GOON SHOW: TLO 87028
6TH SERIES: No 2
BROADCAST: 27 Sep 1955 [1]
By: Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes
GREENSLADE: This is the BBC Home Service. Now there’s
a service for you!
SEAGOON: Mister Groonslade – no advertising!
GREENSLADE: Hahaha! You should talk.
SEAGOON: (Clears throat)
Ahem. Kindly stand to one side (or to both sides,) as I announce the
extraordinary talking-type wireless Goon Show!
GRAMS: Old fashioned gramophone recording.
OSCAR WILDE:[2]
Oh, ho, ho there, dear patrons. Oh, ho, ho! We offer for your delection [3]
a three and a half act dream entitled, "The Secret Escritoire." (Goes off laughing) Oh, ho, ho, lads…
ORCHESTRA: Dramatic introduction.
GREENSLADE: The same afternoon, three weeks later.
GRYTPYPE: Let's see – Harris tweed, Birdseye… Ah, here's a
lovely mohair twill.[4]
MORIARTY: Sapristi, yakkakakkakoo! What's the matter with you,
Grytpype? Every cupboard in this house is full of these cielo pattern books.
GRYTPYPE: My dear heavily pomaded frog-eating friend, do you
not realize that each of these patterns would make a complete suit for a man
three inches tall? All we have to do is to find hundreds of such men, and then we
make a fortune.
MORIARTY: But where in the world are we going to find men so
small?
GRYTPYPE: Where?
MORIARTY: Yes.
GRYTPYPE: I'll show you. Look in this matchbox.
FX: Box of matches
sliding open.
MORIARTY: Awww! Sapristi nyuckles! Who is this man?
GRYTPYPE: Maurìce Ponk.[5]
Only last week he was six foot three.
MORIARTY: Six foot trois?
GRYTPYPE: Mmm.
MORIARTY: How did you ever manage to get him so sm...
GRYTPYPE: Well, I know a fiend in
MORIARTY: So much for the plot. Now for a few laughs.
GRYTPYPE: Yes.
MORIARTY: I say! I say! I say! Why did Sir Winston Churchill
wear red, white and blue braces?
WILLIUM: I don’t know. Why does Sir Winston Churchill wear
red, white and blue braces?
MORIARTY: To hold up his trousers! [7]
ORCHESTRA: Chord in C.
GRYTPYPE: Now Moriarty…
MORIARTY: Oui?
GRYTPYPE: Who can we shrink for one of our suits?
MORIARTY: I have a plan – or if you're French, la plan. Let's
go out and find a Charlie! We'll soon find one.
GRAMS: Traffic sounds. Hold under.
SEAGOON: My name is Neddie Seagoon. I was in
MORIARTY: (Distant) Read
ze news! Read all about ze English type news-reading, cor-blimey stone-a-crow
mate!
SEAGOON: Here there, Cockney news lad!
MORIARTY: (Suddenly very
close) Dear listeners, I am not a Cockney news lad, but a master of the
English-type voices. (Distant) Coming
mate, cor-ze-blimey!
SEAGOON: A paper! A paper, lad. And here's my copper coin of
the realm.
FX: Coin in till.
MORIARTY: Thanks! (Close
to mic) Little does he know, this is the start of a great plan to lure him to
GRAMS: Single whoosh.
SEAGOON: Wait! This paper is a day old. Ha! Never mind, dear
listeners – that penny I gave him was last year's. (Laughs) Ha ha ha ha! I've been passing old coins for some time
now. Needle-nardle-noo, to name but a few!
GRYTPYPE: Well said, little Nurk!
SEAGOON: Thank you, or if you're French – murky.
GRYTPYPE: Yes. Could I borrow your newspaper?
SEAGOON: I'm sorry, I left it in my other coat. Fortunately,
I'm wearing it.
GRYTPYPE: Oh. Could you read it to me?
SEAGOON: I never read my other coat to strangers. However,
I'll read you the paper of news.
GRYTPYPE: Good.
SEAGOON: Now, er – where are my reading glasses? Oh yes, I
left them in the escritoire.
GRYTPYPE: Disgusting!
SEAGOON: Have a care, thin sir! I’ll have you know that
according to the new Oxford dictionary, (and I quote) – l’escritoire means,
"writing table with tiroirs and pigeonholes, as distinct from a writing
desk which usually has a sloping front" – therefore what you see before
you on the pavement is my escritoire, or – if you're French, WRITING DESK.
