Editing The Goon Show (section)

===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"/>