GREENSLADE: This is the BBC home service. Before the
next part of the program, here is ‘The Goon Show.’
ORCHESTRA: Tatty
chord in C.
SELLERS: For years now, the feathered
non-saxophone-playing Senapati tribesmen have been sweeping down from the date
fields of
ECCLES: Fine, fine, fine.
SELLERS: Thank you. The reason for these
destructive raids was an attempt to capture and imprison the recipe for the
Great International Christmas Pudding.
ORCHESTRA: Dramatic introduction.
SEAGOON: And… thank you. My name is Captain Neddie
Seagoon, though why my mother christened me Captain I shall never know. (Laughs) Ha ha ha! Take a look at this
picture of the regiment. See what I mean? (Laughs
again.) Ha ha ha! Ahem. But, but I'm digressing.
ECCLES: Fine, fine, fine!
SELLERS: It was a meeting in the spring of a late
autumn in eighteen sixty-two, when the strange secret was first disclosed.
OMNES: Hubbub. Various rhubarbs over.
SEAGOON: Gentleman! (Rhubarb!) Gentlemen, at
ease. You may smoke. (Sudden rage) Put
that cigarette out!
PRIVATE
ECCLES: You said I could
smoke!
SEAGOON: Yes, but not tobacco.[4]
Now gentleman, we are facing a serious situation, therefore let's all turn
'round!
OMNES: Agitated murmurs. [5]
SEAGOON: The destructive raids of the
Red-Bladders' tribesmen are endangering the Great International Christmas
Pudding. [6]
OMNES: Further agitated murmurs.
SEAGOON: Yes! Yes! Eccles, put that saxophone
out!
PRIVATE
ECCLES: You said we could
smoke.
SEAGOON: But not saxophones. (Rhubarb I tell you!)
Now, you see this large map of the Deccan and
PRIVATE
FUDGE-KNUCKLE: Yes.
SEAGOON: Gentlemen, I put this map up for a very
special reason.
CAPTAIN
FUDGE-KNUCKLE: Really
sir? What sir?
SEAGOON: To cover that filthy great porridge
stain on the wall. Now, I'm going to play you a military gramophone record.
Listen carefully.
GRAMS: Hiss of needle on old fashioned gramophone
record. Rifle fire. Cannons. Bugle sounding advance. Thunder of hooves. Shouts
of battle. Suddenly stops.
SEAGOON: Right gentlemen! – come out from under
the seats. Eccles, put that horse out!
PRIVATE
ECCLES: But you said we
could smoke.
SEAGOON: Not horses!
PRIVATE
ECCLES: This one's cork
tipped…
SEAGOON: (Which only goes to prove...) Now then!
Gentlemen, do you know what record that was? It was a recording of the Battle
of Plassey.[8]
MAJOR
FLOWERDEW: You mean you
actually recorded an entire battle, sir?
SEAGOON: Not just one Flowerdew, four hundred! In
fact, every battle ever fought in
MAJOR
FLOWERDEW: Can you buy
them locally, sir?
CAPTAIN
FUDGE-KNUCKLE: I mean,
are they on the hit parade, sir?
SEAGOON: No, no they aren't, Fudge-Knuckle. The
only copies are in the
OMNES: Cries of alarm.
SEAGOON: Yes Lieutenant Custard, and that's not
all – the record that was stolen was the one of the only victory the Red
Bladder had over the British.
GREENSLADE: (Distant)
Sir? Of what POssible use can this record POssibly be to the Red Bladder?
SEAGOON: A good question. I wish I had a good
answer.
MAJOR
SPLON: Is it not a fact
sir, that the captured record is being played daily over the Red Bladder's
wireless to incite his tribesmen to renewed savagery?
SEAGOON: Thank you. Yes! But we are successfully
countering.
LIEUTENANT
BOWSER: (Wildly expressive) How, sir? Tell us,
how? Elucidate! Clarify this statement! Tell us how, sir? How? Speak! Explain! Tell
us! How? Oh, show me – how?
SEAGOON: Lieutenant Bowser.
LIEUTENANT
BOWSER: Yes sir?
SEAGOON: I'm putting you on a charge.
LIEUTENANT
BOWSER: What for, sir?
SEAGOON: Overacting. Now gentlemen, we are thwarting,
and I repeat thwarting the Red Bladder by broadcasting in reply all the
gramophone records of OUR victories over him.
FX: Phone
rings. Receiver up.
