Who is The Fox? 

I am The Fox!

In 1966 Peter Sellers made a film which this podcaster considers one of his top five despite it being commercially and critically underwhelming. It rarely gets spoken about in the same breath as some of the actor's other movies such as Dr Strangelove, Being There, The Pink Panther or The Ladykillers yet is a highly entertaining international romp featuring a standout performance from Sellers as Aldo Vanucci (AKA 'The Fox') and his co-star the wonderfully ebullient Victor Mature, who sends himself up something rotten as faded Hollywood star Tony Powell. 

Devised and written by Neil Simon and directed by Vittorio De Sica and also featuring Sellers' then-wife Britt Ekland as Gina, Vanucci's sister, After The Fox centres around an attempt by The Fox and his gang to smuggle stolen gold bullion into Italy by posing as a film crew. Naturally things do not go according to plan! Joining Tyler to discuss it is film lecturer and writer Graham Rinaldi and both struggle manfully to rid themselves of the catchy Hollies theme tune earworm. 

The award-winning master of spoken word audio, this week's guest is the endlessly entertaining Dirk Maggs.

Dirk has been overseeing the production of The Sandman: Act III, the latest in a long line of collaborations with Neil Gaiman. He was first introduced to Neil via a mutual friend at DC Comics, as Dirk had been involved in audio productions of The Adventures of Superman, Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome and other projects and it was also due to the DC connection that Dirk met Douglas Adams and so began the protracted process of bringing The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy 'back home to BBC Radio' as Adams put it. Dirk has also produced adaptations of Agatha Christie, Stephen King and Arthur C Clarke works.

But it is for his work in comedy that we are focusing on this week - Dirk devised and produced At Last The Go On Show in 1991 to mark the 40th anniversary of The Goon Show; he later was the brains behind Goon Again in 2001, a special one-off restaging of The Goon Show starring Jeffrey Holland, Andrew Secombe, Jon Glover and Christopher Timothy ('a genetically-engineered tribute band' was how he described it).

We also talk about his early break in BBC Radio comedy producing The News Huddlines and shows such as The Long Hot Satsuma starring Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer, and later programmes like Inside Sasha and Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel which introduced The Marx Brothers to new generations.

It's a terrific conversation about a wide-ranging and never-dull career. More on Dirk here: www.dirkmaggs.com 

Recorded recently during his latest tour as The Pub Landlord – Gig For Victory – Al Murray joined Tyler to talk comedy and revealed how The Goon Show formed the foundations of his comic sensibilities. Al explained why he considers Spike Milligan’s war memoirs to be among the greatest of their kind – brutally honest while blisteringly funny and as fine a testament to the day-to-day life of soldiers during World War II as anything ever written. 

It’s a conversation which took in a lot of topics including Peter Cook, Denis Norden, Spitting Image, Monty Python, Al’s podcast We Have Ways Of Making You Talk, Vic & Bob, Britain’s satire tradition and even prog rock. There's also an impromptu book club as Tyler asked Al for some reading recommendations!

https://thepublandlord.com/

In all, Peter Sellers played Inspector Clouseau in five films (within his lifetime that is!) - The Pink Panther, A Shot In The Dark, The Return Of The Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again and Revenge Of The Pink Panther. The Clouseau character was also portrayed on screen in a 1968 film starring Alan Arkin as the hapless Inspector. 

Gary Rodger from podcasts The Sitcom Club & Jaffa Cakes For Proust joins Tyler for a bumper-length chat about the character and the films.

As might be expected, the conversation ranges far and wide and while the pair have a lot to say about Sellers and the franchise there are a handful of handbrake turns involving Hylda Baker, Dudley Moore, Yootha Joyce, Richard O'Sullivan and Talfryn Thomas, not to mention Never Say Never Again and The Melting Pot!

Gary can be found @garyrodger @TheSitcomClub @jaffasforproust

Novelist and scriptwriter Eddie Robson is this week's guest and we discuss the stone cold classic from Series 7, "Wings Over Dagenham" in which Seagoon & McChisholm invent the aeroplane (at a stroke putting the horse-drawn zeppelin market out of business), Henry Crun builds an aerodrome at Croydon and a flat-earther from the Geographical Society sets up a classic Goon Show gag.

The conversation, as ever, veers hither and yon and includes chat about Stanley Kubrick, Kenneth Connor, Die Hard (yes, really), George Martin, why the Coens remade The Ladykillers and we tip the hat to that top-notch trombonist and a man with a reasonable claim to the title of 'Fifth Goon': George Chisholm.

We also talk about the positioning of characters in the show, the effective use of sound effects, underrated gags and a sequence recycled from Series 1. 

This all hopefully will provide you with a mental picture of a particularly fine podcast episode. 

