Ying Tong -  A Walk with the Goons - BBC Radio Drama - cheops

Roy Smiles' play about Spike Milligan's last days with the Goons and his complex and often fractious relationship with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe.

During the 1950s, BBC's famous radio series The Goon Show had England laughing week after week, greatly influencing Monty Python and the Beatles, among others - and paved the way for sketch comedy as we know it today.

With Ying Tong, rising UK playwright Roy Smiles brilliantly chronicles the Goons surge from cult status to raving success, showcasing the trademark surrealism and profound silliness.  As the curtain rises, we find Goon writer and godfather of alternative comedy Spike Milligan going gaga from the strain of creating comic genius.  Wild fantasies of Jewish leprechauns, gay Vikings, and malevolent Morris dancers are springing from his fragmented brain.  Fellow Goons, including future Dr. Strangelove Peter Sellers, scramble to recover Milligan's missing marbles and save his sanity...

One episode of approximately 45 minutes.

With:
Spike Milligan........James Clyde
Harry Secombe........Kai Owen
Peter Sellers........Toby Longworth
Wallace Greenslade........Benedick Blythe

Produced by Liz Anstee and directed by Roy Smiles.

First broadcast on 4th April 2007 on BBC Radio 4.