The Telegoons (1963–1964) User Reviews

now out on DVD.....

[pauladams666 · 9/10 · 4 September 2007]

I searched Ebay and found that this is now available on DVD on both sides of the Atlantic. 5 quid in the UK & 25 bucks in the USA. Some bright spark bought the copyright and transferred it from cine to DVD. Can't speak about the quality, but will soon find out. Vendor admits to hiss on the quiet bits but claims that there is no rolling or sticking of the film. Looking forward to seeing this for the first time in over 40 years. I hope it's all I remember from so long ago. Anyone else bought this product? Any good? Has to be better than nothing at all. Anyone any idea when this was last shown on UK TV? I would have been 6 when this was first shown and can't believe that I remember it from way back then. Was Michael Bentine involved with the puppetry ? A forerunner to the other puppet shows he did in the 1970's?

A brilliant introduction to surreal humour

[IanC-5 · 31 May 2000]

So somebody else remembers the Telegoons! For years I thought I had merely imagined the pictures that went with those amazing voices. I am too young to remember the original on radio but Neddy Seagoon, The Famous Eccles ('Ello dere) and Bluebottle's attempts to foil the dastardly schemes of Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty led on through 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' and others to Monty Python and beyond. God bless you Milligan, Sellers, Secombe and Bentine.

Even funnier and better than I remember from 45 years ago

[bootlebarth · 10/10 · 11 July 2008]

There is no need to be nostalgic about the Telegoons. All 26 episodes can be found in DVD sets advertised on a 'well known Internet auction site'. Someone in the UK sells them, legally I hope, for about £5. This is fantastic value for six and a half hours of wonderful entertainment.

Nothing like this will ever be made again. The show is in black and white. Some of the film quality is poor and there are occasional sound hisses, but it doesn't matter. Plenty of information about the Telegoons is easily found by anyone who can type nine letters into a reputable search engine.

Each episode is 15 minutes. Original radio Goon Show scripts were edited and re-voiced by Messrs Milligan, Sellers and Secombe. There are fewer sound effects and none of the musical interludes of the radio programmes.

Shows begin with introductions of about two minutes, usually unrelated to the story that follows. The makers have introduced some excellent visual gags. You see Eccles felling and whittling trees to become the world's worst pole-vaulter. Henry Crun totters downstairs in a lighthouse to answer a phone that stops ringing just as he arrives. And so on.

After the warm up, the main theme starts, be it Scradge, The Hastings Flyer, Napoleon's Piano, Fort Knight or whatever. The puppets are marvellous characterisations of Seagoon, Gritpype-Thynne, Moriarty, Eccles, Bluebottle, Bloodnok, Henry Crun, Minnie Bannister, etc. The radio Goon Shows were classics but the Telegoons were and are even better.

I haven't laughed so much for ages, partly in remembrance of times past but largely because of the surreal humour that remains fresh after almost half a century.

French overland saxophone champion.

[Sinafter · 10/10 · 1 March 2019]

Spike Milligan's finest radio scripts from The Goon Show were wonderfully adapted for television by Maurice Wiltshire and presented with a combination of inventive puppetry, stock film footage and simple animation. The vocal performances by Spike, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe were fantastic and television allowed for additional slapstick humour, such as characters being struck suddenly with absurdly large clubs.

I have seen low quality versions of every episode and I found all of them to be visually creative and utterly hilarious. It is my understanding that the BBC has copies of some episodes but that there is uncertainty regarding copyright ownership, which may prevent them from being televised again or released on dvd. To my mind Spike Milligan and Stan Laurel are the greatest English speaking comedy talents of the twentieth century, but somehow much more of Stan's output has survived for new generations to enjoy, despite it being done so much earlier.

This series is so weird and wonderful that the low quality episodes that can be found via the internet are still better than having no episodes to watch. The Telegoons is the funniest TV show I have ever seen.

Bluebottle (Great)

[lesleysamsasha · 10/10 · 4 April 2014]

I loved the telegoons, especially Bluebottle and Eccles. I often spoke to my children like bluebottle and eccles when they were little. Telling them lots of the scenarios that appeared on the shows. So even though my children were too young to enjoy them as I had in my childhood they loved to hear the stories of them. One of my favourite clips was when there was an escaped gorilla and bluebottle climbed a tree to get away from it. One of the other goons was telling him he was safe as the gorilla was captured, Bluebottle's reply was "well who's that tearing dirty great holes in my sock!!!." I loved it. I think you have to probably half genius and half mad to think of writing something like the telegoons. Of course lots of today's youngsters will probably not ever take the time to watch any. I really hope they do, just give it a try.

Check his pockets Min!

