In mentioning The Goons, whose humour is as fresh now as it ever was, the name of Eric Sykes should not be overlooked.

Quite rightly, the name of Michael Bentine has been associated with The Goons, because he was certainly one of the first 'Crazy People,' but was sidelined essentially because Spike Milligan found him too challenging. Those who remember 'The Bumblies' and 'It's a Square World' will know how Bentine had a distinctive genius. The talents of Eric Sykes have, however, in this regard, perhaps been overlooked.

When Spike Milligan was suffering problems with a nervous breakdown, Eric Sykes was a key writer for The Goons. The fact that he became associated with later sit-com television fare perhaps diverted attention from the fact that he was also capable of the unexpected leaps of association for which The Goons were rightly revered.

The humour of The Goon Show was essentially timeless. Unlike so many present-day 'comedy' programmes which attempt to rely on up-to-the-minute, satirical comments for their humour, The Goon Show was Dada-esque, building on its own references to create a sense of a world which had its own rules, which were true to themselves, but which displayed a wonderful sense of the absurd, and also showed that real life actually wasn't that far removed from the world of The Goons in many ways.

Mish, lesh aittys,

Bobby Bob