Neddie Seagoon
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Neddie Pugh (pronounced "Pew" spelt "Pug"[1]) Seagoon was a character in the British radio comedy, The Goon Show. Voiced by Harry Secombe, Seagoon was the main character, or at least the stories revolved around him. Because of this, Secombe voiced very few other characters.
Often chronically poor or part of the government (such as the strolling Prime Minister of no fixed address or some other civil servant), Seagoon usually falls prey to the schemes of Hercules Grytpype-Thynne (voiced by Peter Sellers) and Count Jim Moriarty (voiced by Spike Milligan). Neddie's appearance was based on Secombe's own likeness, exaggerated for comic effect. Thus, he was often described as very short, round and immensely fat. In one episode, John Snagge described him as "a little ball of fat". Once, upon visiting Henry Crun's house, Crun remarks "Did you know they've sent a satellite to photograph the other side of you?". In the episode Nineteen Eighty Five (a parody of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell) he says: "Over the weeks that they tortured me my weight dropped by ten stone, I went down to a mere twenty stone..."
At one point he appears to have been Major Bloodnok's batman.
Neddie was usually the one who greeted the audience at the beginning of the show, referring to them as "folks" or "Dear Listeners", and introducing that weeks story. He would often step out of the frame of the story, explaining elements of the plot to the audience or narrating some of the plot, and would usually converse with Wallace Greenslade (The Goon Show's announcer); one such was as follows:
Seagoon: Greenslade, tell the listeners what we have in store for them toni...
Greenslade: (Interjecting) Rubbish.
Seagoon: That's right. Yes, it's rubbish!
Occasionally the Seagoon character would have a different name depending on the setting of the plot; he was the ancient Welsh tribal chieftain Caractacus Seagoon in The Histories of Pliny The Elder; Winston Seagoon in Nineteen Eighty Five; Professor Ned Quatermess in The Scarlet Capsule (a parody of the Quatermass sci-fi TV series of the time); Samuel Pepys in The Flea, set in the London of 1665; Neddie Toulouse-Lautrec in Tales of Montmartre; and Robin Hood in Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest.
[edit] References
- ^ Milligan, Spike. Affair of the Lone Banana.
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| The Goons | Michael Bentine • Spike Milligan • Harry Secombe • Peter Sellers |
| Other Contributors | Ray Ellington • Max Geldray • Wallace Greenslade • Dennis Main Wilson • Larry Stephens • Wally Stott • Eric Sykes • Andrew Timothy |
| Radio and TV Series | The Goon Show • The Telegoons |
| Films | Let's Go Crazy • Penny Points to Paradise • Down Among the Z Men • The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn • The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film |
| Characters | Cast members and their Characters • Major Bloodnok • Bluebottle • Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister • Eccles • Hercules Grytpype-Thynne • Count Jim Moriarty • Neddie Seagoon |
| General information | Episodes and archiving • Running Jokes |
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