SEAGOON: Hello, yes?
FX: Phone
down.
SEAGOON: Men, bad news. The Red Bladder has
surrounded our radio station at Chattagan.[10]
All our records are in danger.
LIEUTENANT
BOWSER: I say, does this
mean… does this mean – WAR, sir?
SEAGOON: Yes. Men, I'm calling for volunteers.
GRAMS: Boots running away.
FX: Door
slams shut.
SEAGOON: Now, why didn't I think of that?
FX: Door
opens.
BLOODNOK: Sorry I'm late – it took me all morning
to shake her off.
SEAGOON: Ah, Major Bloodnok. Just the man! We
have a dangerous mission for you.
GRAMS: Single whoosh.
FX: Door
slams.
SEAGOON: Quick! Stop him before he gets to the
bus stop.
FX: Door
opens.
ABDUL: (Approaching)
I've got him, sir! I've got him sir. Come on...
BLOODNOK: (Struggling)
Take your filthy hands of my filthy arm, will you! I've never been so yukkabukkakkered
in all my…
SEAGOON: Bloodnok, stop yakkabakkakkering.
BLOODNOK: Yakkabakkakka.
SEAGOON: Yakkabakkakka-koo! You will assume
command at once of the Fourth Battalion Night Schlappers[11]
and march to the relief of Chattagan…
GRAMS: Regiment on the march. Double the speed. Continue
behind.
BLOODNOK: And so we marched. Oh, how we marched; week
after week, month after month I led them. It seemed we'd never reach Chattagan.
Then unluckily I took a wrong turning, and we arrived.
GRAMS: Massed cheering.
BLOODNOK: Men of Chattagan radio station; you've
all heard of me, Major Bloodnok – haven't you?
CAPTAIN
BASIL:[12]
No.
CAPTAIN
DIRT: No.
MAJOR
GREENSLADE: No sir.
MAJOR
SECOMBE: No sir.
BLOODNOK: Oh well, in that case I appoint myself mess
treasurer. I second that. Now then, what I want to know is, who's going to…
FX: Door
opens.
RED
BLADDER: Ahh, Major
Bloodnok! At last I meet you, cor blimey. [13]
BLOODNOK: Oooh!
RED
BLADDER: My card.
BLOODNOK: It's the naughty type Red Bladder! (Leaving) Aaargh!
GRAMS: Whoosh.
RED
BLADDER: Bloodnok, come
out from under that bed.
BLOODNOK: Don't hit me then, don't hit me. Here,
have my OBE.
RED
BLADDER: Listen, you have
in your possession here three hundred and ninety-nine records of battles in
which the British pigs beat my soldiers. Hand them over, cor blimey!
BLOODNOK: …and betray my secret trust? What do you
take me for?
RED
BLADDER: Rogue, liar and
a coward.
BLOODNOK: Sit down, I think we can do business.
Red Bladder, I'll make a deal with you. Here's a record of a British victory –
call off your attack.
RED
BLADDER: Ok, mate.
GREENSLADE: No attack took place that day. But, the
following morning...
GRAMS: Bugle. Cavalry charge.
ABDUL: (Entering)
Aaaaah, saaaaahib! The Red Bladder is attacking again, sir. AARGH!
BLOODNOK: What what what? Quick Abdul, post him
another battle record – that'll keep him quiet. Thank heaven we've got three-hundred
and ninety-seven more. We're safe for thirteen months and three days. Tell Miss
Johnston I'm ready for her now, will you? Aarghh!
ORCHESTRA: Grandiose link.
SEAGOON: Meanwhile, at Indian Army HQ in
GRAMS: Housewives Choice theme - ‘In A Party Mood’.
Fade in a phrase of Indian music over, then back to the final line of theme.
Fade behind.
ABDUL:[15]
(On radio) Good morning wog-wives.
This is Abdul Elrick [16]
with your choice for this morning. And now for Mrs ‘The Red Bladder’ of two, The
Cages, Grand Parcel Walk,
GRAMS: Distant battle sounds.
SEAGOON: Good heavens! Great Scott! Did you hear
that, Field Marshal Carruthers?
FIELD
MARSHALL CARRUTHERS: Yes,
but we didn't lose the battle of
SEAGOON: Great galloping crabs! Do you know what
they're doing?
CARRUTHERS: What?
SEAGOON: They're playing that record backwards to
make it sound as if the British were losing.