GRAMS: Enthusiastic cheering and scattered applause.
SEAGOON: Thank you, Seagoon fans. Now...
GREENSLADE: Dear listeners, you are no doubt puzzled
at the picture of a full-sized escritoire in the middle of
GRAMS: Corny chord.
SEAGOON: (Idiot) Thank
you. (
GRYTPYPE: Yes, and I know where he is. Quick, follow me inside
the escritoire.
GRAMS: Two whooshes. Roll top shutting quickly.
SEAGOON: Inside my escritoire all was dark. I was lead to a
clearing in the blotting paper. There, lit only by lights was a matchbox. I
tiptoed forward on my hands and k-nees. And there inside the matchbox, lying
face-downwards on his back, was a dead contortionist.
GRYTPYPE: Need-die! Need-die! You must go to the police – or if
you're French, la polise.
SEAGOON: Yes – or if you're French, oui.
GRAMS: Single whoosh.
FX: Door opens.
SEAGOON: Inspector?
FRENCH INSPECTOR: [10]
Oui?
SEAGOON: I want to report a murder. Man dead in matchbox!
FRENCH INSPECTOR: Sacré Bleu! (Rapid cod-French - extended) … Or if you're French – (blows raspberry) PHPHPHPHPHPHPH!
FX: Door closes.
SEAGOON: I never saw him again. (I wasn't sorry either.) No,
so the police didn't believe me, eh? (Laughs)
Very well – I would bring the evidence back to them. Taxi!
GRAMS: Car approaching fast. Squeal of brakes.
CABBIE:[11]
Where to, sir?
SEAGOON: Piccadilly.
CABBIE: This is Piccadilly.
SEAGOON: How much shall that be?
CABBIE: Five bob.
FX: Penny in till.
CABBIE: Thank you.
GRAMS: Car drives off at speed.
SEAGOON: I returned to my escritoire, to discover that it was
gone!
MORIARTY: Do not worry, my little friend.
SEAGOON: I wasn't worrying your little friend. The man I
addressed was a tall, perpendicular cretin, reclining on a loaded pogo stick,
and carrying a stringless banjo for protection.[12]
Aloud. (Clears throat) Who are you?
MORIARTY: My card.
SEAGOON: The ace of spades!
MORIARTY: Yes. I’m a man of many parts.
SEAGOON: They don't seem to be working very well.
MORIARTY: Please Neddie, no ad-libbing. So, your escritoire has
been stolen! I can help you recover it.
SEAGOON: It doesn't need recovering, it's brand-new. (Cheerful burst of laughter.) Ha ha ha! ( Embarrassment sets in.) Ahem.
MORIARTY: What?
SEAGOON: I don't like the look of you.
MORIARTY: Name of a dog!
SEAGOON: Fido.
MORIARTY: Correct! Now, follow me. Meantime – Max Geldray!
MAX GELDRAY: "Someone
to Watch Over Me.” [13]
ORCHESTRA: Dramatic introduction.
GREENSLADE: "The Secret Escritoire," part
the two. If listeners will put up their binoculars and look towards Tilbury,
they'll observe that Moriarty has lured Neddie to the docks.
GRAMS: Distant sounds of shipping.
SEAGOON: Tell me, salty old seaman – you say my escritoire was
put on board a ship by Grytpype?
WILLIUM: Yes mate, yes. They put it aboard the S. S. Clarence.
SEAGOON: Is that a mail boat?
WILLIUM: With a name like that, we’re not sure mate.
Needle-nardle noo!
SEAGOON: Yakka bakkaka!. When did the ship set sail, mate?
WILLIUM: Two days and eight nights ago, mate.
SEAGOON: Good heavens, mate. By now it must be more than three
hundred k-nots away.
MORIARTY: Neddie, we must follow her.
SEAGOON: Right, follow me.
MORIARTY: No, I'll follow you.
SEAGOON: Right, lead on.
MORIARTY: After you!
GRAMS: A series of six large splashes. Vary the
size.
GREENSLADE: The first splash was Moriarty. The other
five were Mister Secombe. Now, if listeners will stand on
GRAMS: Lounge orchestra in background. Fade in melee
in foreground, bottles smashing, tables overturned, yells and shouts. [15]
BLOODNOK: (Yelling) STOP!
