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| creator = Spike Milligan | producer = | narrated = Wallace Greenslade Andrew Timothy Denys Drower | record_location = | num_episodes = 238 plus 12 specials | original_run = 1951–1960 }} ''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled ''Crazy People''; subsequent series had the title ''The Goon Show'', a title inspired, according to Spike Milligan, by a Popeye character.〔 Alternative ISBN 978-0-19-861452-4〕 The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades. Many elements of the show satirised contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature and film. The show was released internationally through the BBC Transcription Services (TS).〔The Goon Show Companion. Wilmot & Grafton. 1976. Robson Books. London. P54〕 It was heard regularly from the 1950s in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India and Canada, although these TS versions were frequently edited to avoid controversial subjects.〔Wilmut. R, The Goon Show Companion. 1976 p54.〕 NBC began broadcasting the programme on its radio network from the mid-1950s. The programme exercised a considerable influence on the development of British and American comedy and popular culture. It was cited as a major influence by The Beatles and the American comedy team The Firesign Theatre〔 (a) pp.4, 5, 61; (b)p.183, (d) pp.180, 181, (e)p.203〕 as well as Monty Python〔Chapman, G., Cleese, J., Gilliam, T., Idle, E., Jones, T., & Palin, M. (2004). Edited by Bob McCabe. ''The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons''. London: Orion. Chapman's posthumous input via collateral sources. ISBN 0-7528-6425-4〕〔 ISBN 978-0-330-43543-7; ISBN 0-330-43543-4〕〔 and many others. ==Background== The series was devised and written by Spike Milligan with the regular collaboration of other writers including Larry Stephens, Eric Sykes (who co-wrote most of the episodes in Series 5), Maurice Wiltshire and John Antrobus, initially under the supervision of Jimmy Grafton.〔 Milligan and Harry Secombe became friends while serving in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. Famously, Milligan first encountered Secombe after Gunner Milligan's artillery unit accidentally allowed a large howitzer to roll off a cliff, under which Secombe was sitting in a small wireless truck: "Suddenly there was a terrible noise as some monstrous object fell from the sky quite close to us. There was considerable confusion, and in the middle of it all the flap of the truck was pushed open and a young, helmeted idiot asked 'Anybody see a gun?' It was Milligan." Secombe's answer to that question was "What colour was it?" Milligan met Peter Sellers after the war at the Hackney Empire, where Secombe was performing, and the three became close friends.〔Spike Milligan - The Biography. Carpenter, H. 2003. Hodder & Stoughton. London. P 90〕 The group first formed at Jimmy Grafton's London public house called "Grafton's" in the late 1940s.〔〔〔There is some confusion in the literature (e.g. Scudamore 1985, McCann 2006) about the actual name of the pub. It was "Grafton's" according to ''The Goon Show Companion'', Wilmot/Grafton, not the "Grafton Arms". See photo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/24489951@N06/2317439334/〕 Sellers had already débuted with the BBC, Secombe was often heard on ''Variety Bandbox'', Milligan was writing for and acting in the high profile BBC show ''Hip-Hip-Hoo-Roy'' with Derek Roy, and Michael Bentine, who appeared in the first series, had just begun appearing in Charlie Chester's peak time radio show ''Stand Easy''.〔 The four clicked immediately. "It was always a relief to get away from the theatre and join in the revels at Grafton's on a Sunday night," said Secombe years later.〔''Artists and Raspberries'', Pan; 1997. P72〕 They took to calling themselves "The Goons" and started recording their pub goings-on with a tape recorder. The BBC producer, Pat Dixon heard a tape and took interest in the group. He pressed the BBC for a long term contract for the gang, knowing that it would secure Sellers for more than just seasonal work, something for which the BBC had been aiming. The BBC acquiesced and ordered an initial series, though without much enthusiasm.〔 The series had its premiere in May 1951 and audience figures grew rapidly, from around 370,000 to nearly two million by the end of the 17th show.〔 No recordings of any episode of this series are known to have survived. The BBC commissioned a second series and a number of other changes occurred. The musical interludes were shortened, and Max Geldray joined the lineup. Peter Eton, from the BBC's drama department, replaced Dennis Main Wilson as producer. Eton brought stricter discipline to the show's production. He was also an expert at sound effects and microphone technique, ensuring that the show became a far more dynamic listening experience. However, a few episodes into the series Milligan suffered a major nervous breakdown. He was hospitalised in early December 1952,〔Carpenter, 2003, pp.136-139〕 just before the broadcast of episode five, but it, and the following episode, had already been written, and the next 12 episodes were co-written by Stephens and Grafton. Milligan was absent as a performer for about two months, returning for episode 17, broadcast in early March 1952. As with Series 2, all episodes were co-written by Milligan and Stephens and edited by Jimmy Grafton. At the end of series 2 Bentine left the show, citing a desire to pursue solo projects, although there had been an increasing degree of creative tension between him and Milligan.