CARRUTHERS: Then it doesn't take an idiot to know
that our radio station and Major Bloodnok have been completely wiped out, sir.
SEAGOON: Heavens yes. We must send help. Eccles?
ECCLES: Yeah?
SEAGOON: Fall forward!
GRAMS: Regiment coming to attention.
SEAGOON: Off you go!
GRAMS: Regiment setting off at quick march.
CARRUTHERS: Do you think one man is really enough
sir?
SEAGOON: Of course not, we'll follow with another
man – namely, Max Geldray!
MAX GELDRAY – ‘April in
ORCHESTRA: Dramatic introduction.
GRAMS: Sounds of battle.
ABDUL: Aaargh! Stop, stop! The Red Bladder's
attacking again.
BLOODNOK: What! I've got no more records left.
This Red Bladder's causing a lot of trouble!
GRAMS: Bugle call. Vary the speed wildly.
BLOODNOK: Listen! Where’s the elastic telescope? Ah
good… Good heavens, it's a bugle call followed immediately by Seagoon and two
men-type soldiers!
SEAGOON: Bloodnok!
BLOODNOK: AAAARGH!
SEAGOON: Take off that Sabrina outfit and explain
how the Red Bladder has been getting these records of British history.
BLOODNOK: He employed a mean, low, cunning trick,
sir!
SEAGOON: What?
BLOODNOK: He bribed me. I'd be mad to turn it down
of course.
SEAGOON: Then he’s got every record?
BLOODNOK: Yes, and believe me our morale-boosting
programme sounds pretty thin with just the whistler and his dog – especially as
the whistler died last week. [20]
SEAGOON: Gad-gid-gud! This is terrible gid-gud-gad.
BLOODNOK: Yes.
SEAGOON: We've got to stop him playing our
records.
BLOODNOK: Yes. (Narration)
And so that night with the enemy at the gates, firing through the windows,
throwing grenades into the compound, shooting up through the floor and dropping
bombs through the ceiling, we were forced to take dinner from the kneeling
position. [21]
GRAMS: Distant rifle fire. Fade
and continue under.
SEAGOON: (Entering)
General, have you noticed anything strange about those stewed prunes?
BLOODNOK: Yes, no custard.
SEAGOON: Correct. And another thing – we're being
attacked.
BLOODNOK: What's more, the Red Bladder's got fresh
troops.
SEAGOON: Who told you?
BLOODNOK: One of the women they got fresh with. (I'm
on the wrong side, you know.)
SEAGOON: Bloodnok, stop blacking up.
BLOODNOK: Stop blacking up…
(Sings) For that maamee… [22]
SEAGOON: Yakka bakkaka koo. Now listen; our first
counter-move – any suggestions?
(Pause)
Very well, our second counter-move. We'll
form three companies of commandos, numbered one, two and three. Each group will
be thoroughly trained in the lost art of removing a gramophone needle from its
sound-box and destroying it. Now, look at this chart.
MAJOR
CARRUTHERS:[23]
Why sir! – it's a photograph of a gramophone needle.
SEAGOON: Correct. It's the actual gramophone
needle the enemy is using in their insulting campaign, photographed at great
risk by air reconnaissance at low level.
MAJOR
CARRUTHERS: How did they
manage to get so low?
SEAGOON: They walked. Now, we're going to destroy
Red Bladder's gramophone needle. We'll call this "Operation Needle"…
MILLIGAN: …nardle noo!
SEAGOON: Thank you, "Operation Needle Nardle
Noo" is on!
ORCHESTRA: Dramatic link.
GREENSLADE: Our heroes reported immediately for an
intensive eight-year course at the army needle-destroying depot at Umbala.[24]
GRAMS: Drilling sound.
INSTRUCTOR:[25]
There gentlemen. Having drilled a hole in the gramophone needle – (you must do
this very carefully by the way,) you put into the hollow of the needle one
eye-dropper full of the nitroglycerine. Now be most careful about this – it's
extremely dangerous. Now, next we attach the detonator leads and set the fuse,
so. Now, we withdraw quickly to two miles distance, follow me.
GRAMS: Large whoosh.
(Pause)
FX: Door
opens.
BLUEBOTTLE: (Entering)
Hello everybody! Sorry I'm late. Ooh, there's nobody here. (Thinks; there's
nobody here.) I know, I will sit here quietly until the talking lecture-man
comes back. Starts to cut out six box tops of Scruffo, thus enabling me to get
the Scruffo Boy's bravery badge for eating six boxes of scruffo. I think I will
sing a little song to keep my spirints up. [26]
(Sings) Oh my love, my darling,
I
hunger for your touch… [27]
ECCLES: Hallo!