STOP!! STOP IT, I SAY!!!! Next dance please! Next dance. Everybody back to
their own beds. Ahh!
ABDUL: Pardon me, sir.
BLOODNOK: Abdul you naughty-type wog, how dare you burst into
my cabin on ladies night! Untie these nice women. Oh, I'm in condition tonight.
(Shouting off) Ohhh, ohhh, you
naughty type man.
ABDUL: Sir, sir![16]
There are two sahibs swimming behind the ship in the water.
BLOODNOK: Mesh me thudder, you’re right! (Calls out) I say, you two in the water – what do you want?
SEAGOON: (Drowning) He-elp! Have you an escritoire on board?
BLOODNOK: (Shouting off) Two
on B deck and one in the lounge. Stand aside and full speed ahead!
SEAGOON: (Desperately) Wait!
We have money.
GRAMS: Fifteen ton lorry applying its brakes.
BLOODNOK: Give us your hands, dear lads. Come along, you naughty...
[17]
GRAMS: Splashing.
BLOODNOK & SEAGOON: (Straining
sounds)
SEAGOON: Thank you sir.
MORIARTY: Murky, murky.
BLOODNOK: Yes. Now, I must first examine your documents.
SEAGOON: Mine are in this wallet, darling.
BLOODNOK: Allow me to see them, darling. Umm, forty-seven, forty-eight,
forty-nine, fifty pounds. Yes, these papers appear to be in order.
SEAGOON: Major, are you responsible for berths on board this ship?
BLOODNOK: Not all of them, dear boy. No.
SEAGOON: Well, we want a separate door with adjoining cabins.
BLOODNOK: Ohh! Well, that will be fifty pounds exactly, Mister
Smith. [18]
SEAGOON: What luck, Mister Jones. I've just got the right
amount, darling.
FX: Penny in till.
BLOODNOK: Thank you, darling.
SEAGOON: Now, where are you going to put us?
BLOODNOK: Here! (Heaves)
HUH…
GRAMS: Two large splashes.
SEAGOON: (Distant) You
scoundrel! We've just given you fifty pounds!
BLOODNOK: (Shouting off) D’you
think I'm not grateful? Full speed ahead – follow that sea! ARGHH...
ORCHESTRA: Nautical Fanfare. Segue into oriental link.
SEAGOON: Moriarty and I struck out for a foreign shore, and
soon waded ashore on a foreign land.
GRYTPYPE: Welcome ashore to
SEAGOON: Great goose sticks! Grytpype-Thynne, you devil – where's
my escritoire?
GRYTPYPE: Put on these bamboo boots and follow me!
GRAMS: Boots gradually speeding up and running into
the distance.
GREENSLADE: If listeners will now stand on the top of
CUSTOMS OFFICER:[20]
Please, what have you got in this eighty ton clase?
BLOODNOK: Nothing, little Malayan customs officer, played very
badly by Harry Secombe. You don't think I carry it around full, do you?
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Please open, or I clout ear-hole with
stick.
BLOODNOK: Oh, that's different. Very well.
GRAMS: Large packing crate being opened;
splintering of wooden slats etc.
ECCLES: Hallo!
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Explain please presence of white idiot in
case.
BLOODNOK: You white idiot – what are you doing in my case?
ECCLES: Case? You told me this was a first-class cabin.
BLOODNOK: It's lies, all lies I tell you. I never took
eighty-pounds-off-him-for-letting-him-travel-in-this-case-believing-it-to-be-a-first-class-cabin-thus-hoping-to-defraud-the-steamship-company-of-the-eighty-pounds-I-took-off-him.
It's all lies. Arrest him!
ECCLES: Wait! I'm as innocent as you are.
BLOODNOK: There you are. Arrest him!
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Please, tell why you come to
ECCLES: Yeah, I want to buy some rubber.
BLOODNOK: Why?
ECCLES: I made a mistake in my homework.
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Sorry – you must pay duty on this idiot.
BLOODNOK: Pay duty on an idiot!?
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Yes. Twenty dollars alive or three
dollars dead.
BLOODNOK: Eccles, here's a pistol. Do the decent thing.
ECCLES: Ok. Goodbye.
FX: Pistol shot.
ECCLES: Got him!
BLOODNOK: Good shot, Eccles!
SEAGOON: (Approaching) Stop,
stop! That's the man who threw me off the S. S. Clarence!
BLOODNOK: (Spluttering) I
don't recognize you.
