The Goon Show
- Radio sitcom / sketch show
- BBC Home Service
- 1951 - 1960
- 231 episodes (10 series)
Highly surreal radio adventures that helped take British comedy into a new age. Starring Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. Also features Michael Bentine.
- Series 5, Episode 9 repeated Tuesday at 7:30am on Radio 4 Extra
Press clippings
Goons at 70: anarchic rowdy never-bettered radio comedy
After 70 years, the zany antics of the Goons still hold up to modern ears. What makes their bizarre comedy so enticing, even today?
Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph, 28th May 2021Radio Times poll of best radio comedies
Radio 4 panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue has come top of a Radio Times list of the greatest radio comedy shows.
British Comedy Guide, 17th November 2020Letters by Sellers and Milligan turn air blue
They were never known for their sense of decorum and linguistic restraint, but a cache of previously unpublished letters by Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers proves - if there were ever any doubt - their humour was not for the fainthearted.
Dalya Alberge, The Guardian, 20th April 2019John Cleese on The Goon Show
Cleese, who is currently on tour screening Holy Grail followed by career-spanning conversations with audiences, wanted to pay homage to the stylistic forefathers of Python, The Goon Show, for our Underrated series.
Erik Abriss, Vulture, 10th July 2018The 20 funniest radio comedies of all time
Before Radio 1's first run of new shows kicks off next month, here we count down the 20 greatest scripted radio comedies ever to hit the airwaves
Ben Lawrence, Tristram Fane Saunders & Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, 25th January 2018The afternoon I spent with Harry Secombe
It's 1995, Peter Sellers is dead, Michael Bentine is dying, Spike Milligan says no but one Goon steps into the breach...
Roy Bainton, The Guardian, 22nd October 2017BBC comedy classics go on display
Much-loved British comedians and sitcom stars are being celebrated in a new exhibition. Comedy faces from Frankie Howerd to Ricky Gervais are on display at the Compton Verney art gallery in Warwickshire from 9 July. BBC Faces of Comedy is showing 100 pictures ranging from the 1950s to the present day. Leading comics have curated the exhibition - including Have I Got News For You panellist Paul Merton and the star of Citizen Khan, Adil Ray. Here they talk about some of their favourite comedy moments.
Paul Merton and Adil Ray, BBC News, 10th July 2016New exhibit shows archive pictures of BBC comedians
Compton Verney exhibition charts 60 years of comedy, from Hancock's Half Hour to Miranda Hart.
Mark Brown, The Guardian, 26th June 2016What time is it Eccles?
Ever present in The Goon Show re-runs every week on Radio 4 Extra - it's hard to believe that it's ten years since the death of "the godfather of alternative comedy" Spike Milligan, on 26 February.
Sarah Wade, BBC Blogs, 22nd February 2012Remembering Sir Harry Secombe and Neddie Seagoon
How would you react to the phrases "needle-nardle-noo" or "what, what, what what, what!"?
Martin Dempsey, BBC Blogs, 8th September 2011