BLUEBOTTLE: Oh, it's the famous Eccles.
ECCLES: It’s the famous Eccles!
BLUEBOTTLE: Eccles, let's have a game. You close
your eyes and guess who you are.
ECCLES: Fine, I like the sound of that. I'll
close my eyes. Now let me see – who am I? Who am I? I'm not going to tell you.
BLUEBOTTLE: Well, while he is guessing, I think ... Ooooh!
What are all them funny things under the lecturer's desk? Ooooh, it is a little
needule full of needule juice. Ooooh! – and what is this big box here with the
red labels saying janantro-glyncerine explosive? (Thinks; I wish I had not
readed that bit.) I know – I will tiptoe out of the room. (Thinks; this is one
week Bluebottle is not going to be deaded.) (Self
fade) Reaches door – so far so good. Opens door very carefully.
FX: Door
slowly creaks open.
BLUEBOTTLE: Turns back for one last look of triumph.
GRAMS: Large explosion.
BLUEBOTTLE: You rotten swine, you! You have exploded
me. Where's my legs? I don't like this game. (Self fade) I've gone a bungle…[28]
GREENSLADE: The experiment had succeeded. The needle
was entirely blunted.
SEAGOON: So we prepared to raid the Red Bladder's
dreaded radio station.
GRAMS: Night time noises.
GREENSLADE: Yes, that night our heroes crept through
the jungle, playing their tom-toms as quietly as possible and holding umbrellas
painted to resemble mango trees.
ECCLES: Oh! I'm frightened!
SEAGOON: What's up Eccles?
ECCLES: I just spotted a leopard.
BLOODNOK: Nonsense, leopards are always spotted.
Now then, if it had only been a dog, we could have all had lunch.
ECCLES: Oooh! – spotted dog! [29]
SEAGOON: Don’t explain the gag.
ECCLES: Hey – oooh hoo, I just saw a tree move!
BLOODNOK: It must have spotted a dog as well.
SEAGOON: I don't wish to know that! Now then…
ECCLES: The tree did...
SEAGOON: …let's check our bearings. Let me see
now; one, two, three, four. That's one bearing each. Make them last as long as
you can.
BLOODNOK: Thank you – every man should have a
military bearing. Wait a minute, this is a civilian bearing.
SEAGOON: Of course – we're in disguise. Now let's
check our position. Put on that gramophone record of a map. [30]
ECCLES: Okay.
GRAMS: Regiment marching on gravel road.
SEAGOON: Ah yes – just as I thought; we're marching
up a road.
BLOODNOK: Wait, listen.
GRAMS: Fast car approaching.
SEAGOON: LOOK OUT!
GRAMS: Car fades into distance.
SEAGOON: Swine! He was driving on the wrong side
of the record. Anybody hurt?
BLUEBOTTLE: Yes, I'm hurted.
ECCLES: He's hurted.
SEAGOON: Quick, put on a record of a doctor's house?.
ECCLES: Okay.
GRAMS: Hiss of needle on record.
FX: (Over)
Knocking on door.
GRAMS: Hiss stops.
SEAGOON: Curse, he's not in. He must be away on
another record. Well, never mind! Here's
a photograph of Gracie Fields playing Ray Ellington.
RAY ELLINGTON QUARTET – “Sally”. [31]
BLOODNOK: Stop this crazy type photographic humor.
We must find the Red Bladder's radio station or my name's not Dennis “Diana
Dors” Bloodnok.
SEAGOON: What's Diana Dors doing in the middle?
BLOODNOK: Can you think of a better place?[32]
SEAGOON: Quiet please. I think we're within a
stone's throw of the Red Bladder's secret radio. I'll make a test; hand me that
elephant.
BLOODNOK: Here you are.
ECCLES: I’ll just take his hat off. [33]
SEAGOON: Right. Now then. (Straining.) Uuuuurgh urgh!
(Pause)
FX: Glass
breaking.
GRAMS: Elephant trumpeting.
SEAGOON: I knew it! I knew it! – we're also within elephant-throwing
distance. But there's open ground between. How are we going to cross it?
