A Show Called Fred...

It has been said that without "The Goons" there would never have been 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. The Goons was predominantly written by Spike Milligan. I had a memorable evening at a small show in Brighton, England which was a one man performance by Spike Milligan. Totally unforgettable as he played the violin beautifully while also being incredibly funny in his zany way. While The Goons was a huge success on the radio, the Goon team (Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine, and Harry Secombe) were trying to move the format to television - difficult given that they each played multiple characters. In 1952 there was a 45 minute special titled "Goonreel" and this was followed by "The Idiot Weekly - Priced 2d".

In May of 1956 Peter Sellers starred in a weekly program called A Show Called Fred. There was also another programme called "Son of Fred". These programmes were not broadcast to a large audience as the Associated Redifussion only broadcast in the London area. Many of the broadcasts were performed live and subsequently many recordings were lost. This is the second episode of A Show Called Fred and you can see the influences this had on the Python team as well...