SEAGOON: Of course not – I've still got my Malayan customs set
on. [21]
ECCLES: (Laughing) Ha
ha ha ha hum. Ha ha ha ha hum!
SEAGOON: Eccles!
ECCLES: Yeah?
SEAGOON: Mister Eccles – my old headmaster! [22]
ECCLES: I've got my old head on too.
GREENSLADE: Dear listeners, this will give you some
idea of the drastic shortage of schoolteachers.
ECCLES: And that speech will give you some idea of the
drastic shortage of announcers.
SEAGOON: Mister Eccles!
ECCLES: Yes, my good man?
SEAGOON: Mister Eccles, you were on board the S. S. Clarence,
weren't you?
ECCLES: Ah-hum.
SEAGOON: Did you see a roll-top desk on board?
ECCLES: Nope. The only thing I saw was an escritoire.
SEAGOON: An escritoire?
ECCLES: Yeah.
SEAGOON: Is an escritoire a French word from the Latin meaning
"to scrite?"
ECCLES: Ah-hum.
SEAGOON: And does it mean all in all, “a writing table with tiroirs
and pigeonholes”, as distinct from a writing desk which has a sloping front?
ECCLES: Yeah.
SEAGOON: Huzzah! That's the very thing I'm looking for!
ECCLES: What is?
SEAGOON: An escritoire.
ECCLES: What's an escritoire?
SEAGOON: Needle nardle noo! In that escritoire is a man dead
in a matchbox, and I want him as evidence to show to the police.
BLOODNOK: Ah! Wrench me thudder and larrup me knid! If a murder
is involved I can remain silent no longer. Your escritoire was sent to this
address.
SEAGOON: Quick! Follow that address!
GRAMS: Old gramophone recording.
FX: Various drawers
opening and closing. Continue under.
CRUN & BANNISTER: (Aged
improvisation.)
UNCLE OSCAR: Have you seen my teeth, Minnie?
CRUN & BANNISTER: Oh dear, dear, dear, dear. &c
BANNISTER: Uncle Oscar's lost his choppers.
CRUN: Lost his choppers, Min?
BANNISTER: Yes.
UNCLE OSCAR: I had them when I started.
BANNISTER: You spend too long in there every day, Henry.
FX: Series of padlocks
snapping shut.
BANNISTER: Are you locking up, Henry?
CRUN: Yes, I'm locking up.
BANNISTER: I'm worried about the Malayan bandits, you know. [23]
CRUN: Don't you worry, Min. Every door is locked from the
inside.
BANNISTER: Oh. I'm… I'm still very worried, Hen.
CRUN: Why?
BANNISTER: I'm outside.
CRUN: Oh!
BANNISTER: It's not my fault. I was potting the rubber tree, and
you told me...
UNCLE OSCAR: I can't find my teeth, you know. I er… I er…
I had pudding on them last night.
FX: Door opening.
CRUN: Now, come in Min and stay in.
FX: Door closing.
BANNISTER: Oh, oh. You locked me out when my back was...
UNCLE OSCAR: My choppers have gone you know. Perhaps
they're in the pie crust.
CRUN: Ellinga?
BANNISTER: He's lost his teeth.
CRUN: Ellinga, can you reach the top bolt? I can't...
ELLINGA: Me reach – me got long arms. Strong arms.
CRUN: Just put the bolt…
ELLINGA: Me reach. Very strong.
CRUN: You're strong?
ELLINGA. Mmm.
CRUN: You’re getting married soon, aren’t you Ellinga?
ELLINGA: Yes, cor blimey.
CRUN: Good luck.
BANNISTER: Good luck buddy.
ELLINGA: Got bolt. Strong, very strong indeed. [24]
UNCLE OSCAR: He's got teeth and everything. [25]
CAST: (Improv.
Continue under.)
GREENSLADE: Listeners, if you raise your ear trumpets
you will hear Mister Ray Ellington and his quartet.
RAY ELLINGTON QUARTET – “Play It, Boy" [26]
CRUN & BANNISTER:
(Aged improv. continues.)
FX: Knocking.
BANNISTER: Ooh! Oohee! Oh, we'll all be murdered in our beds. What's
that?
FX: Door opens.
SEAGOON: Pardon me, old steaming couple.
CRUN: What do you want, little ball of lard?
SEAGOON: Have no fear, old colonial couple – all I seek is that
escritoire.