ECCLES: ‘Ere, how are we going to get across
the…
GRAMS: (Recording) Milligan: Shhh… shhh… shhh, shhh, shhh,
shhh, shhh (Getting faster, build up speed, bring in sound of real locomotive behind.
Fade into distance.)
SEAGOON: And so we arrived by train. Now men, we
must affect entry by a cunning ruse. We'll say we are plumbers.
BLOODNOK: But we don't know how to do plumbing.
SEAGOON: Exactly. There's no plumbing in the Red
Bladder fort. It's only to afford an entry.
ECCLES: I can't afford an entry; I haven't got
any money with me. I didn't...
SEAGOON: Shut up Eccles!
CAST: (Variously)
Shut up Eccles! (Extended)
SEAGOON: Now then, the plumbers' disguises.
Eccles?
ECCLES: Yeah?
SEAGOON: Put this spanner behind your ear and
wrap these fifty feet of lead tubing around your legs.
ECCLES: Why?
SEAGOON: Candidly – it suits you. You, Bloodnok –
you take this copy of "Ten Thousand Plumber's Gags." Now, who knows
how to ring a doorbell?
BLUEBOTTLE: I can, Captain. I have been to college.
SEAGOON: Thank heavens! Right – RING!
BLUEBOTTLE: DING-A-LING-A-LING-A-LING!
FX: Door
opens.
RED
BLADDER: Yes? – what do
you want, cor blimey! [34]
SEAGOON: We're plumbers.
RED
BLADDER: Come in, cor
blimey!
SEAGOON: Wait, noble Red Bladder. Why have you
got your trouser legs rolled up above your neck?
RED
BLADDER: Got burst pipe.
BLOODNOK: (Close)
That's done it! – we can't repair any burst pipes. (Aloud) Ahem. Tell me, where is the pipe?
RED
BLADDER: In harem.
GRAMS: Pair of boots running into distance.
BLOODNOK: AAAAAAARGHHH!
SEAGOON: (Shouts
off) Bloodnok, come back here!
RED
BLADDER: Come, come.
Hurry up and mend burst pipe, cor blimey; four of my wives are underwater.
SEAGOON: I’m…er… well I'm terribly sorry; we were
on strike, you know. I… er… um… We never repair wives under water. Well – goodbye!
FX: Door
slams.
RED
BLADDER: Me suspicious of
them, cor blimey.
FX: Knocking
on door. Door opens.
RED
BLADDER: Yes?
SEAGOON: Good morning.
RED
BLADDER: What you want?
SEAGOON: (Close)
This'll get us in safely, listeners. (Aloud)
I'm Doctor Seagoon and we are strolling brain surgeons and tigers dentists.
RED
BLADDER: Good! My tiger
got strolling brain and two bad teeth. This way please.
SEAGOON: (Panic)
Well, no – I’m sorry… I’ve, er… hoihouighhouighhou – we've all just been
struck off the rolls.
RED
BLADDER: Why?
SEAGOON: The baker didn't like us sleeping on
them. Ha ha! Good day!
FX: Door
slams.
RED
BLADDER: Cor blimey! – me
very suspicious now. First plumber, then strolling brain surgeons, then corny
gag about struck off rolls! Now what!?
FX: Knocking
on door. Door opens.
SEAGOON: (Outside)
One, two, three…
SEAGOON/BLUEBOTTLE/ECCLES: (Singing
outside) We three kings of Orient are...
GRAMS: Pistol shot.
ECCLES: AAAW!
(Short
pause)
ECCLES
& BLUEBOTTLE: (Singing) We
two kings of Orient are...
GRAMS: Pistol shot.
ECCLES: AAAW-AAAW!
(Short
pause)
BLUEBOTTLE: (Singing)
Noel, Noel...
RED
BLADDER: Stop! Stop!
Christmas not here for another eleven months.
SEAGOON: Well, can we come in and wait?
RED
BLADDER: Very well, on
one condition.
SEAGOON: What?
RED
BLADDER: That you go away
at once.
SEAGOON: Very well, we will – on one condition.
RED
BLADDER: What?
SEAGOON: That you let us stay.
RED
BLADDER: SNAP!
SEAGOON: (Close)
We're in, lads.
RED
BLADDER: You sit here and
wait for Merry Christmas, cor blimey. Me go put frogman suit on; talk to four
submerged wives.
SEAGOON: We must hurry, chaps. The Red Bladder is
due to broadcast ‘Wog Wives Choice’ in five minutes. We must blow up the
gramophone needle before then. So much for the plot. Eccles?
