THE HIGHLY-ESTEEMED "GOON SHOW"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 902, 16 November 1956, Page 8

THE HIGHLY-ESTEEMED "GOON SHOW"

AKE cover! The Goons are here again. Their latest lunacy will asasil the ears of New Zealand listerfers next week, when a new series of The Goon Show will begin.. Peter Sellers, the man of many voices, that ebullient coloratura Harry Secombe, and Spike Milligan, the true, living Goon, bring a whole galaxy of brilliant absurdities to

their thousands of certified «listeners (they ought to be certified, anyway). The Goonery is just as crazy as ever. Ned Seagoon’s laughter echoes just as madly through this series, and Eccles’s brain power has not increased by ‘the slightest fraction of a microvolt. © It has been said that The Goon Show is an acquired taste, but after the first

series had been heard in Britain, judging from the size of the show’s fan mail, a large number of people managed to acquire it. Letters of congratulation and approval have been received from bishops, dons, charladies, school teachers and children from eight or nine years upwards. Fantastic as the Goon Show plots are, there is always a reason for everything that happens.

Each Goon story is a struggle between’ the forces of evil and those of good. "What we do," says Peter Eton, the producer, "is to take some story-line which threatens the welfare oi Britain and the Com-

monwealth itself. It must, at the very least, be a story strong enough to endanger the Government-the tale of the Phantom Head Shaver, for instance, in which Brighton became a city o: terror, and had to be cordoned off by the military. Or, again, there was the story of the Batter Pudding . Hurler. There’ll never be another show like it, for the simple reason. that everyone concerned is an individualist." When "The Critics" (A BBC panel of mainly serious, well-known writers. and critics) discussed The Goon Show, it emerged that most of them were surprisingly fond of it. Michael Ayrton

(artist and author) described it as "the wittiest, most irrational of those weekly diversions which derive from the golden age of ITMA .. . it has tremendous pace and flawless timing which is the making of such programmes." He admitted that he never missed a show if he could help it. Once again, the Goons are supported by the Ray Ellington Quartet, Max Geldray, and Wally Stott conducting the orchestra. The Goon Show will be heard from 2YZ at 8.30 p.m. on Friday, from 1YZ at 8.30 on Saturday, and from all YC stations and 4YZ at 9.30 on Saturday.