Telegoons website
Back in 1963-5 saturday afternoons began at tea-time with some 'fab' TV shows: alongside the almost-groovy Juke Box Jury and the no-hope newcomer Dr. Who, the top show for kids was The Telegoons. The programmes were puppet shows, 15 minutes long, produced by Maurice Wiltshire for Grosvenor films. After some difficulties they finally got Peter Sellers along with Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe from the BBC radio series The Goon Show to provide the voices. The scripts (all by Spike with Larry Stephens or Eric Sykes) were adapted from the 1950's audio originals, and re-recorded, with all-new visual gags too. Eccles, Bluebottle, Bloodnok and Grytpype-Thynne all came to life with a loopy gait and a manic twinkle in the eye. And there are some near-the-knuckle moments too that would have passed many people by at the time.
As with other top TV series, TV Comic ran a strip cartoon version (1963-66). It was drawn with zip and vigour by the wonderful Mr Bill Titcombe, and some were written by Alan Fennell, a marvellously enthusiastic writer and editor.
It's about time these shows were put out on DVD. "In my opinion."
I know the Goons are often impenetrable to newcomers- despite the Telegoons I didn't really 'get' The Goon show itself until I was about 37! They just 'clicked' one day! give them a go.
Goon Shows streamed for free
1 comment:
I remember the Telegoons with fondness!
A favourite comic of the time for me was TV21.
It was very good at backfilling the whole Dr Who/Daleks saga. The annuals were especially good.
Post a Comment