ECCLES: Yeah?
SEAGOON: Shut up!
ECCLES: Shut up!
SEAGOON: Now, follow me down this passage. What's
in here?
FX: Door
opens.
GRAMS: Eastern music.
ECCLES: Ooooooo...
BLOODNOK: (Distant)
Get out of here! Get those trousers pressed, will you?
FX: Door
closes.
SEAGOON: He'll be sorry when the cold weather
comes. (Clears throat) Ahem.
BLUEBOTTLE: Captain, look! Here is the vital
record-type-playing room.
FX: Door
opens.
SEAGOON: Well done, Bluebottle! Good work. Gads-gids-goolie-ek!
– what's this record on the turntable?
BLUEBOTTLE: It is a South American one.
SEAGOON: Why?
BLUEBOTTLE: It says seventy-eight revolutions a
minute. (Thinks; joke!) [35]
SEAGOON: (Thinks; whallop.)
BLUEBOTTLE: (Thinks; oh! – my nut.)
SEAGOON: Hurriedly we drilled a hole in that
gramophone needle, filled it with nitroglycerine and screwed it back in.
BLUEBOTTLE: Oh! The Red Bladder's coming, Capitain!
SEAGOON: Quick! – disguise yourselves as
gramophone records.
ECCLES: Right.
SEAGOON: Put these labels on, and remember at all
costs – if he plays you, SING!
FX: Door
opens.
RED
BLADDER: What's this? cor
blimey – three new records? Me put one on.
SEAGOON: (Narration)
I watched horrified as he put Bluebottle on the turntable. Would Bluebottle
succeed in deceiving the Red Bladder?
GRAMS: Crackle of needle on record.
BLUEBOTTLE: (Singing
– muffled.) Ding a-ding a-ding, a ding,
Ding a-ding a-ding, a ding…[36]
Oh, wait a minute – this needle's full of
the dreaded nitro...
GRAMS: Large explosion.
GREENSLADE: And it was. An heroic British victory
with the loss of only three idiots. This show was recorded on a double-sided
Bluebottle. Good night listeners.
ORCHESTRA: End theme.
GREENSLADE: That was the Goon Show, a BBC-recorded
programme featuring Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan, with the
Ray Ellington Quartet and Max Geldray. The orchestra was conducted by Wally
Stott, script by Spike Milligan, announcer Wallace Greenslade. The programme
produced by Peter Eton.
ORCHESTRA: Tag and playout.
YTI
[1] Milligan was prone to military memories at Christmas. Once, later
in his life, he was asked by the Yorkshire Post to write a seasonal article for
their Christmas Edition and proceeded to write a fascinating article full of
remembrances of his Christmas’s past, including a moving paragraph about
Christmas in
“God, is there any greater joy than a child seeing his
toys on Christmas morn? I can still see that
box of British lead soldiers – eight Grenadier
Guardsmen with Captain, the shiny scarlet tunics, seven with rifles, one with a
sword. I ate my breakfast with them on the table. They stood around my plate
at Christmas lunch, and again at tea. By oil lamp I
packed them into their box and they slept by my
bed. Those soldiers! They have marched in my head ever
since.”
Whenever Milligan thought of Christmas he thought of soldiers; the soldier’s son in India waiting for Santa to come down the non-existent chimney; the teenager witnessing his soldier uncle shooting himself in the foot on Christmas eve so as to get a discharge; the trainee soldier keeping watch on Christmas eve in an OP at Bexhill-on-Sea. Soldiers, battles and Christmas seemed to be inextricably intertwined in Spike’s mind.
This episode is one of three written in constrained circumstances while Spike manipulated his hectic personal life - on one hand shifting his family from a flat in Highgate to their new home in Finchley and on the other hand negotiating a new television series with Associated Rediffusion. He seems to have started this script with the intention of expanding upon the successful plot of ‘The International Christmas Pudding’ performed the previous November, setting the story in Waziristan on the North West frontier of India, but within two dozen lines he loses interest in the pudding and transfers his attentions to battle recordings and explosive gramophone needles. Along the way he reintroduces Bloodnok’s fiercesome arch nemeses – the Red Bladder, making his first appearance in the Goon Shows since first being heard of in the 1954 show ‘Dishonoured’ (12/5th.)
