Ying Tong Son…

1
Fuck you RaNdY 29:32

1y ago29:32

29:32

We are so back... sports talk, lawsuit, monica taking our money, soon gym podcast?

1
Rory McGrath 1:12:22

1+ y ago1:12:22

1:12:22

Comedian Rory McGrath is this week's guest and he freely admits that it was the Goons that got him into comedy. The conversation ranges hither and yon and among other topics we talk about: The creation of Chelmsford 123 Peter Cook The genius of Phil Pope Rory's falling out and eventual reconciliation with Jimmy Mulville Who Dares Wins and Tony Robi…

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