BANNISTER: How did you get into our blung-bungalow?
SEAGOON: Through the bead curtain.
BANNISTER: We haven't got any.
SEAGOON: I carry my own.
CRUN: We have not got the escritoire, sir. Mister
Grytpype-Thynne took it through the beaded curtain.
SEAGOON: You said you hadn't got any.
CRUN: He carries his own.
SEAGOON: Quick, men – follow that Grytpype!
GRAMS: Massive whoosh. Regiment at quick march. French
military band over. Speeded up.
GRAMS: Huge splash.
SEAGOON: (Exhausted
panting)
GRAMS: Machete hacking at jungle foliage. Continue
under.
SEAGOON: For weeks we cut our way through the dense jungle
that ran along the side of the arterial road. Gladys?
GLADYS: Yes, darling?
SEAGOON: Gladys, I have a feeling we're lost.
GLADYS: Do not worry. Me come from old tracking family. Me
come this way many times before.
SEAGOON: Good. Where does it lead to?
GLADYS: Me don't know. Me always get lost, cor blimey.
BLOODNOK: (Distant) Oh!
Oh oh... Oh dear…
SEAGOON: Shh! There's someone approaching.
BLOODNOK: (Approaching) Oh
– Seagoon, Seagoon!
SEAGOON: Why are you following me?
BLOODNOK: You're so attractive.
SEAGOON: Thank heavens. For a moment, I thought you were going
to lie.
BLOODNOK: Seagoon, I… I… I feel I must tell you. You're being
led into a terrible plot. Grytpype-Thynne has a thousand suits ready for
midgets. He intends to shrink you to the right size and make you his first customer.
SEAGOON: Great yakka bakakka koos!
BLOODNOK: Yes, he could shrink you to three inches.
SEAGOON: Half my present height.
BLOODNOK: Yes. Look lad, for a thousand pounds I'll sell you
this anti-shrink pill.
SEAGOON: A thousand pounds – my life savings. Well, come into
the office.
FX: Door opens.
GRAMS: Distant typing pool.
MISS PILLS:[27]
Morning, Mister Seagoon.
SEAGOON: Morning Miss Pills. Miss Pills, get a thousand pounds
from the safe.
MISS PILLS: Yes sir.
SEAGOON: Bloodnok, I'm very grateful to you.
MISS PILLS: Here you are, sir.
SEAGOON: Thank you. There, Bloodnok – a thousand pounds in
money.
MISS PILLS: Mister Seagoon, when you will you be
back?
SEAGOON: (Brave panic) I
don't know. You see I'm lost in the Malayan jungle. For heaven's sake send
help. Goodbye!
FX: Door closes smartly.
SEAGOON: Right men – I must find that body in the matchbox as
evidence. Reverse kneecaps and we'll head north. Follow me!
GRAMS: Splash.
GREENSLADE: There are many lakes in
SEAGOON: I struck out for the far side of the mango-infested
swamp.
ECCLES: Grab my hand – I'll pull you out.
SEAGOON: Eccles! How did you get across the swamp without
getting wet?
ECCLES: I jumped on that log.
SEAGOON: That? Log? That's an alligator![28]
ECCLES: Ooo. I wondered why my legs kept getting shorter.
SEAGOON: Gad – we're in a pretty mess. What's going to happen
next?
BLUEBOTTLE: Hands up in Malayan! Do not move or these
cardboard guns will spit death! Enter Bluenbotton. Signals applause.
GRAMS: Cheers, shouts, and clapping.
BLUEBOTTLE: Enough, enough, enough! I have drunk my
fill.
SEAGOON: Great hoary swimmers! It's a… What is it?
BLUEBOTTLE: Silence white stringe. I am Jungjl Jim
Blunebottom, Kinge of the junj-gle. I have been hiding in the jungle for three
weeks. [29]
SEAGOON: Why?
BLUEBOTTLE: I got a hole in my trousers.
SEAGOON: Tell me little stranger, why do you bar our way?
BLUEBOTTLE: I have been sented here to lead you to
Grytpype-Thynne and Doctor Syn, the mad Malayan biologic chemisterarian.
SEAGOON: Is that difficult?
BLUEBOTTLE: You try saying it.
SEAGOON: Very well, lead on.
BLUEBOTTLE: Yes, but first we must cross the dreaded
river Bagochips.
ELLINGA: I warn you, river Bagochips very cold.
