Version one of the
Man Who Never Was.


GREENSLADE: This is the BBC. Here is an impression of a British Embassy:
FX: [crash of breaking glass]
SECOMBE: And thank you, Wal. Here's your hat. Giddup!
FX: [horse gallops off, speeds up]
SECOMBE: So much for horse lovers and theirs [?] Next week at your local
cinemas they're showing:
SELLERS: The Man Who Never Was.
FX: [fanfare, then anthem under:]
GREENSLADE: April the first, Ninteen Forty-Four. For the Allies, the first
hope of victory was almost in sight. North Africa has been won with the aid
of Lance Bombardier Milligan, and Gunner Secombe. And Burma was holding out
with leading aircraftsman Peter Sellers. But the main problem: how to
prevent the Germans from learning our intention of landing in Sicily?
Let's go back to that fateful night on Jurn, Mumy.
SEAGOON: It was that very night that I, Captain Neddie Seagoon, was sitting
in the lounge at the House of Lords Yacht Club at Southend. Suddenly, the
footman came over and tapped me on the shoulder with his foot.
HEADLY GRAVESTONE (SELLERS): Pardon me, sir, Colonel Minge would be pleased
to see you out on the balcony, sir.
SEAGOON: Oh, so he's out there is he?
GRAVESTONE: Er, no, he's in here, that's why he'd be pleased to see you out
there.
SEAGOON: Well, I, I think I'll go for a breath of fresh air.
GRAVESTONE: Thank you, sir, that'll save us opening the window.
GREENSLADE: Grabbing his flying jacket as it flew by him, Captain Seagoon
strode swiftly up the wall, across the crowded celing, pushing aside the
other members, who were hurling themselves to the floor below with cries
of...
SEAGOON: Fools! You shouldn't be up here! And you!
BLUEBOTTLE: No, don't throw me down! I'm always up here!
SEAGOON: Are you a member?
BLUEBOTTLE: No, I'm a Bluebottle.
SEAGOON: What's that you're reading?
BLUEBOTTLE: A flypaper. Ehee!
GREENSLADE: Seagoon flung the interloper aside with a muttered oath. Donning
his straw hat, raffia coat, and deadly nightshade trousers, he ran casually
down to the sea.
SEAGOON: I folowed behind. And there, on the beach, I saw (and this is where
the story really starts), there, in the sand, was a pair of uncooked German
Army boots!
FX: [dramatic chord]
SELLERS: Like any quick thinking Englishman, Seagoon rapidly tried them on
for size.
SEAGOON: Curse! They're too tight. Then, dear listeners, I saw why. In each
boot was a pair of human feet!
ECCLES: They're mine!
SEAGOON: What? What are you doing in uncooked German Army boots?
ECCLES: I was hungry.
SEAGOON: But where did you find them?
ECCLES: Aooeoh! Um, they washed ashore.
SEAGOON: Let me see them... [gasps] This boot has a false bottom!
ECCLES: Oooooooh!
SEAGOON: Dear listeners, By inserting a skeleton saxophone under the welt, I
managed to unlock the sole. And there, glistening in the light of my parafin
shilling, lay a roll of microfilm! There was only one thing to do -- take it
to the Chief of Millitary Intelligence, himself!
FX: [Bloodnok's fanfare, leading into a swarm of flies]
BLOODNOK: [over flies] Ooooh! Gah! Oooof!
GREENSLADE: Yes, it was Major Deninis Bloodnok, crack wartime layabout, and
consequently head of the British wartime intelligence orginization, who, at
this very moment, is interrogating a German prisoner for the sole purpose of
lengthening the script and giving Secombe a golden opportunity of displaying
his histrionic abilities before a long-suffering public.
BLOODNOK: Have you finished? Thank you, thank you. Now, march in that
suspected Germain spy, will you darling?
SERGEANT (ELLINGTON): Sir! Prisoner, Har!
FX: [marching footsteps]
SPLINGE: [over] Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left,
right, left, right! Prisoneeeeeeer, halt!
FX: [marching record comically slows to a stop]
BLOODNOK: Now, who's this?
SERGEANT: A suspected German spy, sir. He was caught loitering of the coast
of Britian.
BLOODNOK: What's your excuse?
SPU [GERMAN SECOMBE]: I was waiting for a number 10-A submarine.
BLOODNOK: At this time of night? A likely story. They stop running at
eleven, you know. Sergeant, what's this German's name?
SPLINGE: Er, Heir Comezebride.
SPY: Permission to speak, Hiery Major.
BLOODNOK: Permission granted, hairy prisoner.
SPY: I would like to say...
BLOODNOK: Silong! Volkeshere berebackter, kabloong un kablootsiempire grung
dang! Go gablunden hungen!
SPY: Does your vife know zis?
BLOODNOK: Achtung, Just shut up! ! Admit it, sir, you're a spy!
SPY: I'm not a shpy!
BLOODNOK: Oh? What's your name, then?
SPY: Jim Furter.
BLOODNOK: Jim Furter? I knew your brother Frank! Who said we German's don't
have a corny old sense of humour? Oh, I'm out of condition tonight!
SPY: I'll have a gin Tutonic...
BLOODNOK: That's a damned insult, sir! [aside] But he's perfectly right, you
know. [to spy] Now, are you married?
SPY: Ya, two years.
BLOODNOK: Any children?
SPY: Nein.
BLOODNOK: Nine in two years? You're a blaggard, sir! You, you... Hand me
that shotgun.
SPY: Nicht, nicht! Ve are just good friends.
BLOODNOK: What? Sergeant, march this scoundrel backwards for Christmas, with
a gas stove, over his head.
SERGEANT: Right, sir!
SPY: Please, please! Bitte, believe me! I'm not a shpy. I come here seeking
political asylum.
BLOODNOK: Well, take a bus to the House of Commons, that's the finest
political asylum in the world! Ooohh, yes! They're all there you know,
aaaooooowalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaayeeaaahhhhhaaa! Including Max Geldray, the
well known long playing record!!

