The Goon Show Compendium, Volume Eleven: Series 9, Part 2 & Series 10

The Goon Show Compendium #11

by Spike Milligan (Author and Narrator), Harry Secombe (Narrator), Peter Sellers (Narrator)

Twelve classic episodes of The Goon Show, plus the complete series of The Omar Khayyam Show, The Army Show, The Naughty Navy Show and a wealth of bonus material.

Immensely popular and hugely influential, the groundbreaking series The Goon Show changed the face of British comedy. Now, for the first time, this box set collection presents the episodes in chronological order as they were scheduled to be broadcast. This eleventh volume includes: Dishonoured – Again, The Scarlet Capsule, The Tay Bridge, The Gold Plate Robbery, The £50 Cure, A Christmas Carol, The Tale of Men's Shirts, The Chinese Legs, Robin's Post, The Silver Dubloons, The Last Smoking Seagoon, The GPO Show, The Omar Khayyam Show: Ned Kelly, The Omar Khayyam Show: The Ashes, The Omar Khayyam Show: The PM's Trousers, The Omar Khayyam Show: The Flying Dustman; The Omar Khayyam Show: The America Cup, The Omar Khayyam Show: Waltzing Matilda, The Army Show, The Naughty Navy Show. In addition, there are some rare bonus archive items, including interviews with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan and a rehearsal sequence from the soundtrack recording of The Lost Colony.

Two illustrated booklets tell the story of the show's development with reference to original archive paperwork, plus the history of the recordings themselves, while a third PDF booklet details the history of TV spin-off The Telegoons.

Audible Audio

Published November 19, 2015

About the author

Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan, known as Spike, was a comedian, writer and musician. He was of Irish descent, but spent most of his childhood in India and lived most of his later life in England, moving to Australia after retirement. He is famous for his work in The Goon Show, children's poetry and a series of comical autobiographical novels about his experiences serving in the British Army in WWII. Spike Milligan suffered from bipolar disorder, which led to depression and frequent breakdowns, but he will be remembered as a comic genius. His tombstone reads 'I told you I was ill' in Gaelic.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d like to be happy-go-lucky over the collection, but unfortunately it’s good and bad news. The good news is that it includes the last remaining episodes, and they’re presented fully restored. The bad news is that there’s a lot of repetition through the whole damn thing — Milligan’s puerile “half a knicker” joke comes up over and over — and we don’t get the benefit years between iterations.

Because the final episodes aren’t enough to fill out a decent sized box, we get a bunch 0f Spike Milligan’s other work, including the six episodes of “The Omar Khayyam Show,” which remade episodes of “The Idiot’s Weekly,” Spike’s show for Australia’s ABC. There’s also “The Army Show,” “The Naughty Navy Show,” “The G.P.O. Show”, an episode of “The Telegoons”, and various bits and pieces from interviews, or about the series. Sadly, it’s mostly noisy and tedious after “The G.P.O. Show.”