Telegoons People...

• Maurice Wiltshire was script editor for The Telegoons. All in all, Maurice re-worked twenty-six of the original Goon Show scripts, of which. Out of the original Goon Show scripts used, fifteen were written by Spike Milligan, while the remaining eleven were collaborations between Spike Milligan and (variously) Larry Stephens, Eric Sykes, and Jimmy Grafton (see Tele-Goonography section). Scriptography & more  
  
• Spike Milligan did the voices of Eccles, Miss Minnie Bannister, and Moriarty.  Filmography & more
  
• Harry Secombe did the voice of fall-guy and prize-chump Neddie Seagoon.  Filmography & more
  
• Peter Sellers did the voices of Bluebottle, Mr. Henry Crun, Major Dennis Bloodnok, Grytpype-Thynne.  Filmography & more
  
• Tony Young was producer for all but one episode of The Telegoons (#2 of the 1st Series), and directed all but eight episodes (#3, #4 and #7 in the 1st Series, and #3, #8, #11, #12 and #14 in the 2nd Series). Tony Young's film directing career spans 1951 to 1963. Filmography & more
  
• Wendy Danielli was associate producer, except for the second episode,  for which she was producer. Wendy's family put up the bulk of the money for the construction of puppets, a short Telegoons test film and The Telegoons pilot. Filmography & more
  
• Bill Freshman directed six episodes of The Telegoons (#3, #4 and #7 of the 1st Series, and #3, #8 and #12 of the 2nd Series). Filmography
  
• Philip Grindrod was director of photography except for the pilot film. After a varied career in cinematography that spanned more than thirty years, Phil's health was fast deteriorating, mainly due to the effects of alcohol. During the 2nd filming series of The Telegoons, it got so bad that Phil was taken ill and hospitalized for several weeks. In Phil Grindrod's absence, camera operator Mike Wilson was upgraded to lighting cameraman (three episodes in the 2nd Series #1, #4, and #9; see also entries for Michael Wilson and Mike Fox, below). Phil Grindrod unfortunately died of alcohol-related illnesses soon after the filming of The Telegoons was completed. Filmography
  
• Harry Orchard was director of photography for episode #2 of the 1st Series of The Telegoons.
  
• Edward White composed all of the music tracks for the The Telegoons, including the signature tune, Telegoon Toon. Ed's company was Musicus Ltd. Musicography
  
• Bert Marotta was production supervisor for The Telegoons. Filmography
  
• Bob Bucknell was film editor for The Telegoons. Bob's company was Caledonian Film Editing Services. Filmography
  
• Jim Elderton was assistant film editor for The Telegoons. He worked on the project with Bob Bucknell of Caledonian Film Editing Services. Filmography & More
   
• Michael Wilson was camera operator for The Telegoons, except for episodes #1, #4 and #9 of the 2nd Series where he was lighting cameraman (Director of photography Phil Grindrod was taken ill and spent several weeks in hospital during these episodes. Note: The title of lighting cameraman probably allowed credit to be given for doing the DP's job without stepping on any toes) Mike Wilson also directed episodes #11 and #14 of the 2nd Series. Filmography
  
• Mike Fox was focus puller for all of the first series, and was upgraded to camera operator for three shows in the 2nd series (#1, #4 and #9) during which Phil Grindrod was in hospital, and during which Michael Wilson was lighting cameraman (see above). Quotation: "As a long-standing, dedicated, fan of The Goon Show, it was an absolute pleasure to go to work every day and listen to the [dialogue] tapes over and over again. I never got tired of them and have a large selection of the BBC Goon Show tapes in my collection. My favourite character: hard to choose, but I think it is Major Dennis Bloodnok, if not Willium Mate." Mike Fox's film industry career started in 1954, and is still going strong in 2005. Filmography & more
  
• Len Harris was camera operator for the two episodes that Michael Wilson directed (episodes #11 and #14 of the 2nd Series). Filmography
  
• Dudley Plummer of Sound Films Limited was sound engineer. Filmography
  
• Cyril Brown was dubbing mixer/dubbing editor. Prior to working on The Telegoons, Cyril Brown was sound recordist on Roberta Leigh's Space Patrol, 1962 (UK video release, episode numbers 9, 10, 12-15, 17-21, 25, 27-39). Filmography
  
• Kays Laboratories Ltd. (situated at Finsbury Park, 8 km from Grosvenor's studio space in Kensal Road) was responsible for the soundtrack dubbing and processing, under the careful supervision of Cyril Brown (see above). It was reported in Television Mail, October 18, 1963, that the Kay's lab staff are still relatively sane, despite the out-of-the-ordinary complexities of The Telegoons job.
  
• Doreen Soan did continuity for all 25 episodes of The Telegoons following the pilot film. A seasoned continuity person well before The Telegoons went into production, Doreen became a sought after script supervisor during a film career that spans more than thirty years. Filmography & more
  
• Stanley Moore designed the settings.
  
• Stage-Decor Ltd. provided the scenery and properties.
  
• Ralph Dawson Young, described by his son Tony as an 'inventor', together with Ron Field (see below), designed and built the Telegoon puppets. Ralph and Ron were assisted in this by Ralph's younger son, David.
  
• Ron Field of Ron and Joan Field's Marionettes (husband of Joan Field, and father of Ann Field) developed the method of automatic electronic puppet lip-synch used in the 2nd filming series of The Telegoons (twelve episodes) (uncredited), a technology for which he was awarded two British patents, numbers 965,916 and 965,917 (filed June 22, 1962, published Aug 6, 1964). Apart from a few extra puppets provided by John Dudley, all of the puppets used in the production were designed and built by Ron Field and Ralph Young (see above). They were assisted in this by Ralph's younger son, David. However, despite Ron Field's pivotal role in designing and building the puppets, a dispute with the producers arose over the terms of use of Ron's electronic lip-synch technology. The result was that Ron Field did not receive a screen credit for his puppetry in the pilot, nor for his role as co-designer and constructor of the puppets. In the revised version of the pilot (broadcast as episode #2 of the 1st Series) Ralph Young was credited as animation controller & designer. Later episodes went even further than this, and said that the puppets were designed and constructed by Ralph Young. If and when The Telegoons are ever released on home video, I believe that this wrong should be put to rights, especially since for the later episodes, the producers went ahead and used Ron's lip-synch system regardless, apparently claiming that they were using an American system. Newspaper reports at the time are said to have mentioned "patent pinching."  Click here for a detailed biography of Ron Field.
  
• David Young (brother of Tony Young, and son of Ralph Young) was puppets supervisor for the series. He also helped build the puppets.
  
• The pilot film that secured The Telegoons series from the BBC (The Lost Colony), involved the entire Field family, all of whom were well known professional puppeteers and puppet makers:

• Episode #2 of the 1st broadcast series (The Lost Colony), was a modified version of the 33 minute pilot film. The changes included the cutting of more than 17 minutes or footage, and the addition of a 1:26 opening sequence. These changes made the pilot episode uniform with the other episodes, and brought the run time down to the required 15 minutes. The added opening sequence used the following team of puppeteers:

• The following table gives the number of episodes for the puppeteers who worked on the 1st and 2nd filming series of The Telegoons, colour-coded into their usual teams, in credits order. The entire series consisted of twenty six episodes:

Prev. Page                Home                  Top                 Next Page