[2]
[3] Xikang province lay in the South West of China, abutting the
Himalayas and adjacent to the
[4] This is the punch line to an on-going joke about tobacco
substitutes. Milligan had used it first in ‘Napoleon’s
Piano’ 4/6th in its anthropoideal form – (“Have a gorilla! No
thanks, I’m trying to give them up.”) He tried the gag four times in that show,
then again in “Rommel’s Treasure” 6/6th – (“Have a gorilla! No thanks, I’ve just put
one out;”) “The Pevensey Bay Disaster”
10/6th – (“Have a gorilla! No
thanks, this street is a non-smoker;”) and in “The
[5] Amongst the murmurs Milligan says ‘That’s a good idea!’
[6] If we take Milligan’s date as genuine then he is referring to the
Umbeyla War of 1863. Two fanatical leaders of the Islamic Wahhabi sect – Mulvi
Abdullah and Syad Mubarak Shah, had drawn together a large force of Pashtuns,
fundamentalist Muslims and disaffected sepoys and had created a terrorist
enclave in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
[7] The Deccan is the central plateau of India, bounded by the Eastern
and the
[8] The
[9] British rule of India had began in 1600 with the granting of a
trading charter by Elizabeth I to the ‘British
East India’ company which, through trade monopolies, alliances, divide and
rule policies, military excursions and administrative takeovers, gradually
expanded to create a mercantile hegemony over most of the subcontinent,
culminating in the Battle of Plassey (1757) in which French support of the
eastern Nawabs collapsed. The
[10] There is no such place as Chattagan – if that is in fact what he wrote. On at least one occasion during the show the word is pronounced as ‘Chattagand’. It’s amusing to speculate how Milligan came up with this word. Spikes Hindi was acquired from his aaya (Nanny) and his family’s Indian servants and their children, so he remembered Hindi through a veil of childish imitation, not consciously realising what he was saying. ‘Chatta’ could mean ‘stack’; while the homophone ‘chutta’ means ‘fool’; ‘gand’ is almost certainly the word for ‘arsehole’, though it could conceivably be the mispronounced version of ‘gaon’, ‘village’. If it is ‘Chuttagand’ that he meant, it would have meant ‘the arsehole of an idiot’, the sort of language he would have been certainly aware of when he was a boy.
[11] Schlapper is a German word indicating something or someone who is flabby, slack, listless or floppy.
[12] The answers in order are done by Milligan, Secombe, Greenslade and Secombe.
[13] This is actually the first real appearance of the Red Bladder in
the Goon Show. He had been referred to previously in ‘Dishonoured’ (12/5th)
where Neddie Seagoon gave his all in battle against this fiercesome
warrior as he led the Pathan tribes against the British. From now on however,
he became a real person voiced by Ray Ellington. Now that he had a voice,
Milligan found it more useful to make him the adversary of Major Bloodnok
rather than Seagoon. He appears in seven shows altogether; ‘The Red Fort’ (7/8th); ‘The
[14] Although
[15] Milligan.
[16] This refers to George Elrick (1903-1999), ‘The Smiling Voice of Radio’, British musician, impresario and radio presenter, who compèred ‘Housewives Choice’ throughout the 50’s and 60’s.
[17] Milligan, as ever the son of a British NCO, had picked up many
words from his father concerning the seedy underbelly of life in the
cantonments of
[18]
[19] One of the most frequently occurring songs in the Goon Show – especially at moments of triumph when sung by Grytpype and Moriarty, it was written by Duke & Harburg for the revue ‘Walk a Little Faster’ in 1932.
[20] ‘The Whistler and his Dog’ was a novelty jig written in 1905 by Arthur Pryor (1870-1942), trombone virtuoso, arranger, conductor and composer. Pryor was the first conductor to take the new fangled ‘phonograph’ recording process seriously, and he became music director for the fledgling Victor Talking Machine company in 1903, creating a new band and introducing ragtime to its repertoire and to the general public. Here, Bloodnok is referring to the ‘moral boosting’ broadcasts by the BBC during WWII. Nowadays these cheerful programmes – comedy shows, music programmes, community singing, community whistling, classical concerts and organ recitals, sound grotesquely unsophisticated, but during the war they were considered by the authorities to be vital aides in keeping up the spirits of the population, many of whom were suffering terrible personal losses.
[21] A similar idea was used a decade later by Talbot Rothwell (1916-1981) in his script for “Carry On Up the Khyber” when a British legation is at dinner in a dodgy Indian outpost. As the local warlord bombards the Governor’s residence, the dinner guests studiously ignore the magnificent destruction of the building going on round them maintaining English discipline to the last, while the governor’s wife, picking cement out of her hair, complains of being “a little plastered”.
