American Reacts to The Goons - The Last Goon Show Of All 

The Goons invented modern humour. They broke the walls of comedy that led to Monty Python

Sago was a pudding often served up at school dinners ..... a blob of white stuff with a dollop of jam if you were lucky. It's like tapioca or semolina

goon show went from 1951 to 1960 - but were replayed many times I was still listening to them in 1990's. They are best listened to with so many catch phrases for each character. 'Round the horn' and Navy lark are radio shows from the 60's - just brilliant. The best comedy

It give a completely different vibe to listen to the show (any Goon Show) without visual. The Goon Show was always a radio show and, in many ways, it’s better that way as - with audio only - it encourages imaginative input.

It ran through the fifties, the Charles mentioned is now King Charles as this was his childhood obsession. It had a huge audience and has been incredibly influential, I can't say I have heard a lot of it, I think it works best once you know the in jokes, but I really enjoyed watching that. Milligan carried on writing books, poetry and surreal TV comedy, he is the main creator of the show. Sellers of course became too big a film star to be doing British radio, and died far too young. Harry Seacome was a very popular singer, presented TV shows, performed in films (He was Mr Bumble in Oliver!). He remained a universally loved personality right up to his death.

My father was a lunatic and he introduced me to The Goons as a small child. Thanks, dad!👍

I used to rush home in the 1950s to hear the Goon Show with the specific reason of listening to Max Geldray. Set here now with lumpus throatus.

The Ray Ellington Quartet was a great Jazz combo, Ray played the drums. Spike Milligan played jazz trumpet. Peter Sellers was a very talented actor and Harry Secombe was a great singer and recording artist but above all they were wonderful comedians. Thanks for reacting to this!

TELEGOONS puppet series was SCARY!!!

When I was in high school in 1958 I sat next to a boy who collected all the show on 78rpm records he was an avid fan. I have listen to them on occasions and sometimes still use the voices. I am just about to turn 80 years old and still enjoy their humour. Thanks for the memories

The "Spike Milligna well known typing error" joke, came about because one of the daily papers (namely the Guardian) mis spelt his name as Milligna, and its stuck ever since.

The Goons, Tony Hancock and The Pythons… Beginning of “modern comedy!”

Ray Ellington, the singer in the pink shirt was fantastic. Every week on the Goons live radio show he would do a number with his quartet----usually very jazzy. I don't think the audience quite knew what to make of it. They weren't very hip!

I actually found it funnier with my eyes shut, all those characters, I could see them all again as I did back in the day.

For those British fans out there, when Spike Milligan visited Australia he had just completed an interview in an ABC radio studio when the newsreader came in to read the news bulletin and Spike realised that the microphone in front of him was still switched on. Look up "Spike Milligan interrupts Australian news reader" on line. Very funny 🙂

“He’s fallen in the water.” Was a running gag throughout the Goon Shows. This really brings back memories of my childhood.

There is a Goons sketch, referring to Harry Secombe's once great size. He knocked on No.10 Downing Street, and said to the Prime Minister "I'm starting a revolution, and I have the whole population behind me". The Prime Minister said "Ah, I wondered why I couldn't see them." Genius comedy .

Before these fella's it was all "take my wife...." jokes, Spike brought surrealism to comedy that led to python which led to SNL which led to most of the comedy you see in films to this day. His impact on comedy will go unnoticed by a lot of the world, but we know. RIP fella's.

You really need to react the The Goons “what time is it Eccles?” That little section was a stroke of comedy genius. King Charles was a massive fan. Spike and Harry were at Charles and Diana’s wedding.

Sunday lunch then the goons those were the days

My father listened to all sorts of comedy on radio. The Goons being his favourite. I'm glad he did. It has given me a sense of humour few people understand today. Spike was a comedy writing genius , and in Sellers, Secombe and in the early days Bentine he found comedy utopia. Love it.

