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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 Howard, with Anthony Newley and…drum roll… DAVID LODGE providing solid support as Marines Clarke & Ruddock respectively.
Although The Cockleshell Heroes was a hit with audiences and looks gorgeous in Technicolour it doesn’t tend to get talked about as much as other similar WW2 films of the period and perhaps this was partly down to the almost anti-climactic third act. However, thanks to shameless plugging by David Lodge on a frequent basis some two decades later as part of Spike Milligan’s Qseries the film is still regarded affectionately by some people, particularly listeners to this podcast, and it seemed a nice idea to put it under the scrutinisinggaze of your host and his special guest this week.
Joining Tyler is Warren Cummings, host of The CinematicSausage podcast and someone with a very direct link to the true events which this film depicts – his grandfather served alongside the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ in WW2.
It’s a great chat with tons of fascinating factualinformation about Operation Frankton and how the film reflected the true events, plus there’s a long-deserved tribute to David Lodge, without whom this podcast would be poorer.
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"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 nothing whatsoever to do with the International Christmas Pudding but has everything to do with selling snow to Sudan.
It's Tyler's favourite Goon Show of all, the third he ever heard and one which had been 'trailed' to him in a way by his father as he was growing up. His dad would occasionally mention the plotline of The White Box of Great Bardfield without naming it specifically; he merely considered it a quite genius idea for a comedy plot.
Joining Tyler to try and unpick it all is returning guest Molly McDade who thinks it's a show you should never expose to a newbie and was looking forward to seeing Coogan in Strangelove - which, by the time this goes out she will have done!
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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A little taster of this month's edition of Goon Pod Film Club, Guest House Paradiso, starring Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Simon Pegg, Bill Nighy & Fenella Fielding.
With our very special guest Jeffers from Podcasto Catflappo!
www.patreon.com/GoonPod
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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 Webb & Robert Johnson from Still Any Good podcast and among other things they discuss:
The magnificent Ron Moody The novel vs the film Harry hits it out of the park That villainous Bill Sikes The wonderous Oliver! set Jack Wild's tragic life Max Bygrave's nice little earner The songs they dropped Carol Reed's Flap! Fagin puts in his 10,000 hours Leonard Rossiter's drunken turn Corrie does Oliver! Bullseye the dog in makeup Mark Lester's gift to Jacko Brucie as Fagin? Catflap's nodPlus much much more!
Consider yourself entertained!
STILL ANY GOOD: https://stillanygood.buzzsprout.com/
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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 touch on (then) contemporary events - the boy he shot in his garden and the fallout which resulted in him being dropped from several animal charities.
The conversation is punctuated by a series of filmed sequences in which people who knew Spike well give their views on the ex-Goon, such as his fellow ex-Goon Peter Sellers, writer and collaborator John Antrobus and old friend and mentor Jimmy Grafton.
As indicated, Spike takes it all largely in his stride, with only very occasional flashes of annoyance or irritation and the odd bemused frown and it remains one of the most insightful and honest portraits of the great man we have.
Our guest this week is actor & writer Lee Moone who previously has adapted Milligan's Phantom Raspberry-Blower of Old London Town for the stage.
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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 wrecking the capital's commercial life by blanketing London with an artificial foreign fog that makes people think nothing but the best of each other. Professor Crun is called in by the Government to find an antidote to 'Forog' but not before Professor Moriarty and Commercial Attache, Grytpype-Thynne, nearly succeed in bringing London life to a standstill.
So runs the synopsis to this week's edition but as is usually the case the actual show itself bears little relationship to Spike Milligan's fevered precis. Instead, we find an increasingly manic Ned Seagoon hell-bent on solving London's fog problem, conversing with statues and getting all xenophobic over atmospheric conditions.
Joining Tyler this week is James Page who loves Forog... but can our host say the same?
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"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 January 1957.
Neddie is a tramp poet, who buys a poetic licence from those chiselling spivs Grytpype Thynne & Moriarty and through further trickery believes himself to be the rightful owner of the moon. Then he realises that the moon is a forgery and pursues the villains across Europe.Joining Tyler this week is Ian Winick, co-host of the Lord Of Adders Black podcast: https://shows.acast.com/lord-of-adders-black
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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 undercooked 1983 film is writer and performer Adrian Mackinder: http://www.adrianmackinder.co.uk/
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"... 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 after all. If they’d dropped Sellers into a real hippie culture, we might really have had a movie here." (Roger Ebert, 1968)
Despite the misgivings of the exalted Mr Ebert, I Love You Alice B. Toklas is a pretty good film generally. This week's guest, the writer John Williams, and Tyler both had fun watching it and talking about it, and were particularly impressed by Peter Sellers' winning turn as lawyer Harold Fine who undergoes a mid-life crisis and embraces the patchouli-scented hippy lifestyle.
With solid support from the likes of Joyce Van Patten and Leigh Taylor-Young, the film is a fine showcase for Sellers' talents and despite dated fashions more or less holds up. So turn on, tune in, drop out and enjoy Goon Pod this week!
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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 meanders somewhat and is essentially a series of sketches loosely linked together, an indication perhaps of Bentine's lack of experience in long-form storytelling, having come off the back of his hugely successful television series It's A Square World.
The film features a host of well-known figures from the world of comedy including Norman Wisdom, Terry-Thomas, Bernard Cribbins, John Le Mesurier, Fred Emney, Harry H Corbett, Stanley Holloway and Ron Moody and has possibly the most incongruous ending to a film ever!
