In 2024 we asked Goon Pod listeners to nominate their all-time favourite British comedy film. It didn't have to have a Goon in it - no, we wanted to put together a comprehensive Top 20 chart which covered all the bases.

This week as we wind up the show this series Simon Meddings from Waffle On podcast joins Tyler to count down the list from Number 20 to Number 1.

While there will be films you'd expect to turn up in a list like this there's also a number of surprises and even omissions.

Will your favourite have made the final 20?

Waffle On: https://waffleon.podbean.com/

A special Christmas bonus edition! As part of Goon Pod Film Club - www.patreon.com/GoonPod - every month Tyler and a special guest discuss a British comedy film and in August this year Tim Worthington came to talk about his favourite: Billy Liar from 1963. Here's the full episode for Goon Pod listeners to get a taste.

As you’d expect from Tim the conversation takes many twists and turns – as well as analysing the film itself, its themes and ideas, its stars, its production, its position in the pantheon of British New Wave cinema, there are also nods aplenty towards popular culture connected with the film, including Ken Russell, the Four Yorkshiremen sketch and Saint Etienne!

Tom Courtenay is the titular Billy Liar, or, more accurately, William Fisher, a grammar school boy on a scholarship from a working class environment who finds himself constantly at odds with distant parents, girlfriends expecting greater commitment, a mocking colleague and a rather foolish boss. He is a provincial dreamer with aspirations to better himself but is somewhat lacking the drive. Prone to lapsing into fantasies in which he is a big wheel in a fictional state called Ambrosia, Billy’s doing a job he hates working as a clerk in a funeral directors firm. However, he almost finds a way out of it all, a chance to escape and spread his wings and soar, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shake off the cloying ordinariness of his Northern town and leave it all behind.

Other films covered on GPFC this year include A Hard Days Night, Carry On Screaming and Guest House Paradiso!

For a free 7-day trial of Goon Pod Film Club head over to patreon.com/GoonPod

The man behind the Goon Show Compendiums, audio engineer extraordinaire Ted Kendall returns to answer your questions in this Christmas edition!

“For a shortened version of this programme, please read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and you won’t find much resemblance.”

On 24th December 1959 the tenth and final series of The Goon Show got off to a thoroughly festive start with a show VERY loosely based on the classic Dickens story, in which Scrooge (played by Henry Crun) entrusts Eccles with a Christmas pudding full of gold threepenny bits. This attracts the attention of Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty and all manner of chaos ensues.

This really was the last hurrah for the Goon Show as Series 10 only ran for six editions – Sellers was already a film star, Secombe was in huge demand as a singer and performer and Milligan (beset with personal dramas) had grown tired of doing it. It was an excuse for Sunday larks but as 1960 arrived they were all ready to move on.

Leading up to the start of the series the BBC publicity department announced: “Christmas is expected to get off to a disastrous start in the Home Service on Christmas Eve. For at exactly 7:30pm announcer Wallace Greenslade will announce over the ether “This is the Goon Show” and for the next thirty minutes Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe will start a hilarious riot throughout millions of listeners’ homes.”

The show lacked any structure or discipline and yet contains some of the funniest material the Goons ever broadcast, chiefly centred around Scrooge, Eccles and Ned Scratchit. Willium is appearing as Sewerman Sam and Max Geldray defiles the acting craft with a brief role as a Welsh spouse. It wraps up on a musical note for want of a neater ending.

Joining Tyler is Andy Bell whose Welsh-language podcast is Rhaglen Cymru - Andy can be contacted at rhaglencymru@hotmail.com.

Who were the key figures in getting the Goon Show to radio? Which people were pivotal to the Goons' success? Join Tyler and Roger Stevenson as they rank those within the Goon Show's orbit in order of importance and show their working.

Roger took the brief seriously and put a lot of thought and care into his choices; Tyler slightly misunderstood the brief and went more down that 'Who was the Fifth Goon?' route. What resulted was an interesting mix of names, and increasingly desperate attempts by Tyler to justify his ranking system.

Among the names bandied about are such worthies as Dennis Main Wilson, Valentine Dyall, Jimmy Grafton, Larry Stephens, Dick Emery and John Snagge.

On 4th December 1994 Jonathan Ross hosted the British Comedy Awards in front of an invited audience of the great and the good and Noel Edmonds.

It was a good year for the likes of Steve Coogan, Michael Barrymore and the Drop the Dead Donkey team but almost from the off Ross was beset by problems, including announcing the winner of the wrong award, having to deal with an out-of-control Meatloaf whose sole intention, it seemed, was to reduce Wossy to a quivering mess, and, most notably, attempting to wrest back control of the room in the wake of Spike Milligan calling the future King of England a 'little grovelling bastard'. The reaction and fallout was to dominate the redtops for days and raised Spike's profile so sufficiently that his chatshow bookings and requests for interviews quadrupled overnight.

Joining Tyler to talk about all that and examine the winners (and losers) of the evening are co-host of The Sitcom Club podcast Gary Rodger and the man behind Behind The Stunts, Jon Auty. There's clips aplenty and personal reminiscences from Clive Anderson and Jane Milligan.

It's a fun stroll down memory lane and a useful reminder that there was a time when Michael Barrymore was the biggest name in showbiz and the likes of Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris were still considered 'the new boys'.

A rare straight acting role for Peter Sellers in 1960, Never Let Go starred Richard Todd as a man for whom life outside of uniform has never been easy, as he struggles to put food on the table and his problems multiply when his new car is stolen.

The vehicle has been stolen to order by teen tearaway Adam Faith, who supplies local garage owner and all-round nasty piece of work Lionel Meadows (Sellers) with hot wheels which are subsequently re-plated and sold on.

John Cummings (Todd) is determined to get his car back and in doing so risks his own life and that of his family.

Sellers was rightly lauded for his portrayal of the sociopathic Meadows, although life off-screen was hardly harmonious for his wife and kids as he took the character home with him every evening after filming.

Joining Tyler to discuss this important film is Scott Phipps, co-host of the Reel Britannia, Stinking Pause & Talking Pictures TV podcasts.

In 1979 Peter Sellers released Sellers Market, an LP of all new material which was recorded mostly in Paris and included contributions from the likes of Alan Clare, June Whitfield and Irene Handl.

While it failed to reach the heights of his previous hit records The Best of Sellers and Songs For Swinging Sellers, Sellers Market does contain some good stuff – notably The Whispering Giant (featuring Irene Handl on top form) and The Eaton Square Blues.

Perhaps most intriguingly is what wasn’t included on the album – a couple of tracks Sellers recorded as Fred Kite up against June Whitfield’s Margaret Thatcher. Fearing her displeasure, Sellers nixed these tracks as he hoped the real Mrs T might confer upon him a knighthood. As it was, he was dead less than a year later.

Joining Tyler to talk about the making of the LP and what works and doesn’t work is returning guest and Sellers expert Mark Cousins, who thinks it could have been a much better album had more time and effort been devoted by all involved; as it was it was a bit of a rush job and comes across a bit baggy and unfocused.