SEAGOON: There's nothing worse than a cold bag-o-chips!
GREENSLADE: If listeners will now stand on their
heads in a bowl of lukewarm porridge, they'll be able to hear the last part of ‘The
Secret Escritoire.’ If you haven't got porridge, bread pudding is an excellent
substitute. Good luck!
ORCHESTRA: Corny chord in C.
GRAMS: Native singing.
SEAGOON: For days we travelled deep into the interior. There
we met a tribe called the Darkaraters. They were of course the famous interior
Darkaraters.
BLUEBOTTLE: Stop! We have arrived. This is the place
and there is your escrintoire. I have done-ed my duty. Sinks exhausted to
ground, does hands-clutching and unclutching act as done by Cary Grant in ‘To
Catch A Thief.’[30] (Here,
that Grace Kelly is a nice tart, isn’t she? Thinks – “I must be growing
up!” Tee hee hee!)
SEAGOON: Good work, Bluebottle! Here's a match – go find
yourself a petrol dump. Now to locate the dead man in the matchbox.
GRYTPYPE: Neddie, drop that gun, or I shall play this record.
GRAMS: Recording of ‘Cara Mia’ by David Whitfield.[31]
SEAGOON: STOP! STOP! STOP! You win. What do you want?
GRYTPYPE: Roll up your sleeve.
SEAGOON: There.
GRYTPYPE: Just as I thought – an arm!
SEAGOON: Suddenly he took out a yi-tong-tiddle-I-po-dermic
needle and… (agony)
Ahh-ooo-arrgghhh-eeahh…&c
GRYTPYPE: Have you finished?
SEAGOON: Yes.
GRYTPYPE: Good. Now I'll give you the injection.
SEAGOON: (Agony) Ahhh!...
Ooh! I hurriedly swallowed my anti-shrink tablet.
GRYTPYPE: There. In a few moments you'll be the right size for a
suit. Now, in here Neddie.
SEAGOON: (Laughs) He
thinks I'm going to shrink.
FX: Door opens then closes.
(Pause)
FX: Door opens.
SEAGOON: (Falsetto)
How do you like my new suit, fellas – eh?
ORCHESTRA: End theme.
GREENSLADE: That was the Goon Show, a recorded BBC
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 and Eric Sykes, announcer Wallace Greenslade, the
programme produced by Peter Eton.
ORCHESTRA: Theme up and out.
GREENSLADE: Harry Secombe is now appearing in
‘Flotsam's Midgets’ on Bognor Pier.[32]
ORCHESTRA: Playout.
YTI
[1] The second episode of the sixth series concerns itself with one of the strangest subject matters that Spike ever addressed. The escritoire – described almost verbatim from a furniture dictionary by Secombe, appears in this episode as both an article of furniture and a metaphor for the plot itself. Like the ‘trunk of silence’ in ‘The End’ (26/5th), Spike seemed to be engaging the audience in an almost existential dialogue concerning what is interior and what is exterior; what is in the mind and what is not; what is imagination and what is not. His use of an escritoire is easily explained by his burgeoning interest in antiques. Spike finally had pocket money in the 50’s; he was learning about old furniture and his tastes were widespread and individual. But this doesn’t necessarily explain why the escritoire is ‘secret’.
A more interesting source could be that during his reading, Spike had come across a book by the existential Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, entitled ‘Either/Or.’ First published in 1843 in German and translated into English in 1944, the book dealt with two opposing moral perspectives of existence – the aesthetic life view, and the ethical.
It begins with the narrator discovering an escritoire in a second hand shop. He becomes obsessed with owning it. After obtaining the article of furniture, he one day takes an axe to it in fury at being unable to open a stuck drawer.
“With it I dealt the escritoire a tremendous
blow. Whether in my wrath I missed or the drawer was as obstinate as I, the
drawer was closed and the drawer remained closed. But something else happened.
Whether my blow fell just on that point, or the overall shock to the whole
framework of the escritoire was what did it, I don’t know; but what I do know
is that there sprang open a secret door which I had never noticed before. This
enclosed a recess which naturally I hadn’t discovered either. Here to my great
surprise I found a mass of papers…”
The papers
found in the secret escritoire by the narrator form the basis for the first
chapter. Here the aesthetic life view is discussed, addressing such topics as
music, seduction, drama and beauty. Kierkegaard’s narrator concludes his
preface by saying;
“In my heart I begged the
escritoire forgiveness for the harsh treatment, while my mind found its doubt
corroborated – that the outward after all is not the inward…”
Once again,
Spike was continuing his personal creative dialogue within the Goon Show
format, musing on the conflict between his inner self and his outer self;
between his inner man and his larger than life exterior.