Joining Tyler this week are Rob & Guy of the podcast Britcom Goes To The Movies, a show in which they examine big-screen spin-offs of small-screen comedy series and characters - ko-fi.com/britcomgoes
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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, Bernard Manning and Spike Milligan, plus shows such as 15 Stories High, The Good Life, One Foot In The Grave, Blackadder, Nearest & Dearest, French & Saunders and Rising Damp.
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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 the predatory intellectual with just the right amount of creepiness, while allowing his character enough vulnerability and weakness that audiences, while not rooting for him by any means, weren't wholly repulsed.
His antagonist, and the shadow that hangs over the entire film, is Clare Quilty, played with aplomb by Peter Sellers in his first collaboration with Kubrick. Although his actual screen-time is limited, Quilty is a ubiquitous presence, a quietly menacing threat to Humbert's happiness and ultimately the agent of his downfall.
Most people know the story and it wasn't for nothing that the tagline for the film was 'How did they make a movie of Lolita?' Through masterful direction, insinuation and nuance Kubrick managed to do it, and did it well, and while we can feel disgust towards some of its themes there's no denying that it's a powerful film.
Joining Tyler to talk about it is actor Patrick Strain, who puts up a spirited argument that it is one of Kubrick's best.
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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? Or was it just a neat idea for a particularly shambolic (and funny) episode?
We shall see.
Plus: an AI-generated 80,000-word examination of Series 7 of The Goon Show which leaves a LOT to be desired!
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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 Nurke and the over-ripe banana?
Find out (maybe) by listening to this week's edition of Goon Pod, in which Tyler is joined by Jonathan Roberts!
They also examine the wider usage of the word 'nurk' (in its various spellings), wonder at a major US news anchor referencing this particular show and discuss the Guatemala revolution of 1954. Larry Stephens gets some well-deserved props too and they even manage to squeeze in Ed Wood's Bride Of The Monster!
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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 had appeared in Genesis of the Daleks up against Tom Baker and had a brief role in Secret Army - ironically the very programme which inspired 'Allo 'Allo!
Post-'Allo 'Allo! his career has flourished and as well as films (such as Pirates of the Caribbean) and television (including Seinfeld) Guy is (possibly) the only person to have appeared in all four major sci-fi franchises: Dr Who; Star Trek; Babylon 5 and Star Wars (he did voice work on the game Star Wars: TIE Fighter)
We talk briefly about the Goons and the Kenneth Connor connection but this episode is very much given over to focusing on Guy and 'Allo 'Allo! in particular - both shows share a silliness and sense of the absurd so there should be a big crossover of fans.
Listen Very Carefully (Guy's new podcast): https://podqp.podbean.com/
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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 Rinaldi discusses Val Guest's 1958 comic romp - does it still hold water after all these years?
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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 involvement of Andy Warhol. Rather bizarrely Morrissey was a fan of the Carry On films and he was keen to bring that sort of humour to the screen, enlisting Kenneth Williams to play Sir Henry Baskerville and stuffing it full of familiar faces from the world of British comedy.
The result was a bit of a mess, with indoor fog and urinating dogs small compensation for proper belly laughs but there is still plenty to talk about and some titters among the dross. It's not a complete dog of a film.
And why are we covering it on Goon Pod? Why, for the small scene-stealing cameo from Spike Milligan as a policeman. Enjoy!
Many thanks to the wonderful Jonathan Roberts for this episode’s artwork! There’s also a taster of August’s edition of Goon Pod Film Club, in which Tim Worthington talks Billy Liar! Head over to www.patreon.com/GoonPod
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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, Mudwiggle the worm and Dinglemouse, a former banana. Peril is just around the corner however, as they are captured by the terrifying witch Badjelly who wants to eat them up for breakfast!
The record was a huge hit with kids in New Zealand, thanks to radio broadcasts in the seventies and eighties, and even today the mere mention of the name 'Badjelly' will elicit broad grins of recognition across generations, yet oddly it barely registers with people in Britain.
Hoping to put this right is cartoonist and writer Roger Langridge (who also designed this week's delightful artwork) who chats to Tyler about the history of Badjelly and shares favourite moments.
There's also a lovely return visit from Jane Milligan who talks warmly about the baddest witch in all the world and hints at what the future holds.
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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 interviewed on television.
Spike Milligan liked the cut of his jib and within a week the Goons were recording The Evils of Bushey Spon, all about the erection of a lamp-post. Matthews himself makes a guest appearance in the closing minutes and everything perfectly falls apart.
It was such a slight story on the face of it, only attracting interest due to an octogenarian celebrity being involved, and would have been very quickly completely forgotten had it not been for the Goons - as such, it remains a tiny ‘and finally’-type news story immortalised for the ages.
Joining Tyler to talk about it is returning guest Chris Diamond, who also takes the opportunity to pay tribute to the late great Donald Sutherland.
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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 can be heard!
Ted talks warmly about his career and displays a forensic knowledge of Goon-related minutiae. He worked closely with Dirk Maggs in the early nineties to bring about At Last The Go On Show and subsequent R2 & R4 seasons of fully-restored Goon Shows, but it is his work on the Goon Show Compendiums for which we fans should adopt the position and intone "We are not worthy!"
A fascinating exploration of audio restoration which will enthral all radio enthusiasts.
- Visa fler