I’m a Goons fanatic. Been so for years. I’m always hunting for shows that I haven’t heard yet. The joke with Spike pouring the liquor is that they would drink Brandy while the music interlude were playing. All of them were genius. T he e Goons Universe is really special. The writing sparkled for a decade and changed comedy forever. With that said this show from ‘70 wasn’t their best- they hadn’t been together for a long time. Bittersweet

Before television, I can remember my father and grandfather listening to The Goons on the “wireless” and my sister and I had to be totally silent so they didn’t miss a word. Peter Sellers went on to have a very successful movie career, Harry Secome made a few movies and acted on stage, but is best remembered for his beautiful singing voice and Spike Milligan was an author of children’s books as well as books for adults. One of his funniest books was one entitled Adolph Hitler . . . My Part In His Downfall. He was also mostly responsible for writing the scripts for The Goons.

I grew up with cassettes of the Goons in the early 90s which my mum got me, a lot of the jokes I didn’t get at the time but still laughed my ass off. A normal Goon Show was Broken in to 3 acts with Ray and Max providing a music number between each. Major Dennis Bloodknock was my favourite character, with his explosive stomach troubles. Spike, Harry and Peter will always be my heroes.

When recording the Goons, they always had a jug of milk with a bottle of brandy poured into it and they drank it during the show. That's why Milligan gives Seacombe a jug during the warmup here and pours in brandy and milk. lol Also they would shout "ROUND THE BACK FOR THE OLD BRANDY!" before one of the musical acts did their spot :)

I remember listening to this broadcast live (and recording it on reel to reel) in the kitchen with Mum and Dad - that's how old I am! The Goons - legendary radio - a huge part of British culture and humour - opened the gates for so many comedy performers and writers, who owed so much to them. Spike, Peter and Harry, bless them. You may have heard of Charles - he's King today.

The genius of Milligan. I remember running home from school at lunchtimes to catch the Goon Show on Radio Three, or was it Four, no I think it was still called The Light Programme (the name of the BBC radio channel), whichever. A perfect vehicle for Sellers and Secombe.

I grew up listening to the Goons on Army Service Radio, the highlight of a 10 year old child, it was so good.

He's fallen in the Water!

The drink Spike poured for Harry at the start was, I think, an in-joke. For those who don't know, during the radio episodes, when they paused for a musical number by Max Geldray or Ray Ellington the Goons would often quip "round the back for the old brandy then!". Apparently this was a real activity that went on, the brandy being disguised as milk... hence the strange mixture here :)

Made 50 years ago for the 50th anniversary of the BBC. This is a very accurate recreation of the radio programme from the 1950s and 1960s. The telegram from Charles read out at the beginning was from Charles, Prince of Wales, now King Charles. His father, the Duke of Edinburgh, and his sister, Princess Anne, were in the audience. Harry Secombe had a very successful parallel career as a singer, especially in musical theatre and religious programmes. The pudding race joke explained - sago is a type of pudding. Ray Ellington was a frequent character voice as well as the regular singer. One original member of the team decided it would not be right to appear in fear of being targeted with hate speech - the musical director and conductor Wally Stott had by this time had transitioned to Angela Morley.

You should for your own delectation read Spike Milligan's books. He wrote several books of hilarious poetry, some few hilarious fictions, and a whole series of hilarious autobiographical books, Start with "Adolph Hitler, My Part In his Downfall", then, "Adolph Hitler, His Part In My Downfall". He recounts his first meetings with Sellers and Secombe (separate meetings). You will pee yourself. I won't spoil the fun by revealing anything.

Got this on audio LP. The last one was done on TV (there is another televised one two). This brought all the characters and much wanted catchphrases they developed over the years. The musicians became part of the show too, Max Geldray and Ray Ellington Quartet Here Secome had come off another stage show "Pickwick" hence the midly Dickensian garb.

Instant upvote. The Goon Show is sublime silliness, Milligan's mind is a wonderful place to visit. Please react to more, you won't be disappointed.

Three of my absolute heroes….. Spike, Sellers & Secombe 😄😄 - the Goons were just so daft but the humour and laughing was infectious … awww happy memms of days gone by 🥲

I was a decade too young to hear the original Goon shows. MY radio show was "I'm sorry, I'll read that again", which once featured John Cleese as Macbeth; "Thane!? Thane!? What the hell's a thane?"

Secombe met milligan in North Africa in the Army. Both had been somewhat pounding Rommel's forces and Harry's unit had missed the recoil and a Artillery Gun went over a hill, down to where Spike was, Spike "hell there're firing guns at us now" Harry turned up "Have you seen a Bren Gun?" Spike "what colour?"

