Editing The Goon Show (section)

==Format==
Throughout its history, each episode of ''The Goon Show, ''which usually ran just under 30 minutes, was essentially structured as a comedy-variety programme, consisting of scripted comedy segments alternating with musical interludes.<ref name="Wilmut1976"/>{{rp|116ff}}

The first two series were mostly produced by [[Dennis Main Wilson]]; none of the episodes was given an individual title<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thegoonshow.net/shows_list_all.asp |title=All Episodes Listed by Series |publisher=The Goon Show Site - Thegoonshow.net |access-date=31 July 2014 |archive-date=28 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028084525/http://www.thegoonshow.net/shows_list_all.asp |url-status=usurped }}</ref> and these early shows were loosely structured and consisted of four or five unconnected sketches, separated by musical items. According to later producer [[Peter Eton]], the musical segments took up around half the programme.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:113</sup> In this formative phase the show co-starred Milligan (who played only minor roles in the early shows), Sellers, Secombe and [[Michael Bentine]] as the nominal 'hero' of each episode, madcap inventor Dr Osric Pureheart.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:124</sup> Musical performances were by virtuoso jazz harmonica player [[Max Geldray]], singer [[Ray Ellington]] and his quartet (both of whom were recruited by Dixon) and vocal group the Stargazers, but they left after Episode 6 of Series 2, and for the remaining episodes Secombe filled in, singing a straight vocal number.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:124</sup> Incidental, theme and backing music was provided by [[Stanley Black]] and the BBC Dance Orchestra.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:127</sup> Series 2 also saw the first appearances of popular characters Minnie Bannister (Milligan) and Henry Crun (Sellers).

From Series 3, ''The Goon Show'' (as it was now officially titled) gradually settled into its 'classic' format. Milligan, Stephens and Grafton began to work within a narrative structure and by the second half of Series 4 each episode typically consisted of three acts linked by a continuing plot,<ref name=":0" /><sup>:143</sup> with Geldray performing between Acts I and II and Ellington between Acts II and III. Almost all the principal and occasional characters were now performed by Milligan and Sellers, with Secombe usually playing only Neddie Seagoon, who had replaced Pureheart as the hero of most of the stories. The closing theme, backing for Geldray and incidental music was now provided by a big band of freelance musicians under the direction of [[Angela Morley]] (known at the time as Wally Stott), who had been writing for the show since the first series.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:127</sup> After the end of Series 3, original announcer [[Andrew Timothy]] was replaced (at the suggestion of [[John Snagge]]) by [[Wallace Greenslade]],<ref name=":0" /><sup>:127</sup> who provided spoken narrative links as well as occasionally performing small roles in the scripts.

From Series 3 onwards, the principal character roles were:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thegoonshow.net/characters.asp|title=The Goons Characters|website=thegoonshow.net|access-date=10 December 2017|archive-date=12 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212103121/http://www.thegoonshow.net/characters.asp|url-status=usurped }}</ref>
*Neddie Seagoon (Secombe)
*Eccles (Milligan)
*Bluebottle (Sellers)
*Henry Crun (Sellers)
*Minnie Bannister (Milligan)
*Hercules Grytpype-Thynne (Sellers)
*Count Jim Moriarty (Milligan)
*Major Dennis Bloodnok (Sellers)

Secondary characters were the "Indians", Banerjee and Lalkaka, the servant Abdul/Singez Thingz, Willium "Mate" Cobblers, Cyril, Jim Spriggs, Little Jim, Flowerdew and Chief Ellinga/The Red Bladder – both played by Ray Ellington.<ref name="Wilmut1976"/>{{rp|107}} There were also occasional guest stars including senior BBC announcer [[John Snagge]], and actors [[Valentine Dyall]], [[Dick Emery]], [[Kenneth Connor]], [[Dennis Price]] and [[Bernard Miles]]. The traditional plots involved Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty getting Neddie Seagoon involved in some far-fetched plan, and meeting the other cast members along the way.