[day-myron · 4 September 2006]

The Goons came to TV in the form of absurd and lovable puppets. I will never forget the sight of Eccles wearing a patched potato sack, it was just as I had pictured him... As a youngster I never missed an episode of this wonderful show, it was madly funny and was one for the few shows that made everyone laugh, with few dissenters. There was no social commentary, barely a plot, yet the cast was so strong that the interaction between them and the humor that was generated was endless. I wish that some of these episodes (any) were available on video, but I believe that all have been destroyed. This was TV comedy at its very best, its like will never be seen again. If there are any episodes still out there, please post that info to this page.

Check his pockets Min...

Make that six

[richard-mason · 10 September 2002]

Yes, I remember it, too, on ABC Television in Australia on a Monday night (in the slot now occupied by Media Watch.) Having loved the radio series, I was thrilled to actually SEE what the characters looked like. Bluebottle, especially, was exactly as I visualised. I also have an old EP record of Goon songs with the TV characters on the sleeve.

Favourite exchange:

Neddy: Eccles, who do you think you are?

Eccles: I'm Napoleon.

Neddy: If you're Napoleon, I'm the Duke of Wellington.

Eccles: Wanna fight?

Quick nurse, the screens.

Am I the only person to admit remembering the TeleGoons?

[Ian-130 · 6 October 1999]

The telegoons were a puppet version of the BBC radio comedy programme "The Goon Show". Search on "Goons" for more info. The original radio scripts were simply rehashed to create telegoon episodes. The puppets looks were based on the actors doodles in their original scripts. While Harry Seacombe only provided the voice for Neddy Seagoon, Spike Millegan and Peter Sellars played numerous characters between them including Eccles, Minnie Bannister and Jim Moriarty (Spike), and Bluebottle, Henry Crun, Hercules Gridtype-Thynne and Major Dennis Bloodnock (Peter). Each episode placed the characters into new and often surreal situations, sometimes topical and normally stemming from the brain of Spike Milligan who went through several nervous breakdowns during the course of the original radio show.

I can also remember the Telegoons

[balmbra · 27 May 2000]

I thought they were called the Telly Goons, but it's so long ago that my memories of them are very vague. Even though I must have been only nine or ten I can still see the puppets very cleary, and the warning "Don't go near the canal, Neddy" stays with me. I'm sure they made a strong impression on many of us Torchy and Twizzel fans as they were the first intentionally funny puppet series I can remember. I wonder if all the episodes went the same way as many Dr. Who series of the period, or if the BBC still have archive copies. I'd love to see them again.

fear not for we are many

[grumpy-3 · 16 September 2002]

just think i and i thought i was the only one to see them, over the last couple of years ihave been talking to people here in the UK and the States of the truly great telegoons and i can tell you that there are a great many of us who remember this amazing show that unbeleivably, did not dissappoint in the animation of the characters and the look and feel, i have it on good authority that in fact the shows were re scripted and reperformed for TV by all the originals. I had no idea, but the person who gave me this info is a total and die hard fan and collector. i say come out of the woodword all others that have seen and remember and liked the show let us be counted.

Goon Show was, (sorry), "ahead of their time"

[gapple2464 · 28 July 2007]

Unfortunately, these guys, due to their genius of comedic gift, &, ability were "light years"' ahead of their time , yes they were extremely funny in their day, but by todays standard they would be in another League. They were so Original in their "stuff" that even today no-one comes close. If they had had the advantage of todays media they would be ""GODS"", without a doubt. Having "watched: the guys on Telley back in the 60's when I was just a wee lad, (every Saturday, I think, {after Doctor Who, I may be hallucinating here}, but anyway, my-god these guys were funny. I think if they were shown on TV now they would be more successful now than back in the 60's, (but then again I am an expert in everything, not true, just line # 11).

Well folks, this proves that there are at least four of us that remember when Eccles was on TV!

[captoz · 13 January 2001]

My whole family were enthralled by The Telegoons. We watched every episode that we could. For me, as a 14 year-old, the Telegoon puppets *were* the Goons, and brought to life the radio characters as only television can for those of us who are members of the television generation. I have never forgotten the memory of seeing Eccles exploded, covered in black soot, sitting up on the power lines. As part of research I am conducting into The Telegoons, I have managed to contact several of the people who worked on the series all those years ago. Their unsung story is at last getting some air time. Since it is not within the rules to place a url in this comment, use a good search engine to search for the name of the TV series, and you'll find what you have seeking for all these years. (I am webmaster of the Official Goon Show Preservation Society Telegoons website).

Yes, I remember it

[sethur666 · 5 June 2002]

Even one sketch, where, after the creation of the world as a mass of lava, Man (a puppet caveman) descends from the heavens, scorches his feet, screams and jumps back up again! Notable trivia, though, an episode of the Telegoons had to be cancelled in November 1963. The programme that had followed it the previous week was so popular they cancelled the Telegoons to re-run the first episode before the first showing of episode two of.......... Dr Who!