Goon Pod

The Queen in America, Eurovision, Elvis, knitting a Spon, a Russian Love Song, Harry Rocking the Town! - it's all here this week! Plus: how much do we love Moriarty, a glaring goof and Watch That Tiger!

Ted Webb joins Tyler to discuss this beloved series 8 show.

Jet Storm, also known as Jet Stream or Killing Urge, is a British thriller directed and co-written by Cy Endfield and starring Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, Patrick Allen and Virginia Maskell. It is an early example of what would become the aviation disaster-film genre, preceding films such as Airport by more than a decade. Released in October 1959, it centres almost entirely on a transatlantic flight from London to New York and the psychological and moral crisis that develops among its passengers when one of them threatens to destroy the aircraft.

And why are we covering it on Goon Pod? Because one of the passengers is Ned of Wales himself, playing a washed-up comic called Binky Meadows. Binky sits next to Dame Sybil Thorndike and despite the chaos going on around them during the flight the pair manage to amuse each other with some gentle ribbing and leg-pulling and Secombe, naturally, helps leaven the drama.

The film was the fourth collaboration between Cy Endfield and Stanley Baker. Endfield had previously been blacklisted in America after being named as a Communist before the HUAC hearings and subsequently moved to Britain. His earlier American work had been marked by cynicism and social criticism, making the relatively hopeful view of human nature in Jet Storm particularly interesting. The film was made five tears before the pair's later and much more famous collaboration, Zulu.

Joining Tyler to chat through it all is Martin Holmes, host of Vision On Sound in which he and his guests talk about old telly, but he’s got a real soft spot for British films of this ilk, particularly those featuring Baker. The pair talk about the obvious plot holes and some rather fruity performances but overall they were impressed. One to watch out for on TalkingPictures TV!

“You’re worth more dead than alive!”

We’ve talked a lot about Steptoe & Son – and its principle artistes – recently on Goon Pod and the sister show so it feels appropriate this week to air this interesting chat.

It is July 1973 and the second feature film based on the hit BBCTV sitcom about a pair of rag-and-bone-men has just come out. Unfortunately its release coincides with a much more popular film in the shape of Roger Moore’s maiden Bond outing Live And Let Die and most people go to see that instead. Although Steptoe & Son Ride Again worked better than the first film, as it anchored the characters in familiar territory, it did badly where the first had done well. Co-writer Alan Simpson said “I suspect the majority of people hadn’t liked the first one so didn’t go back for the second, which is a shame.”

When their aging horse Hercules has to be put out to pasture,father-and-son totters Albert and Harold Steptoe face galloping financial calamity. Falling in with Frankie Barrow, the ‘Godfather of Shepherd’s Bush’, Harold foolishly buys a greyhound, hoping ‘Hercules II’ will be the answer totheir pecuniary woes… only to discover the dog is extremely short-sighted and useless for racing. With money owing to Barrow Harold hits on a scheme which if pulled off would get Frankie off his back but would require him and his father to start a new life where nobody knows them (“I could be Harry Faversham”): they will fake Albert’s death and claim his life-insurance money.

From this fairly simple premise comes great comedy and some marvellous character work, not least from the two leads, Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. They are ably supported by a cast which includes Milo O’Shea as a brandy-ridden sawbones, Henry Woolf as Frankie, Yootha Joyce as Harold’s Auntie Freda, Frank Thornton, Bill Maynard, Neil McCarthy, Richard Davies and, memorably, Diana Dors as a recently-widowed housewife wanting a bit of the other from a frankly terrified Harold.

Joining Tyler are Michael Livesley & Paul Carmichael, and while discussing the film the three regularly meander down conversational alleyways, chatting about the lost art of home taping, antiquated or regional profanities, the history of Live TV, the great British tradition of innuendo, and boomer nostalgia, while referencing the likes of One Foot In The Grave, The Goodies, Married With Children and even Bottle Boys! Plus they talk about their great love for the Steptoe TV series, the actors involved and even envisage Wilfrid Brambell squaring up to Frank Zappa!

This was recorded in October 2025 and originally put out as part of Goon Pod Film Club: Patreon.com/GoonPod

Broadcast on Channel 4 on 2nd December 1985, The Last Laugh Before TV-am was Spike Milligan’s attempt to bring his particular vein of humour to a new generation... although very little about it suggested that Milligan had changed his approach since the early Q series.

The show assembled a familiar Milligan blend of sketches,visual jokes, corpsing, unfinished ideas and rehearsed improvisation. The recently late Chris Langham, Emil Wolk and a young Mark Steel were among the supporting performers, while the alternative circus group Ra-Ra Zoo added anappropriately offbeat physical dimension to the show. There were also, because Spike, the Royal Corgis.

Creaky old comedy sketch stand-by Mastermind saw Milligan as Magnusson, the Queen as a bit of cardboard and a banana down some underpants. A library skit featured some language which caused the entire edifice to sway as if ready to go down with all hands (Herbert Kretzmer, reviewing the show in TV Mail, considered this “pure, distilled Milligan”, arguing that the joke was driven by Spike's contempt for what he regarded as the absurdities of censorship. Hmmm.)

Joining Tyler this week to chew over this oddity and discussthe wider television landscape at the time is podcaster, author and broadcaster Ben Baker.

Broadcast on Channel 4 on 2nd December 1985, The Last Laugh Before TV-am was Spike Milligan’s attempt to bring his particular vein of humour to a new generation... although little about it suggested that Milligan had changed his approach since the early Q series.

The show assembled a familiar Milligan blend of sketches, visual jokes, corpsing, unfinished ideas and rehearsed improvisation. The recently late Chris Langham, Emil Wolk and a young Mark Steel were among the supporting performers, while the alternative circus group Ra-Ra Zoo added an appropriately offbeat physical dimension to the show. There were also, because Spike, the Royal Corgis.

Creaky old comedy sketch stand-by Mastermind saw Milligan as Magnusson, another routine had the Queen as a bit of cardboard and a third featured a banana down some underpants. A library skit featured some language which caused the entire edifice to sway as if ready to go down with all hands (Herbert Kretzmer, reviewing the show, considered this “pure, distilled Milligan”, arguing that the joke was driven by Spike's contempt for what he regarded as the absurdities of censorship. Hmmm.)

Joining Tyler this week to chew over this oddity and discuss the wider television landscape at the time is podcaster, author and broadcaster Ben Baker.