A SHOW FOR THE GOONS

Classic comedy fans are in for a treat as The Goon Show from the 1950s is making a return.

The classic radio show changed the British comedy landscape when it burst onto the airwaves of the BBC Home Service in 1951. Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and co. brought a brand of surreal chaotic humour unlike anything that had been heard before.

With their bizarre characters, comic voices, fantastical plots and hilarious running jokes, The Goon Show captured the imagination of the British public and made household names of its stars, all of whom went on to achieve fame across the globe. Now the first stage show about it comes to the stage in Spike Milligan’s centenary year. Producer Norma Farnes - Spike’s assistant and manager for 36 years - said: “The Goon Show was truly original and unlike anything heard before.

“Spike’s sense of the absurd created a whole new form of comedy which fuelled everyone’s imagination and still does today.” Of Spike’s view of the show, she said: “He once said to me, with warmth and affection, ‘it was like one very good summer’. For me, Eric Sykes summed it up when he said to me ‘hearing it for the first time was like walking through clear air after being stranded in a fog’.”

The Apollo Theatre Company show, with its trademark wit and surreal humour, is at the Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells on Thursday, September 20. There are only a few tickets left.

Book at trinitytheatre.net or call 01892 678678.