Could we take a taxi for breakfast?
The answer is
yes, of course, but rare because excess heat can cause some unfortunate side
effects. I could go about choosing dishes tmore or less respectful with the
environment without that article ceased to have meaning, because it is about
The Goon Show, the British sitcom that broke the rule of sense to the delight
of listeners of the BBC during the fifties.
The Goon Show came
from Spike Milligan who was the creator and head writer throughout their
career. Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe met while
serving in the Royal Artillery during World War II. Secombe described their
meeting as if a first script for The Goon Show it were: "Suddenly there
was a terrible noise as some monstrous object fell from the sky quite close to
us. There was considerable confusion, and in the middle of it all the flap of
the truck was pushed open and a young, helmeted idiot asked 'Anybody see a gun?'
It was Milligan." Secombe's answer to that question was "What colour
was it?". Later Milligan met Peter Sellers at the Hackney Empire where
Secombe was performing. By then, the late forties, the young Peter Sellers had
already debuted on the BBC in the program Ray's
a laugh with comedian Ted Ray. At that first meeting, they wrote a first
script called Crazy People which later
would become the germ of The Goon Show
with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and, in the early chapters,
Michael Bentine.
They were so enthusiastic that
they found the doors of a BBC open despite the company wasn’t
too much convinced. Still, the group had its premiere as Crazy People in May 1951. Then the
programs consisted of four or five gags and musical
interludes with a cast that included PeterSellers, Harry Secombe,
Spike Milligan, MichaelBentine, The Ray Ellington Quartet, TheStargazers and
Max Geldray. The audience increased so quickly during the
first season that the BBC gave them a second one already under
the name The Goon Show. During this period MichaelBentine left
the group to pursue a solo career, but his creative tensions to Milligan
are known. Still, the group's success only increased up to a dozen seasons ending
in 1960, including five films: Penny Points to Paradise (Tony Young,1951),
Let's go crazy (Allan Cullimore, 1951),Down among the Z men (Maclean Rogers,
1952), The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn (JosephSterling,
1956) and the Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film (Richard Lester,
1960), as well as some special programs in the still young British
television. Once separated, they gathered for two unique
programs on television, first in 1968 under the title Tales of Men's Shirts and a
last known as The Last Goon Show
of All, both also written by Spike Milligan.
Their separation due to personnel problems
prevented the creativity of the group, abandoning their
activity when their success didn’t stop to increase. Remembering their
solo careers after the break up, Peter Sellers is certainly the most
famous, but that's another story. He died in 1980 at 54 years victim of the
heart problems he suffered all his life. Michael Bentine died in
1996, Harry Secombe in 2001 and Spike Milligan 2002. Artists like The
Beatles and Monty Python have admitted their influence. Many programs have
been lost forever but the taxi they once asked for
breakfast is yet to come.
THE GOON SHOW videos. Click here
THE GOON SHOW videos. Click here
Text by Juan Carlos Romero