Another thing to know is that there are about 20 recurring characters played by the 4 goons. You know each characters Behavior by their past appearances. The cop on the beat - hello hello hello means he thinks he has caught you. The motifs were developed over the run of the show and if you know them it is an inside joke. When Bluebottle says “ harm can come to a Young Lad “ it means he is afraid of getting hit in the balls. Got past the censors. A really great show.

This was a trip down memory lane as I occasionally used to listen to the original radio show as a child in the 1950's but it was the TV show that followed that I remember best. It appears squirrels don' eat sago pudding!

From the golden age of broadcast comedy both radio and tv unlike the pit of despair we have today.

The Goons were brilliant and a lot don't know that originally there were 4 'Goons', Michael Bentine was part of it for the first couple of series. Bentine even wrote some of the scripts with Milligan but they argued a lot and so Bentine left. A lot of the names they used were actually 'Army Slang' and quite rude but it got past as none of the bosses at BBC knew what it was. In fact the bosses at BBC were puzzled as to why it was so popular, they even got the name wrong, saying "What is this Go On Show. Spike got the name The Goon Show from the cartoon Popeye, which had these people on who were called Goons. Spike would write all the scripts but he did have some help from comedy writers like Eric Sykes, especially when Spike was ill. Spike was a manic depressive and was sent to the 'madhouse' quite frequent to recover. He put his manic depression down to getting shell shock after being blown up during World War 2, he always said he was never the same after that. The story if I remember rightly was that he was in the desert and they were under heavy bombardment when a shell landed close to them. He said everything went black and he woke up in hospital. They said he could be unpredictable in his moods and could go from having a joke to being quite nasty just like turning a switch. But he was well loved right up to his death. Harry Secombe was an excellent singer and made several records and could have been a professional classical singer if he wanted. Out of the 3 Secombe was the most consistent in terms of how he treated people and as far as I know never had mood swings. He would mix comedy and music as his talent as he was good with both. Peter Sellars mixed movies and comedy and made a name for himself in the movie world with such films as Doctor Strangelove, I'm Alright Jack and the Pink Panther (Inspector Cleuseau) series of films. Again his mood could be inconsistent, with him gaining a repertation of being difficult and a bit of a womaniser, having tried to get in bed with several of his female co-stars. There is even rumour that he slept with one of the top royals. But his great talent was imitating voices and he is said to copy any voice that he came in contact with.

RIP Spike Milligan. "Caw", said the crow. "Balls" said the Milligan. From Puckoon.

Ahh the blessed chaos of the Goons. I was brought up on Milligan humour. Not always easy to get. This broke the mould of old comedy and many comedians owe their careers to this show and Milligan in particular.

My big brother introduced me to The Goons back in the 50's when I was little more than a foetus, I shall be forever grateful.

Sunday night around the radio in New Zealand listening to the goons. Those were the greatest days.

"He's fallen in the water" was THE catchphrase of the show. Still remember that and they were way before my time.

I recently saw 'Spike' the story of Spike Milligan on stage. Both hilarious and poignant. It was performed as a Goons radio show so included Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers stories as well. Very nostalgic and fun. As children my brother, cousin and I would play out scripts on long car journeys. 'He's fallen in the water' regularly came up as well as 'there's somebody at the door'. Absolutely ridiculous and hysterically funny. If you get a chance look up the inscription on Spikes grave. A comic genius to the end.

Sago makes a starchy white milk pudding, popular in school dinners back in the day. Like tapioca and rice puddings. They are following the original standard BBC radio comedy format of 2 musical breaks in 30 minutes. As the BBC didn't have any ad breaks to rest the performers.

I got here first! :) The Goons were a radio show that predated Spike Milligan's solo shows and then Monty Python, which continued the sense of whacky stupidity and silly voices that started here! SAGO is a grain used to make a milk pudding a bit like tapioca?! TV has removed the imagination that was essential to enjoying these shows!!

Superb! I loved it even though I didn't understand everything they said and I'm English! PS. Spike Milligan and Harry Seacombe served in the Royal Artillery in WW2 and Peter Sellers served in the RAF as ground staff. Seacombe was a trained singer and Milligan could play the trumpet and guitar to a high standard.

