The Making & Legacy of The Goon Show (Hardback)

Three quarters of a century has passed since the first Goon Show of 1951. Yet this BBC radio show is still being repeated in national broadcasts, continues to inspire artistic endeavour, is internationally celebrated, and has a legacy exceeding that of any other mid-twentieth century radio show.

Why is this? What broadcast magic is contained in its trailblazing formula? And can we learn anything about humour itself from the brilliance of its central comic actors?

Spike Milligan was thirty-three when that first Goon Show – then named The Junior Crazy Gang – hit the nation’s airwaves. Times then were austere and gloomy. Now, decades after his passing, and in a much changed country, he remains lauded, loved, and highly influential. Alongside the charming, affable Harry Secombe, quick-witted polymath Michael Bentine, and Peter Sellers, the most versatile voice actor of his era, Milligan devised a formula for comic creativity which has rarely been matched. Yet where did that extraordinary eruption come from?

In this book, author Stephen Palmer evokes the trials, losses, victories and success of The Goon Show using its own techniques. He imagines the men of the show, including those, like Jimmy Grafton, Larry Stephens, John Snagge and the irrepressible, remarkable Wallace Greenslade, who both supported Milligan and acted as the framework in which his genius flourished.

This is no dry history of great times in radio broadcasting. This is the book of the show. Now, read on!