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The 1st Goon Show of the 8th series is Spon, written by Spike. Harry Secombe had come down with Asian Flu *and* bronchitis before the series began, and was unable to perform. In his place was Dick Emery, who does his best, but there's no replacing Harry.
Ray Ellington goes first for a change, and performs Sonny Boy, a 1928 song by B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson, made most famous by Al Jolson, who it was written for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy1iOmqH27Y
Max Geldray plays It Happened in Monterey, by Billy Rose and Mabel Wayne, a 1930 song that had fallen out of favor till Frank Sinatra covered it the year before this Goon Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myKFmeWa2T0
We also hear, sped up and slowed down, Liebestraume No. 3 in A Flat Major, by Liszt, at least according to the PasB documentation. It's not Bach. Or Mendelssohn. But it is by Arthur Rubenstein, the legendary pianist.
The Radio Times, in an article discussing Dick Emery standing in for Harry Secombe, takes pains to note that the script is co-written by Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens, but Spike gets sole credit in documentation. His own script does not credit a writer at all. Spike and Larry were at the cusp of not getting along again.
Dick Emery was at the Windmill in the late 40s with the other Goons, and had appeared in The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn. He also subbed for Spike during Series 3 was Spike was in hospital. It would be a few more years before he hit it big and got his own television show. I admit, as an American, I tend to think of him as "replacement Harry Secombe", as he did that twice.
I'm not sure how much more successful the show would have been with Harry performing - it has some excellent gags, but suffers from the lack of a strong plot. We've certainly heard the word "spon" before, and will again. The ending of the show perhaps shows how annoyed Spike had gotten with needing to HAVE that strong plot, as when he runs out of time he simply halts the show and declares it "incomplete" - with the "happy ending" gag nicked from previous shows.
The original script had Willium mention Macmillan specifically rather than "you conservatives", telling him to "get back to Guards". Peter's Scotsman again has bagpipes behind him whenever he speaks. As for the regular characters... Moriarty has certainly fallen far from when we last heard him in The Histories of Pliny the Elder. This is the first really obvious appearance of "late Moriarty" - cringing, getting hit and thrown through windows, babbling about money. Still plugging his "ow".
Obscure reference of the show: The Wolfenden Report, which had just come out earlier that month and was much in the news. A departmental committee report that recommended decriminalizing homosexuality, it had nothing to do with Walt Disney.
This did not get a TS release or a Pick of the Goons, probably due to the absence of Harry. You can hear a few gags PotG would definitely have removed, such as "what a funny place to keep the soap" and "I'll subpoena you!" "You filthy swine!"
One last note: This series was recorded at the same time as the BBC was recording Vintage Goons for release in Canada and other Commonwealth countries. As such, I'll be doing entries on the shows in order of recording. Meaning the next entry will be on the first Vintage Goons show, The Mummified Priest.
Ray Ellington goes first for a change, and performs Sonny Boy, a 1928 song by B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson, made most famous by Al Jolson, who it was written for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy1iOmqH27Y
Max Geldray plays It Happened in Monterey, by Billy Rose and Mabel Wayne, a 1930 song that had fallen out of favor till Frank Sinatra covered it the year before this Goon Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myKFmeWa2T0
We also hear, sped up and slowed down, Liebestraume No. 3 in A Flat Major, by Liszt, at least according to the PasB documentation. It's not Bach. Or Mendelssohn. But it is by Arthur Rubenstein, the legendary pianist.
The Radio Times, in an article discussing Dick Emery standing in for Harry Secombe, takes pains to note that the script is co-written by Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens, but Spike gets sole credit in documentation. His own script does not credit a writer at all. Spike and Larry were at the cusp of not getting along again.
Dick Emery was at the Windmill in the late 40s with the other Goons, and had appeared in The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn. He also subbed for Spike during Series 3 was Spike was in hospital. It would be a few more years before he hit it big and got his own television show. I admit, as an American, I tend to think of him as "replacement Harry Secombe", as he did that twice.
I'm not sure how much more successful the show would have been with Harry performing - it has some excellent gags, but suffers from the lack of a strong plot. We've certainly heard the word "spon" before, and will again. The ending of the show perhaps shows how annoyed Spike had gotten with needing to HAVE that strong plot, as when he runs out of time he simply halts the show and declares it "incomplete" - with the "happy ending" gag nicked from previous shows.
The original script had Willium mention Macmillan specifically rather than "you conservatives", telling him to "get back to Guards". Peter's Scotsman again has bagpipes behind him whenever he speaks. As for the regular characters... Moriarty has certainly fallen far from when we last heard him in The Histories of Pliny the Elder. This is the first really obvious appearance of "late Moriarty" - cringing, getting hit and thrown through windows, babbling about money. Still plugging his "ow".
Obscure reference of the show: The Wolfenden Report, which had just come out earlier that month and was much in the news. A departmental committee report that recommended decriminalizing homosexuality, it had nothing to do with Walt Disney.
This did not get a TS release or a Pick of the Goons, probably due to the absence of Harry. You can hear a few gags PotG would definitely have removed, such as "what a funny place to keep the soap" and "I'll subpoena you!" "You filthy swine!"
One last note: This series was recorded at the same time as the BBC was recording Vintage Goons for release in Canada and other Commonwealth countries. As such, I'll be doing entries on the shows in order of recording. Meaning the next entry will be on the first Vintage Goons show, The Mummified Priest.
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