by Goon Pod
A podcast where we talk about classic comedy with particular focus on the work of Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe & Michael Bentine. You'll also hear us discuss the likes of Monty Python, Hancock, Blackadder, the Carry On films, Peter Cook, Steptoe & Son and countless other comedy figures & fixtures from the postwar era. Please follow on Bluesky @goonpod.bsky.social and Twitter @goonshowpod
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
5/26/2021
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July 15, 2026
<p>Following on from last week’s conversation with Samira Ahmed about A Hard Day’s Night we continue the Richard Lester theme with a look at his 1967 anti-war satire How I Won the War - a film often lazily regarded as a John Lennon vehicle, but in reality a far stranger, darker, and more ensemble-drivenpiece of cinema.</p><p><br></p><p>The film stars Michael Crawford as Lieutenant Ernest Goodbody, a hapless officer leading a doomed platoon through a series of absurd and increasingly brutal Second World War missions. Although Lennon features prominently in the film’s marketing, his role as Musketeer Gripweed is supporting rather than central - albeit memorable. We look at why Lennon was used to sell the film, where he was personally and creatively at the time and how his detached, cynical performance fits the film’s tone.</p><p><br></p><p>Told largely in flashback, the story follows Lieutenant Goodbody recounting his wartime experiences to a cultured German officer after his capture near the Rhine. Missions include the wholly pointless task of setting up a cricket pitch behind enemy lines in North Africa, followed by campaigns through Europe and the final crossing at the Rhine. </p><p><br></p><p>The platoon is made up of a host of familiar faces, including Roy Kinnear, Ronald Lacey and Lee Montague, with Michael Hordern almost stealing the film as Colonel Grapple, still fighting World War One in his head.</p><p><br></p><p>Novelist Adam Leslie joins Tyler to talk about HIWTW, discussing the film’s class commentary, British fascism and why the film was poorly received on release despite later reassessments. Adam is also the man behind both the Goon Pod feem choon and logo – cheers Adam!</p><p><br></p><p>(This episode was originally published in January 2026 as part of Goon Pod Film Club, the Patreon subscription feed)</p><p><br></p>
July 8, 2026
<p>Writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed joins Tyler this week to talk about her new book on A Hard Day’s Night and its roots in the world of the Goons, from the Fred shows to The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film.</p><p><br></p><p>Also:</p><ul><li>Richard Lester’s creative vision and Alun Owen’s pitch-perfect script</li><li>Why Beatlemania was distinctly black and white and how the film mirrors this</li><li>Wilfrid Brambell – and why the film wouldn't be the same without him.</li><li>Ringo and David Janson</li><li>Favourite scenes: from the ad agency to John & Millie</li><li>Deleted scenes</li><li>The women of A Hard Day's Night and why the film avoided stereotypes that would later creep into Help!</li><li>Recasting ideas</li><li>Ringo’s odd line delivery</li><li>The disposable TV culture at the time</li><li>Those intriguing unmade Beatles films</li><li>And… was Paul Rodney Bewes to John’s Tom Courtenay?</li></ul><p> </p><p>A celebration of a film that's every bit as fresh, funny and ground-breaking today as it was in 1964.</p><p><br></p><p>Samira’s podcast Through the Square Window can be found HERE: <a href="https://squarewindow.co.uk/">https://squarewindow.co.uk/</a> </p>
July 1, 2026
<p>Join us as we march off to war wearing squeaky socks and woolly underpants, before surrendering to the twisted logic of Spike Milligan (“better looking than Peter Sellers”).</p><p><br></p><p>This show, one of the highlights of the Goon Show’s eighth series and released on BBC LP in 1981, has a plot of sorts: 1917 and England is at war, France is at war, while Eccles is at lunch. Grytpype and Moriarty sell German army shares to Neddie. They claim that the Germans are bound to win any war they enter. Seagoon discovers to his horror that the Germans are losing, but Major Bloodnok sells Seagoon 10,000 unused 1904 calendars. The plan is to drop the calendars on England by zeppelin, making the English think the war hasn’t even started, therefore giving the Germans an advantage. However, the British drop 1918 calendars on Berlin, and the Germans capitulate. </p><p><br></p><p>There’s a lot more to it than that and joining Tyler to ‘rifle’through it is Graeme Lindsay-Foot, man of a thousand voices and motorcar enthusiast. That said, he can’t hold a torch to the late Peter Sellers, whose obsession with the horseless carriage they also examine this week, as well as singing the praises of the sound effects chaps, querying quite why Secombe got given six characters to voice and asking whether this could possibly be one of Spike’s greatest performances of his career. </p>
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A podcast where we talk about classic comedy with particular focus on the work of Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe & Michael Bentine. You'll also hear us discuss the likes of Monty Python, Hancock, Blackadder, the Carry On films, Peter Cook, Steptoe & Son and countless other comedy figures & fixtures from the postwar era.
Please follow on Bluesky @goonpod.bsky.social and Twitter @goonshowpod
This podcast updates weekly.
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No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.
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