Peter Sellers was actually an accomplished drummer

Listening to the Goon Show on the radio was the highlight of the week growing up..

"Mrs Dale" - long running Radio Show Mrs Dale's diaries. ( bit like The Archers )

That did my old heart good, thank’s squirrel! Mind, heaven only knows what you made of it?!? 😂

What you have to remember is this was a radio show performed in from of a live audience back then no such thing as canned laughter so it was done for the reaction no cameras usually but as this was the last show they were allowed in I believe princess Anne was in the audience as well xx

Spike wrote all the scripts. There are many stories about Spike's manic behaviour during these years and beyond. All the pressure was him to deliver, and Sellers got all the fame and plaudits.

Glad you liked this, although the real magic was in listening to it. You get to imagine all of the impossible scenarios. If you do a family tree of British comedy, you'll find that most of it gravitates to the Goons.

Listening to a single Goons' programme is like listening to a handful of bars of Beethoven - wonderful, but incomplete. One must listen to all of the Goon shows, and melt into Goonery so that one becomes a Goon too. I began that process in the 50s and,as my friends will attest, it is complete.

Thanks for liking Ray Ellington, singer. I only discovered him a few years ago listening to The Goons. Very talented. I love the music of his era, as well as many other eras.

You should enjoy this, two of the most unpredictable conics of the time Spike and Peter, and the giggling Harry, I'm informed that the now King couldn't attend, but Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne did

It started years ago when I was a kid, 70 in a couple of weeks, radio was all we had, I bought our first tv from a girlfriends dad for £5 when I was 20, black and white, 3 channels which went off air about 10pm...were they good old days? Nostalgia is a wonderful thing..

That was great. Unfortunately the subtitles had a stroke trying to keep up with the Goons! 🤣🤣

I’m sure that most of the jokes and innuendos went straight over your head …. You really had to have been brought up in the 1950’s and 60’s and listened to this in black and white on the wireless (radio) back in those gray dull years not long after the end of Second World War there weren’t many families that could afford a Television … the majority of people only had the wireless for their entertainment … As a kid growing up at the time I used to be glued to the wireless and all the programs aimed at the younger audience … the Goon Show and Round The Horne were firm favourites along with Hancocks Halfhour … The Navy Lark …. The Clitheroe Kid …. Oh the list is endless … they all brought colour into an otherwise drab world ….. thanks for the video much appreciated and brought back memories 😂👍

As a kid in the 1950s I listened to The Goon Show on my Crystal Set Radio. It was on every week and I had no idea what this program was but I liked the characters. Eccles the gentle idiot, Major Bloodnok the cowardly soldier, Mini Bannester and Henry Crun the elderly couple and many more. They had weird adventures and made really bad jokes and I loved it. Years later I discovered the ABC (in Australia) was replaying the Goon Shows each Saturday and so I listened again. Spike Milligan wrote most of the later scripts with help from Eric Sykes. The three main actors were all former soldiers who fought in WWII. It is said that Milligan met Secombe when his artillery piece, which was not properly secured, leapt our of its gun pit and down a slope stopping in front of a confused Secombe. He says he was confronted by a "mad man" (Milligan) who was screaming - "Anybody see a gun?" I still listen to a Goon Show from time to time. I always end up laughing. Try "The MacReekie Rising of '74" or "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler (of Bexhill-on-sea). Mike in Oz

And, at the very last moment, Spike yelled "NAaaaAAAh GET OUT!"

The greatest comedy minds of all time. When you hear the comedy of thst time....a lot from America this was cometely ground breaking and created our national humour. Will forever be greatful to Spike Milligan and thst incredible mind of his!!!!

Sago pudding is a sweet pudding made with sago pearls. Hence to start a pudding race you “say GO” (‘sago’).

back when this show was being originally broadcast England suffered under the cruel yoke of the National Censor, all scripts wether movie, theatre, radio and fledgling TV had to be submitted in advance to the censors office and the mark of disapproval was being underlined with the infamous blue pencil but the Goons 1st broadcast with a later repeat went out live so they slipped in double and even triple entendres and word play like "and now over to our reporter Hugh Jampton, hampton is the shortened ryhming slang for dick

The announcer fluffed the line "my name is Clapham Junction- but I'll have that checked out later" ( the joke being visting the clinic for the Clap.

