This episode deals with the influence of the Goon Show, especially Spike Milligan. The anarchic spirit of the radio programme ironically arose from the experiences of the cast in the military during World War II. The show broke many of the rules of comedy that were thought iron-clad and the surreal scripts — mostly by Milligan — influenced a whole generation of comedy performers and writers as well as musicians. Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe — and for one series, Michael Bentine — brought a new kind of comedy to the airwaves, along with a unique approach to sound, and the lively jazz music performed by Ray Ellington, himself a Black Jewish son of a musical hall comedian.

[Two rude words is the total sum of the ‘explicit content’ but apparently better to flag than to not]

I think Friday will be the general release date for the podcast. Tuesday was chosen at random [actually because Tuesday used to be serial day] and the beginning of the week during the semester is always a trial; this semester more than most. I’m still feeling my way along with the podcast. I have a notebook (always a dangerous thing!) in which I wrote the first episode (yes, by hand) and then started to brainstorm — and had a thousand ideas for episodes. Who knows where I will go next. I can probably take requests at some point, but at the moment it’s all very much rising up from the unconscious.