Many characters had regular catchphrases which quickly moved into the vernacular; among the best known are:
* "He's fallen in the water!" (Little Jim)
* "You dirty, rotten swine, you!  You have deaded me!" (Bluebottle)
* "You can't get the wood, you know." (Henry, Minnie)
* "You silly, twisted boy, you." (Grytpype-Thynne)
* "You can't park 'ere, mate" (Willium)&nbsp;– Milligan's dig at officious BBC commissionaires.
* "Ying Tong Iddle I Po" (various)&nbsp;– which became the basis for a novelty hit as "[[Ying Tong Song]]"

===Surrealism===
{{Listen|filename=What time is it Eccles.ogg|title="What time is it Eccles?"|description=3:22 sample - 973kb|format=[[Ogg]]}}
''The Goon Show'' has been variously described as "avant-garde", "surrealist", "abstract", and "four dimensional".<ref name=Zinsser>{{citation |date=20 June 1960 |author=Zinsser, William K |author-link=William Zinsser |title=Peter Sellers: An unpredictable, irrepressible, irreverent mimic |magazine= [[Life (magazine)|Life]] |pages=63–70 (see p. 66) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5k4EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22spike+milligan%22&pg=PA66 |access-date=23 August 2010}}</ref> The show played games with the medium of radio itself. Whole scenes were written in which characters would leave, close the door behind themselves, yet still be inside the room. Further to this, characters would announce their departure, slam a door, but it would be another character who had left the room. That character would then beat on the door for re-admittance, the door would open and close and again the wrong character would be locked out.<ref>This example is from "Tales of Montmartre", 18th episode of the 6th series.</ref>

The show paved the way for surreal and alternative humour, as acknowledged by comedians such as [[Eddie Izzard]].<ref name= TheEssentialSpikeMilligan /><sup>:vii</sup> The surreality was part of the attraction for Sellers,<ref name="Life&DeathofSellers"/> and this exacerbated his mental instability especially during the third series.<ref name="Billen " /> 
Many of the sequences have been cited as being visionary in the way that they challenged the traditional conventions of comedy.<ref>{{cite book | editor = Farnes, Norma| title=The Goons: The Story | date=6 November 1997| publisher=Virgin Publishing | location=London | isbn=1-85227-679-7 | pages = 161, 168 | chapter = Eric Sykes' Story | quote = p161 ... The Goon Show was a new departure in comedy ... seemingly free-form style of humour ... p168 ... presented scenes of seemingly uncontrolled anarchy | no-pp = true}}</ref>  In the [[Monty Python|Pythons]]' autobiography, [[Terry Jones]] states "The Goons of course were my favourite. It was the surreality of the imagery and the speed of the comedy that I loved - the way they broke up the conventions of radio and played with the very nature of the medium."<ref name=PythonsbythePythons/>{{rp|73}} This is reiterated by [[Michael Palin]] and [[John Cleese]]. Cleese recalls listening to ''The Goon Show'' as a teenager in the mid-1950s "and being absolutely amazed by its surreal humour. It came at a key stage in my own development and I never missed a show".<ref name= MilliganHisPartInOurLives/>{{rp|150}}

===Music and sound effects===
{{listen |filename=Fred the Oyster sound effect.ogg |title=The Fred the Oyster sound effect |description=The sound of an oyster opening which represented the introduction of Fred the Oyster.<br />From The Sinking of Westminster Pier<br />(15 February 1955, s05e23)}}
Orchestral introductions, links and accompaniment were provided by a hand-picked [[big band]] made up of London-based session musicians.<ref name="Wilmut1976"/>{{rp|47}} The arrangements and musical direction were done by [[Angela Morley]] from the third to the 10th series. Morley produced many arrangements and link passages, further improved by the first-class sound quality the BBC engineers managed to achieve.<ref name="Wilmut1976"/>{{rp|81}} Members of the band featured prominently in the comedy proceedings, particularly jazz trombonist  [[George Chisholm (musician)|George Chisholm]] who frequently played Scots characters. The show's concluding music was usually either "[[Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead]]" or a truncated and ironic rendition of the ''[[Alte Kameraden]]'' (Old Comrades') march, followed by Max Geldray and the Ray Ellington Quartet playing "[[Crazy Rhythm]]" as play-out music. Other theme tunes used included "Goons' Gallop", a play on [[Devil's Galop]], "[[I Want to Be Happy]]" and "Lucky Strike", which the cast sang over at the conclusion of the episode called "The Great Bank Robbery".