[2] Milligan, in the voice of an Irish theatre spruiker.
[3] (Sic!) The word ‘delectation’ seems to be mispronounced intentionally.
[4] All three are types of tweed suiting; the first a commercial hand-woven Scottish tweed; the second, tweed woven in a diamond pattern; the third, tweed made from mohair yarn.
[5] Maurice Ponk appears briefly on film. See ‘The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn’ (1956). There he is played by Dick Emery.
[6] There is a burst of activity in series 5 & 6 concerning the
character Doctor Fred Fu-Manchu. The Sax Rohmer character was a famous identity
well before Milligan made use of him, appearing in cinema, books, radio and
comic strips ever since 1913. In the Goon Shows he is variously described as a
fiend (see above), a sinister oriental saxophonist (‘
In the TS (transcription series)
version, the two words ‘in
[7] Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) resigned as Prime Minister of
Britain the previous April, due to his failing health. Already an old man, his
career as a soldier, a diplomat, an MP and a Minister, had been intertwined
almost exactly with the nadir and decline of the fortunes of the
These names are all locations Spike wrote about in the Goon Shows, places where the fighting was thickest, soldiers like Bloodnok were aplenty, and daft privates like Eccles and Bluebottle thick in the trenches.
The hero Churchill was to the last a
symbol of
[8] Another excision of ‘to
[9] A ‘freeman’ is a civic
honour, occasionally granted to citizens who have performed heroic service on
behalf of their communities. The
[10] Milligan in an aggressive French accent.
[11] Milligan, in an approximate
[12] Milligan’s youth spent in the company of parents who were addicted to the stage and musical entertainments, meant that he knew a lot about music and musical instruments. His father’s great love of performing so-called ‘coon music’ introduced Spike to the banjo, which often featured in his performances. In the Goon Shows, Seagoon professes a love of banjo music in ‘The Spanish Suitcase’ (11/5th); the Hybrid Spahi’s Banjo Society are mentioned in ‘The Tuscan Salami Scandal’ (23/6th); Bluebottle uses a hair and fibre banjo in ‘Foiled by President Fred’ (2/6th); while Seagoon secretly repairs a granite version of one in Hyde Park in ‘The International Christmas Pudding’ (9/6th).
[13] Written by George and Ira Gershwin, for their 1926 musical, “Oh, Kay!” it is considered one of the top ten numbers of the jazz repertoire, and has been recorded by all the great names. Although made into a silent movie in 1928, it was one of the few great Broadway successes which never became a big budget Musical on the silver screen. Once again, the fine arrangement demonstrates the sort of sensitivity which 1950’s bands were capable.
[14] The Straits of Johor separate
[15] While others find it touching that the band went on playing as the Titanic floundered, Milligan found it terribly funny that his own battery band went on playing as a genteel war-time dance at Robin’s Post disintegrated into a riot. Arranged for Officers from the local British and Canadian units, the melee was started by a Canadian officer pouring beer into Spike’s saxophone, then fuelled by a lethal combination of alcohol, jazz and sugary food, grew into a drunken free-for-all. Nonetheless, Spike’s band played on, and later – when the fighting had finished, Edgington and Fildes dragged the intoxicated Milligan back to the billets, slung between them. This is the reason that occasionally you will hear in the Goon Show the sounds of a distant lounge band accompanying a brawl. It is Spike reliving his first and finest battle of the war.
[16] Sellers is rather enjoying being a cad, and Milligan (as Abdul) has trouble beginning his line.
[17] The line dissolves into catch-phrases.
BLOODNOK: Where’s me old photographs?
MORIARTY: Mind the tenor’s friend.
SEAGOON: Watch out for the baritone’s
buddy. Ahh. Ahh…
[18] These lines were often used in the days before sexual liberation. If one conducted an affair, one took the obliging lady to a small Hotel, registered under a pseudonym such as Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and paid £50 pounds for adjoining rooms and a pretence of respectability. Mr Crun refers to the practice in ‘The Spanish Suitcase’ (11/5th) while the Brighton Chamber of Commerce laments the downturn in gentlemen visitors in ‘The Phantom Head Shaver’ (4/5th.)