This was a radio programme from the 1950s. When they tried to make it into a TV series (using puppets) they realised the pictures on the radio were better.

Brilliant I've been a fan of the Goons since I was a kid. I've got various books of the scripts to the radio shows. The secret of this show is to just listen to it and not watch it as it was the last radio show but filmed as it was the final one. They were the first and the original of most modern comedy and influenced most of the later great comedy shows.

The Goons were the pioneers of modern comedy. Surreal, mad and utterly hilarious! Peter Sellars was a fantastic actor who was talented mimic and comic genius! Spike Milligan was a comic genius, talented script writer and Harry Secombe was a trained opera singer and fine comedian. All three were terrible gigglers. They were another of my comedy heroes!

3AR (now RN) played it every Saturday at midday for many years. I discovered it when I was about 11 - the year before this was broadcast. The first show baffled me because the voices were weird and hard to understand. The second show clinched it though. Later, the sister station 3LO would also play The Goon Show on Thursday nights in "Comedy And All That" which also introduced "Men from the Ministry", "Hancock's Half Hour", and our homegrown "The Naked Vicar Show". Bluebottle, the boy scout and sometimes cub reporter, was based on a real person. A big, ginger-haired scoutmaster who asked Sellers to do a show for the troop. Sellers was able decline with some grace. There was one gag which went over my head and I didn't discover the meaning until about 25 years ago. There's an occasional character called Hugh Jamptyn. This was a name made out of "huge Hampton". Hampton Wick is a town and thus yields rhyming slang for "dick". This was one of the reasons why nice old ladies, who shouldn't have known the joke, complained about the show. Some of it hasn't aged well. Humour from the 50s can be a little problematic these days, but it's quite mild all things considered. The members of the Monty Python team weren't the only ones influenced by the Goons. The Beatles were fans too. George Martin had produced several records for Secombe, Sellers, and Milligan as individual records, but the fact he had worked with the famous Goons was cause for some awe from the Fab Four.

growing up in the 60's my dad listened to the goons during the 50's and told me about them,now I have aproximately 140 shows on disc.Most shows mentioned the war due to them serving in the army,and air force and alot of the humour came from the services.It's silliness from the time and references to things in the 50's.

As a contemporary music fan I was surprised to find the musical sections gave me a smile from ear to ear.

How am I only seeing this now - pure awesome someone's reacting to this! 19:20 Moriarty's name changes, as does his introduction and titles, all the time. To quote from his bio: "...Grytpype often introduces him ("and I quote from his death certificate") with a middle name such as "Thighs", "Knees", "Kidney Wiper", etc., along with an appropriate sound effect (e.g. rattling bones, swannee whistle) or Moriarty's catch-phrase "Oooowwwwww", and descriptions of his prowess in various fields such as:"Who has played the male lead in over 50 French postcards", or "Champion barbed-wire hurdler until his tragic accident", "Gypsy Saxophonist to the House of Romanoff..." etc.

Many of us Brit tuned in to the Goon Show from its start in 1951 when it was originally called 'Crazy People'. Aa result all of the characterisations you hear are well known to & loved by us. Understandably, some of the 'Englishisms' will be lost on you, but it's difficult to oversate how iconic the show was, breaking the mould of post war comedic styles & paving the way for comedians & shows that were to follow.

John Cleese was a huge fan of the Goon show and he was greatly influenced by it.

Old school humour at its best these radio shows from the 50's&60's included the navy lark and Hancock's half hour too both really worth listening to!

all three of them now deceased Peter Sellers (1980) Harry Secombe (2001) and Spike Milligan (2002)

Sago is edible starch which is obtained from a palm and is a staple food in parts of the tropics. The pith inside the trunk is scraped out, washed, and dried to produce a flour or processed to produce the granular sago used in the West. Sago pudding. A sweet dish made from sago and milk. We Brits have three "famous" milk puddings - rice pudding, sago pudding, tapioca pudding.

I had this on a record a couple of years after in was broadcast in the early 70s. I listened to it over and over again. I knew it almost word for word. I still remember most of it after all these years. This is slightly edited. For example the first part of the 'difference between margerine' joke (a reference to a TV advert at the time) is missing here. I don't know but it may have been edited for TV to fit the schedule.