Eddie's new novel 'Drunk On All Your Strange New Words' is published soon: Drunk on All Your Strange New Words: Amazon.co.uk: Robson, Eddie: 9781250807342: Books

@EddieRobson

@goonshowpod

Sacré Fred! This week we're popping across the Channel to the Paris of 1880 and meeting Neddie Toulouse-Lautrec and his beloved Fifi in the classic Series 6 episode 'Tales Of Montmartre'. This was to be the last script collaboration between Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes on The Goon Show and that was not the only thing coming to an end - the following week there'd be a brand new theme tune and soon after a new producer too! 

Our guest this week is motorsport commentator and pundit Jake Sanson who confesses to a deep affection for this particular episode and over the course of an hour he explains what it is that makes it such a special listen for him. 

We also talked about actress Charlotte Mitchell those other rare sightings of actual women on the show, the story behind The Case of the Mukkinese Battlehorn and Tyler's uncle's fondness for the gee-gees. And was Toulouse-Lautrec the most parodied artist in comedy?

Jake is on Twitter @JakeSanson

@goonshowpod

@TheGSPS

Joining Tyler this week is Jon Auty from Behind the Stunts to talk about a 1971 British comedy film featuring some of the biggest names in comedy and light entertainment at the time. 

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins was conceived, directed and produced by Graham Stark and he managed to bring together the likes of Bruce Forsyth, Harry H Corbett, Leslie Phillips, Alfie Bass, June Whitfield, Ronnie Barker and others to appear in a series of interlinked sketches illustrating the titular sins. 

Notably, it also featured two Goons - Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe - the former writing and appearing in a standout sequence called 'Sloth' while his erstwhile colleague adopts a series of desperate disguises to hoodwink Geoffrey Bayldon in 'Envy'. 

Things discussed include: On The Buses, recasting with Terry Scott, Paul Hardcastle's The Wizard, walnuts, Keith Flint from The Prodigy, 'Boob Coverage', Bert Kwouk's stunt double, the extremely talented Madeline Smith, the mystery of DB Cooper and much much more!

Check out Jon's work: linktr.ee/behindthestunts

Laura Grimshaw is this week's guest, the producer behind some of BBC Radio 4 Extra's landmark deep-dives into legendary figures from the world of comedy, including Les Dawson, the Bonzos, Barry Humphries and, notably, Neil Innes. She is also a regular host on Podcast Radio Hour, showcasing the wide world of podcasts, and contributor to 4 Extra's Comedy Club. 

From an early age she developed a love of comedy, thanks to her mum and grandparents exposing her to such classics as The Goon Show, Monty Python and Round the Horne and this has informed her career ever since. 

Laura joined Tyler to talk about the Goons, Python, Neil Innes and much more, including how older comedy is received by modern audiences and why sometimes compromises have to be made, the proliferation of podcasts and how important they can be in giving a platform to talent, and how she feels blessed to have been able to meet and share with so many astonishing figures from the worlds of comedy and popular entertainment.

*** NOTE: This episode was recorded in mid-May 2022, shortly before the announcement that Radio 4 Extra was to be moved to BBC Sounds, with its future after that uncertain as of the time of writing. 

We revolt tonight!

High treachery abounds as Neddie Seagoon, on a walking tour of Austria, attends a Grand Ball in honour of the Emperor’s son, Kron Printz Arnold. Fooled into believing he is the rightful heir to the throne (although somebody's in there) by those two unspeakable traitors Colonel Grytpype and Count Moriarty, Neddie is soon embroiled in a plot to plant a bomb in the Kron Printz's bed... but things naturally do not quite go according to plan. 

This week joining Tyler is Anthony Mudge to talk about The Case of the Missing Heir from Series 5. With the aid of a copy of producer Peter Eton's original script the two compare how closely the broadcast show stuck to the words on the page and examine those instances where it departed. 

Anthony is on Twitter @awmudge

This week Tyler is in conversation with actor & musician Jane Milligan who very kindly agreed to talk about her father Spike.

Among things discussed:

* Pixies, Fairy Kings and Badjelly!

* Harry, Peter & Mike!

* Spike's opinion of 'newer' comedy and his love for the greats!

* On the set of The Muppet Show!

* Wine, Wossy and THAT comment!

* The misconception that Spike was truly mad

And much much more, including poetry, Milligan Preserved, The Bed Sitting Room, jazz, Larry Stephens, Dallas (yes, really) and why Spike in later years referred to himself as a 'parcel'! (Oh, and Jim McDonald from Corrie WAS in Puckoon, so he was.) 

Plus, Jane talks about her close involvement in projects which are keeping the memory of Spike alive. 

Jane is on Twitter @goonchild4