[19] The country of
The fact that the local Malays deserved independence on their own terms seemed not to have deterred public opinion. On September the 8th, the British demanded that the local Malay communists surrender, and granted them an amnesty to lay down their arms and agree to be transported to the Chinese border.
[20] Secombe.
[21] A ‘set’ is a costume. The term still exists in theatre but now refers to the scenery, rather than the clothing.
[22] Secombe tangles himself in the word ‘headmaster’ and repeats the line. This show has multiple small edits in the TS (transcription service) version and this mistake was one of the cuts made. The other cuts are references to race, (eg: ‘white,’ and ‘naughty-type wog’.)
[23] The Malayan bandits she speaks of were the communist guerrillas. The term ‘bandits’ was 1950’s media speak for ‘insurgents’.
[24] Ray Ellington had recently proposed to an actress, 20 years his junior. According to ‘Jet Magazine,’ (13 Oct 1955:)
“Announcing their engagement in
The girl’s real name was Anita West, and the engagement was broken off almost at once by Ellington.
‘Jet Magazine’ (8 Dec 1955)
“The two-month engagement of bandleader Ray Ellington
and white British TV actress Ann Wuest was broken because, Ellington said, “We
decided the engagement would not work as it would clash with both our careers.”
But Miss Wuest declared tearfully: “It was not broken off by mutual
arrangement…”
Ellington was living high off the hog at this time. He and his band were appearing at all the right places, doing broadcasts and recordings and Ray was beginning to write some of his own material. The income was good too. Ellington appeared that year in a Derbyshire newspaper posing with his new Mark VII M-Type Jaguar with a ballroom dancing starlet draped beside him on the bonnet. It was a single man’s career.
[25] The majority of this scene is improvised and from the amount of repetition of lines, seems not to have been scripted to any great extent.
[26] By Ellington and Katz.
[27] Sellers. From the few words Miss Pills speaks, one can almost tell
which part of
[28] This is an imaginative piece of zoology. Alligators exist only in
the
[29] The
[30] ‘To Catch a Thief’ was a 1955 movie by Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) set in the French Riviera, and starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. The scene Bluebottle refers to occurs in the middle of the film. Grace Kelly, driving a luxury sports car, speeds along a winding road with Grant in the passenger seat, avoiding a pursuing vehicle. She takes her sportster at such a speed that the corners on the precipitous mountain side, slide dangerously by as if on a rollercoaster ride. Hitchcock films her elegantly gloved hands caressing the steering wheel of the speeding sports car with easy grace, and follows up the shot with a view of Grants hands clenching and unclenching on his knees, desperately trying to keep his nerve.
Milligan became very fond of this
hand clenching action. It became part and parcel of his stage persona, and he
used it to express moments of great personal trauma – particularly sexual
frustration. There are many examples of this emotional-tic in the Q Series.
However some film examples are in ‘The
Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn’ (Joseph
Sterling – 1956) when he and Sellers examine the evidence of the theft
and famously, as the ‘left-over’ disciple in ‘The Life of Brian’ (Python – 1979).
[31] ‘Cara Mia’ was a big hit
for the Scottish tenor David Whitfield in the early 1950’s. Accompanied by the
Mantovani orchestra, with its lush cascading strings and angelic female chorus,
the song reached number one in the
[32] Milligan was reaching into the professional history of Tony Hancock with this reference. ‘Flotsam’ was Bentley Collingwood Hilliam (1890-1968), who after a successful career as one side of the partnership ‘Mr Flotsam and Mr Jetson’ (in association with the Australian baritone Malcolm McEachern), managed a variety troop which often appeared at the Esplanade Pavilion, Bognor Regis, for the annual sixteen week summer season. In 1948, Hilliam added a brilliant, but unknown young comic, who had done a few weeks at ‘The Windmill’ and had toured in ‘Stars in Battledress’ but was finding it hard to find further work.
It was the young Tony Hancock.
Also appearing in ‘Flotsam’s Follies’
was Ernest Elliott. His act consisted of a
variety of puppet characters. These were worked by operating a small puppet
body below his own head that poked through a curtain. Elliot appeared at many
different theatres around the country, on television in its early days and even
once performed in front of Princess Margaret. With large heads and small dumpy
bodies, these puppets were probably the pejorative ‘midgets’ that Spike alludes
to when speaking of Secombe.