This is a list of regular cast members of the 1950s British radio programme The Goon Show and the characters they portrayed.
In the beginning of the episode The Thing on the Mountain,[5] all three Goons (with Milligan as Adolphus Spriggs and one line as Singhiz Thingz) imitate Welshmen.
Secombe (himself a Welshman in the role of Seagoon), Milligan (playing a cat) and Sellers (à la Mai Jones) end virtually every sentence with the Welsh word "bach" (which means 'small' – occasionally, a Welshman will refer to his 'butty bach', roughly translated 'my little friend').
One example of Secombe's Yorkshire accent is in the episode Lurgi Strikes Britain,[7] where he plays a bus conductor in Oldham (although the town is historically in Lancashire, some of the outlying villages of Oldham were situated in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the time), the first victim of the dreaded lurgi.
He also uses the accent as a workman in The Last Tram (From Clapham), and as the Manager of the East Acton Labour Exchange in World War I.
In The Macreekie Rising he plays a dim Yorkshireman on guard at the Tower of London, using the name "Fred Nurke".
Milligan invented this voice by belching, apparently in the middle of rehearsal, much to the producer Peter Eton's annoyance.
According to a recent TV special about Spike Milligan, the phrase was originated by Peter Sellers' young son.
Also known to be a singer (of sorts): in 1957's The Histories Of Pliny The Elder he serenades Julius Grytpype Caesar, whereupon the latter remarks 'Brutus Moriartus, this man is a bit of a crawler.
The various Indian characters in the show derived from Milligan's childhood in India, where his father had served in the British Army.
The name had originally been slipped into a 1954 issue of the Radio Times, resulting in Milligan being reprimanded by Sir Ian Jacob, Director-General of the BBC and a former Army officer who understood the joke.
[13] Makes minor appearances in a number of other episodes China Story, "The Siege of Fort Night"(e.g.[14] and The Lost Emperor.
Neddie's occasional love interest, with a jealous lover called Raoul (played by Ray Ellington with a George Sanders patina).
Seagoon (as Ned Quatermass) knocks on Cynthia's door, and when she answers, he says "I'm terribly sorry to knock you up so late...." (pause for the double-entendre to sink in), to which she replies: "They all say that..." Willium "Mate" Cobblers, working-class cockney idiot, who played all sorts of roles, including soldiers, policemen and various menial servants.
His catchphrase, "You can't park 'ere, mate", was a Goon in-joke that took a swipe at officious BBC commissionaires.
(Sellers used a similar voice for trade union leader Fred Kite in the film I'm All Right Jack).
Camp Commandant of Stalag 10, 12, and 13, and nominal Kapitan, and Seagoon's accomplice in the plot to steal Napoleon's Piano from the Louvre.
Flowerdew is a dab hand with a sewing machine, especially when, as in The Nasty Affair At The Burami Oasis,[16] Seagoon tells him to run up a flag.
Looks for bits of paper in odd locations, approves crazy projects like atomic dustbins for the Christmas Islands and is suspected of throwing batter puddings at Clement Attlee - although also happy to go to Brighton with Attlee during the terror of the Phantom Head Shaver, as in his words 'Let's go Clem, what have we got to lose?'.
Various American characters with the surname Hern or Hearn, often used for narration, outrageous announcements or parody sales pitches.
[citation needed] It is a measure of Peter Sellers' vocal talents that he was able to speak all Milligan's characters so accurately that Spike's absences from the show were undetected by listeners until the final credits were read.
He also occasionally used a Laurence Olivier voice, later employed to great comic effect in his 1960s recording of "A Hard Day's Night" as a cod-Shakespearian speech.
Famously eccentric and possibly mad, Pureheart, at one point, created the Suez Canal after getting the rights after Cleopatra's death (despite the fact he waited two thousand years).