In keeping with the [[Variety show|variety]] requirements of the BBC's "light entertainment" format, ''The Goon Show'' scripts were structured in three acts, separated by two musical interludes. These were provided by the [[Ray Ellington]] Quartet&nbsp;– who performed a mixture of [[jazz]], [[rhythm & blues]] and [[Calypso music|calypso]] songs&nbsp;– and by harmonica virtuoso [[Max Geldray]] who performed mostly middle of the road numbers and jazz standards of the 1930s and 1940s accompanied by the big band. Both Ellington and Geldray also made occasional cameo appearances; Ellington was often drafted in to play stereotypical "black" roles such as a tribal chieftain, native bearer or Major Bloodnok's nemesis (and counterpoint to Bloodnok's affliction) "The Red Bladder".{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

It was in its use of pre-recorded and live sound effects that ''The Goon Show'' broke the most new ground.<ref name=Spike&Co/><ref name="Life&DeathofSellers"/>  Part of the problem was that "not even Milligan knew how to capture electronically the peculiar sounds that came alive in his head&nbsp;– he just knew when it had not yet happened".<ref name="Spike&Co"/><sup>:205</sup> An example of this comes from an often cited story of Milligan filling his two socks with custard in the Camden Theatre canteen, in an attempt to achieve a squelching effect. Milligan asked the BBC canteen ladies to make some custard; they thought he must have some stomach trouble so lovingly made him a fresh custard&nbsp;– which he accepted with thanks and immediately poured into his sock, much to their horror. Secombe recalled "Back in the studio, Spike had already placed a sheet of three-ply near a microphone." One after the other, he swung them around his head against the wood, but failed to produce the sound effect he was seeking ("So, a sock full of custard and no sound effect!").<ref name="Spike&Co"/><sup>:205</sup><ref name="Ventham19">Harry Secombe, in Ventham (2002) p. 19. The socks-filled-with-custard story has been frequently cited since at least the 1970s, when it was reiterated in newspaper articles</ref> Secombe noted that "Spike used to drive the studio managers mad with his insistence on getting the sound effects he wanted. In the beginning, when the programme was recorded on disc, it was extremely difficult to achieve the right sound effect. There were, I think, four turntables on the go simultaneously, with different sounds being played on each&nbsp;– chickens clucking, Big Ben striking, donkeys braying, massive explosions, ships' sirens&nbsp;– all happening at once. It was only when tape came into use that Spike felt really happy with the effects."<ref name="Ventham19"/> An FX instruction in one script read "Sound effect of two lions walking away, bumping against each other. If you can't get two lions, two hippos will do".  Over time, the sound engineers became increasingly adept at translating the script into desired sounds, assisted  from the late 1950s onwards by specialists in the BBC's newly formed Radiophonic Workshop.<ref name="Spike&amp;Co"/><sup>:205</sup>

Milligan's relationship with BBC managers preparing for the recording of episodes was often acrimonious and resulted in rows, and Milligan later agreed that he was a diva during this time, adding "I was trying to shake the BBC out of its apathy. Sound effects were a knock on the door and tramps on gravel – that was it, and I tried to transform it."<ref name="Wilmut1976"/>{{rp|44}}

Many of the sound effects created for later programmes featured innovative production techniques borrowed from the realm of ''[[musique concrète]]'', and using the then new technology of magnetic tape. Many of these sequences involved the use of complex multiple edits, echo and reverberation and the deliberate slowing down, speeding up or reversing of tapes. One of the most famous was the legendary "Bloodnok's Stomach" sound effect, created by the [[BBC Radiophonic Workshop]] to represent the sound of Major Bloodnok's digestive system in action, which included a variety of inexplicable gurgling and explosive noises. Lewis (1995, p.&nbsp;218) states Bloodnok's stomach "was achieved by overlaying burps, whoops from oscillators, water splashes, cork-like pops, and light artillery blasts".<ref name="Life&DeathofSellers"/>