Fun fact: the 'Charles' who wrote the letter the compere read out at around the 5:00 minute mark was apparently Prince Charles (now King Charles III). You can see his sister, Princess Anne, in the audience, laughing. PC was a huge Goons fan, as were the Monty Python team, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore - a comedy duo you should check out - and also all of the Beatles. Everyone could quote them, and do the accents/ silly voices. They were the beginnings of that whole surreal/absurdist style of English comedy. This show was a later-in-life reunion, some time after their famous, long-running radio show ended, IIRC. 'Sago' - or 'Say GO!' - is a kind of grain, like tapioca or pudding rice, used to make an old fashioned milk pudding. These puddings were once popular in Britain as a cheap and reasonably filling and nutritious dessert.

This, along with "Beyond The Fringe", were the inspiration for Monty Python's Flying Circus, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's various shows, The Mighty Boosh, and various other comedy shows.

There are a lot of references is this that mean nothing to those who aren't British, aren't of a certain age or don't know the Goon Show. Perhaps somebody needs to put a cheat sheet together. For example, sago pudding doesn't seem to be well known outside the UK. Grocer Heath refers to Edward Heath, who was Prime Minister at the time the Show was made. The mixture of brandy and milk is because the Goons apparently had an elicit drink of brandy concealed in milk bottles during the musical interludes in the original 50s shows. Oh, and the fan signing simply ‘Charles’ now occupies the throne.

I have a vinyl record of this show somewhere gathering dust in the attic. The Goon show was anarchic humour that was before it's time - it was staple radio for we post-war brits in the 1950s - it was the show that inspired the anarchic humour of the 60s and beyond. Particularly Monty Python. The same ludicrous characters appeared in each episode.

If only you could get some of the radio shows to listen to. You would not understand most of what was going on, but they were hilarious. I watched this with my eyes shut most of the time, and was transported back to my childhood. Made for radio, it does not carry onto the T.V. so well. The radio series was very atmospheric. Loved them.

Spike Milligan was a genius. He was diagnosed with Shellshock after WW2, and spend his whole life dealing with serious manic depression. Despite this, he managed to write or co write 250 episodes of the Goon Show. The last show is not quite as funny as some of the best episodes, but still brilliant considering the amount he did over the years. Spike was essentially the founder of modern British comedy, and influenced Monty Python and many others.

One of my favourite ever radio shows!! There were lots of well known 'catch-phrases' in these shows, and I think they managed to fit most of them in this one!! All of it written by the genius Spike Milligan!! Brilliant!!😂😂🤣

Grew up listening to the goons with my dad and brother brings back a lot of memories. Thanks for putting this on .

Love the Goons, got most of the shows on cd.

A Herbert is a naughty kid.

Loved listening to these on the radio, I think they invented belly laughs.

You enjoyed the voice of Ken Dodd, listen to Harry Secombe sing absolutely beautiful, such a rich voice.

You are a brave man to watch such a manic show. It was a show on the 'wireless', before I was born, but I listened to the repeats. It was wonderful to listen to, the silly jokes carried on from week to week and got funnier and funnier - don't know why. The comedy was based on anything and everything that was British so it would have been hard to untangle a lot of the humour. Prince Charles, as a very young man, loved the goons and could do quite a few of their voices. His was the telegram they read out at the beginning of the show. Thank you for reminding me of my youth and the chaotic humour I used to love.

When I was young, 12/13 ish 65/66 time I had a Sunday paper round and delivered to Spike's parents home. Plenty of shows from the 50's and 60's on you tube to listen to.

"He's fallen in the water" is a old classic line from the radio show.

Sago pudding is a sweet Milk pudding made by combining sago pearls with milk and adding sugar and sometimes raisins. Its a bit old fashioned now but very common in the past.

You have to remember that these guys met when they were serving in the W.W.II and made a connection together that would change the world of comedy forever. Comedy that came from shared experiences and escapades. X

The goons were extremely clever, the guy couple talking in what was a real slang language at the time due to being illegal at the time is hilarious. Spike Milligans grave stone says 'I told you I was ill'. Harry died due to a terrible accident while filming,, he fell of a horse, so sad he was a wonderful man.. Peter died young but his films are wonderful.