The first time I encountered The Goons was from my Dad's record collection. At a young age, you tend to just listen to whatever is around and after dabbling with his Jim Reeves and Flanders & Swan, I stumbled upon the single of I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas which sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before, with its mixture of big band interludes, music hall and strange choral experimentation. I didn't know anything about any of that at the age of six or seven, I just knew that I had to listen to it over and over and over again. That led into his Tom Lehrer and The Spinners discs and so my shaky grip on contemporary music began.
The Goons
"Chronicling a 21st century idiot's obsession with a 1950s radio comedy masterpiece."
Staggering thorough blog about The Goons and especially their radio series. Here's a review of the first episode.
[The Seagoon Memoirs]
A series of articles about the history of The Goons with emphasis on their early years.
[The Sunday Post]
"It is 60 years since The Goon Show first hit the airwaves. A surreal comedy, much of it was written and performed by the comedian Spike Milligan. His producer Charles Chilton remembers him."
[BBC Sounds][BBC Programme Index]
"Cambridge University played The Goons at Tiddlywinks and Cambridge won by 70 points. The Duke of Edinburgh sent a humorous message to both teams at the start and captain of the Goons, Spike Milligan was interviewed afterwards."
[BBC Rewind]
"A classic sketch from The Goon Show with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers & Harry Secombe. First broadcast on The Goon Show, 7 October 1957."
[BBC Sounds]
"A madcap clip from The Goon Show with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers & Harry Secombe. First broadcast on The Goon Show, 13 October 1957."
[BBC Sounds]
"Excerpt taken from The Goons Hit Wales, a short episode of The Goon Show that was recorded to celebrate St David's Day. The clip, first broadcast on 1 March 1956, features Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan who voice characters including Bloodwind (Secombe) and Eccles (Milligan)."
[BBC Sounds]
Archive
"Educational film showing how stained glass is made - was shown on television in 1951."
[Pathe][BBC Programme Index]
"A review and summary of good and fairly good programmes of the last three months", by Stephen Potter and Joyce Grenfell."
[Chris Goddard][BBC Programme Index]
"I think you might be interested to see a copy of a review of "Essays in Applied Psycho-analysis" by Dr. Ernest Jones. This talk was broadcast in the English-language programme "London Calling Europe" on Wednesday 19th December, and extracts from the 'lay-out' of the the transmission are enclosed."
[Modernist Archives]
"Interview from a series of BBC radio talks in the early 1950s, including Craig's reminiscences of Ellen Terry, Isadora Duncan, the old school of acting, celebrities, and how he played Hamlet in Salford, Lancashire."
[Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center]
"Interview from a series of BBC radio talks in the early 1950s, including Craig's reminiscences of Ellen Terry, Isadora Duncan, the old school of acting, celebrities, and how he played Hamlet in Salford, Lancashire."
[Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center][BBC Programme Index]
"The D'Oyly Carte's 1951 London season at the Savoy, (which coincided with the Festival of Britain), was significant for a number of reasons; it was the final season to feature a number of beloved Savoyards — including Martyn Green, Richard Watson, Ella Halman and her husband Radley Flynn, and Margaret Mitchell — who all left the company after its closing night on 4th August, and it was apparently only the second time, (since the 1926 opening night of The Mikado), that the company had allowed a live broadcast of excerpts from the opening opera to be transmitted from the theatre by the B.B.C."
[Gilbert and Sullivan Discography]
Places
"A look at how the BBC's third television transmitter in West Yorkshire was built. These original masts broadcast to the surrounding population until 1985, when they were replaced by a new generation of transmitters."
[BBC Archive]
"A telefilm extract of the opening ceremony of Holme Moss transmitter which was declared formally open by the Chairman of the BBC Governors Lord Simon of Wythenshaw."
[BBC Rewind]
"Cable television comes to the Kent town, and how! Lucky residents get shows “piped into their homes” on a rather spiffing “four programme” set."
[BBC Archive]
Programmes
"TV MIRROR’S Special Correspondent takes you into the Birmingham studio where sincere acting, a skilful script and careful production combine to create that popular radio family, the Archers of Brookfield Farm."
[Transdiffusion]
Politics
"Actor, writer, comedian and Turing fan Mark Gatiss re-voices the influential text from 1951."
[BBC Archive]
"IN 1952 Broadcasting enters its fourth decade. Quite apart from the calendar it is for the BBC an exciting and expectant moment. However eventful the past; whatever achievement the last thirty years have brought, there is still gerater promise ahead."
[World Radio History]
"An introduction to the report on the year's work on broadcasting must refer to the salient points as they have arisen. whether they have occurred in programme production. in technical progress or in the development of the BBC’s constitution."
[hathitrust]