〔There are three or four versions of this story regarding the split. Jimmy Grafton's account is in ''The Goon Show Companion'' P39; Secombe's account is in ''Arias and Raspberries'' P208; Milligan's account changed over the years and the bitterness shows in the interview ''Now That's Funny'' p16; and Bentine's account is in ''The Story of the Goons'' p30 and also in his 1992 Autobiography "The Reluctant Jester", p321 of the paperback edition.〕 Milligan blamed his breakdown and the collapse of his first marriage on the sheer volume of writing the show required.〔 (a)p.13〕 His then ground-breaking use of sound effects also contributed to the pressure.〔 "owing to the complexities of the technical side, the BBC were wanting the scripts delivered earlier and earlier - so that the boffins in the electronics department etc. could experiment with the new noises"〕〔 (e)pp.205-206〕 All this exacerbated his mental instability that included bipolar disorder, especially during the third series.〔 "Writing the third season of The Goon Show in 1952, he suffered a relapse. 'I went into a psychiatric home and even while I was there I kept on writing these bloody shows. I had a wife and two kids to support, you see. That was the bottom line.' Inside, he had a full manic episode, including a hallucination that a lion was sitting on the wardrobe."〕 The BBC however made sure he was surrounded by accomplished radio comedy writers—Sykes, Stephens, Antrobus, Wiltshire, and Grafton—so many of the problems caused by his ill health were skilfully covered over by composite scripts written in a very convincing Milliganesque style. Many senior BBC staff were variously bemused and befuddled by the show's surreal humour and it has been reported that senior programme executives erroneously referred to it as ''The Go On Show''〔 or even ''The Coon Show''. This show was very popular in Britain in its heyday; tickets for the recording sessions at the BBC's Camden Theatre (now known as KOKO) in London were constantly over-subscribed and the various character voices and catchphrases from the show quickly became part of the vernacular. The series has remained consistently popular ever since – it is still being broadcast once a week by the ABC in Australia, as well as on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The BBC as part of its archival policy, destroyed most of series one, two, three and some of four. All of series five to ten exist, and the Corporation is gradually releasing them, remastered and restored by Ted Kendall. Bootleg copies of all extant episodes exist on the web - the show was widely recorded by devotees - including the first two episodes of series two, which the BBC had destroyed. The extant copies, and released discs are confused by the show existing in two formats - the original, and the Transcription Service edition. The TS version was the most widely circulated until the recent series of re-releases. The scripts exist mostly in fan-transcribed versions via dedicated websites. Although three books〔〔Milligan, Spike. (1973) ''The Goon Show Scripts''. London: Sphere〕〔Milligan, Spike. (1987) ''The Lost Goon Shows''. London: Robson〕 were published containing selected scripts, they are out of print, and typically available only in libraries or second-hand bookshops. Some more recent biographical books contain selected scripts. There were 10 series in total, plus an additional series called ''Vintage Goons'', which featured re-recordings of early shows for which recordings had not survived. The first series had 17 episodes plus one special, ''Cinderella'' (1951); the second series had 25 episodes, (1952); the third series had 25 episodes plus one special - ''The Coronation Special'' (1952–53); the fourth series had 30 episodes plus one special, ''Archie In Goonland'' (1953–54); the fifth series had 26 episodes plus one special - ''The Starlings'' (1954–55); the sixth series had 27 episodes plus three specials, (1955–56); the seventh series had 25 episodes plus two specials, (1956–57); the eighth series had 26 episodes, (1957–58); the ''Vintage Goons'' were re-performances of 14 episodes from series four; the ninth series had 17 episodes, (1958–59); and the tenth series had six episodes, (1959–1960).〔All information about the series is set out in an exhaustive reference in the "Goonography" section of ''The Goon Show Companion'', Wilmut/Grafton, Robson Books Ltd, 1976. P101. McCann's (2006) book ''Spike & Co'' also lists the complete series〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Goon Show」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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