[22] Bloodnok is quoting a line from the song ‘My Mammy’ (Donaldson/Young/Lewis – 1918) made famous by Al Jolson in his 1927 film ‘The Jazz Singer.’ Jolson mostly performed in blackface makeup, saying that working behind a blackface mask gave him a sense of freedom and spontaneity on stage he had never known.
[23] Sellers.
[24] Spike remembered this name from his youth in
[25] Milligan.
[26] Both Wheaties and Cheerios (General Mills) breakfast cereals had highly developed advertising campaigns by the 50’s in which certain numbers of box tops could be exchanged for a prize. In 1955 both companies produced 45rpm records as promotional prizes – Wheaties with a recording of ‘On Top of Old Smokey’ and Cheerios with an ‘Official Mickey Mouse Club’ song. In earlier years, prizes included signet rings and even plate sets.
[27] Bluebottle is singing his highly individual version of ‘Unchained Melody’ (North/Zaret – 1955)
probably in imitation of Jimmy Young, whose version of the recent original Todd
Duncan hit had reached the UK #1 spot in 1955. There was to be a special
request for the song four shows later in ‘Tales
of Old Dartmoor’ (21/6th)
by the men of
[28] Unclear.
[29] Spotted Dog was traditional English fare – a steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants) and served with custard. The recipe is traceable back to the middle of the 19th century, when it was commonly known as ‘spotted dick’ though the etymology of both titles is far from certain.
[30] Which brings us to the central reasoning behind Milligan’s idea. One of his original comic principals was “the transference of utility” in which different objects are substituted for other objects but perform the same tasks. In this case the original factor is not mentioned – it is a sheet of music. The reasoning goes like this: ‘If a piece of sheet music can be read, comprehended (in the form of a performance,) recorded and played back on a gramophone record, then a map can also be read, comprehended – (and then the ‘absurdist’ element of the transference comes into play,) recorded and played back on a gramophone.’
Milligan’s invention was in line with
the theatrical principals of absurdism, the concept of extended reality where
different identities are interchanged to produce a fallacious result. I suggest
Milligan learnt to do this in his youth. His family background, his cultural
dislocation and his bipolar sensitivity led him to suspect the veracity of
basic objects and basic indicators. The multilingual atmosphere of the
cantonments when he was a child taught him to see words as meaningless
gobbledegook – a cigarette could easily be tobacco, or Queen
[31] For most of her career, this song was Gracie Fields’ theme tune – along with “We’ll Meet Again”, “Wish Me Luck as you Wave Me Goodbye” and “The Biggest Aspidistra in the World.” Written by Haines, Leon and Towers for her 1931 hit film “Sally In Our Alley,” Gracie admitted later in her life that the final lines – (“If he lost you, he wonders what he’d do,”) were written by her husband Walter’s mistress Annie Lipman, and that if she’d have her way she would “drown blasted Sally together with Walter, with the aspidistra on top!”
[32] Diana Mary Fluck (1931-1984) was a British actress known as the British ‘Marilyn Monroe.’ Her assets were fully appreciated by a generation of men in the 1950’s and her fitful career included a 1960 LP entitled ‘Swinging Dors’ conducted by Wally Stott. An apocryphal story concerning her relates the tale of a certain Vicar, overcome by her looks, her name and his overactive imagination, introducing her at the local fete as Miss Diana Clunt.
[33] Milligan much enjoyed the idea of animals wearing hats. Spriggs is presented with a horse in ‘The Flea’ (12/7th) he says – “A horse?! …Take his hat off. You’re right – it is a horse.” while in a later poem Spike writes; “…and so they left the monkey house, while an elephant raised his hat.” (‘Silly Verse for Kids’ – 1959.)
[34] As an example of one of Milligan’s recycled scenes, it is interesting to compare this scene of Seagoon and company trying to gain entry to the Red Bladder’s hide-out, with the similar (but much more effective) scene in ‘The Red Fort’ (7/8th).
[35] Although it was a joke, it was regrettably not far from the truth.
Seven out of twelve of the South American nations had undergone a Coup d’État
since World War II. As Milligan was writing this script,
[36] Bluebottle is singing the ‘Harry Lime’ theme, from the 1949 film ‘The Third Man’.