REVIEW: The Goon Show at the Theatre Royal Windsor

Spike Milligan would have been 100 this year  and, since no Nuns’ Olympics have been scheduled, celebrate the great comic in a production of his most famous creation – the Goon Show.

Stuffed with  crazy characters, silly sounds and voices, rollicking plots and the most irreverent humour, the show was both a cult and a mainstream hit.

Apollo Theatre Company has brought a loving recreation of  the famous radio comedy to the stage.

Set in a BBC recording studio, four talented actors recreate the  splendidly deadpan announcer and the capers of Spike, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe creating characters like Ned Seagoon,  Bloodnok, Minnie Bannister, Eccles, Bluebottle and Grytpype-Thynne.

Also on stage are musicians Rachel Davies  and Anthony Coote  providing atmosphere and  sound effects.

The cast are in  great form with plenty of audience joshing to accompany the original scripts. My friend, born in the 1930s, laughed to hear  catchphrases like ‘he’s fallen in the water’ again. Some of the jokes whizzed over my made-in-the-70s head, but it didn’t matter.

Monty Python, Eddie Izzard, the Fast Show... so many owe a debt to the Goons. Even Shrek, the hit film, makes a reference to Bloodnok the Flatulent.

So folks, if you like comedy, go and pay homage. Go on, go on, Goon.

The Goon Show is at the Theatre Royal Windsor until tonight. The show visits The Hexagon, Reading, October 12 and South Hill Park, Bracknell, October 30.