Max Geldray and Orchestra: [Musical interlude]

GREENSLADE: And now, we have great pleasure in returning you to the Goon
Show. And this is where the story really starts. Now showing at your local
radio, disguised as The Was Who Never Man, part the ping, thank you.
Orchestra: [fanfare]
FX: [door opening]
GLADYS (ELLINGTON): Major Bloodnok, sir!
BLOODNOK: What is it, Gladys?
GLADYS: Captain Seagoon's coming up the stairs, sir.
BLOODNOK: What? Quick! Burn this photograph!
GLADYS: Right! Who is it?
BLOODNOK: Me and his wife. Hurry, man! [sings] In love with my...
FX: [door opening]
SEAGOON: Major Bloodnok!
BLOODNOK: It's a lie! We're just good friends, I tell you! I-I was just
passing... Good heavens! What's that you've got in your hand?
SEAGOON: It's a roll of microfilm, sir! Found in some German boots washed
ashore at Southend-on-Sea, at Brighton.
BLOODNOK: This is an important find! I'll just put this microfilm under this
powerful magnifying glass. It'll keep it flat while I put my glasses on.
Now, um... Ahh, yes! Ooo! Some kind of secret plan!
SEAGOON: Now supposing these are the invasion of England plans...
BLOODNOK: Don't you worry about that. If the Germans every invade England,
we war office chiefs have Plan B ready.
SEAGOON: Plan B?
BLOODNOK: Fast plane to Dublin, submarine to South America.
SEAGOON: Major, you're not going to run away from the enemy?
BLOODNOK: Well, there's no point in running away from anyone else, is there?
I mean, I mean, I mean...
SEAGOON: Allright, allright, Bloodnok! Be it on your own head, as you wish
Major, but, we all know what happened to Colonel Bentine.
BLOODNOK: Ahhhh, yes...
SEAGOON: He sat right where you're sitting, now. In that very spot. He was
frightened of the enemy, too. Yes, he had a thousand pounds of gold in his
kit bag, booked a fast plane to Dublin, and had a submarine laid on to take
him to South America. Poor fool, heh heh. He thought he'd got away with it.
You know what happened to him, don't you?
BLOODNOK: Ehm, what?
SEAGOON: He got away with it! [pause] Bloodnok! None of that Plan B packing
lark. And stop packing your kit! Put that gold back in my tooth!
BLOODNOK: What about Plan B, then?
SEAGOON: These plans have to be analyzed. England's future is at stake.
BLOODNOK: Look here, Seagoon...
FX: [chords over:]
ALL: [murmurs, including BLOODNOK: "I must tell you, Seagoon, I won't have
any of it!" and SEAGOON: "It must go through, it has to go through, Sir
John!"]
GREENSLADE: All through the night (and this is where the story really
starts), all through the night, with an intelligence officer, Seagoon and
Bloodnok pored over the plans. Sometimes they'd pored on the floor,
sometimes they poured in the glass, but mostly they pored over the plans.
SELLERS: Gentlemen, I have every reason to believe that these gin soaked
plans of a secret German weapon are really the brandy soaked plans of a
secret German weapon.
SEAGOON: Gad! Is there no end to their fiendish ingenuity?
SELLERS: I fear not.
SEAGOON: Dear listeners. Bloodnok, realising the significance of the
discovery, lept to his feat, and shouted for a messenger with a voice like
thunder.
BLOODNOK: Send in a messenger with a voice like thunder!
THROAT: Right, mate?
BLOODNOK: Son, tell my ATS driver to put the car away, I shall be needing
her later. Seagoon, take the microfilm at once, to the Woolwich Arsenal and
get the experts there to build this secret German weapon.
SEAGOON: I'll do my best, gentlemen.
MILLIGAN: But we can't afford failures!
BLOODNOK: Rubbish! You've been paying me for years, and that singing
layabout, Seagoon.
SEAGOON: Dispite that insult, I left the building with my head held high and
my feet held higher.
BLOODNOK: In that position, we threw him out.
SEAGOON: Soon, I was speeding through the sleeping streets, crouched over my
brass pogo-stick. E're long, I was at the gates of Woolwich Arsenal, where I
was challenged by a sentry.
FX: [bang, bang-bang. bang bang bang bang, bang-bang]
WILLIUM: 'Aaaalt! Ooo goes there?
SEAGOON: Friend!
WILLIUM: Oohh, thank 'eavens for that, mate. Advance and be shot at, mate.
SEAGOON: I was, mate.
WILLIUM: 'Ere, I reconise you...
SEAGOON: Do you?
WILLIUM: You're the bloke I was just shooting at, aren't you?
SEAGOON: What makes you so sure?
WILLIUM: All them holes in your nut.
SEAGOON: Silly man! They're old bullet holes!
WILLIUM: I know, I was using old bullets!
SEAGOON: Fool of fools, you might've killed me!
SEAGOON: Now, where's the officer in charge?
WILLIUM: [calling] Capt. General, mate!
MORIARTY: Oisabayageea, mate?
SEAGOON: Good Heavens! It's the valiant Comte Fredrique Jim Moriarty of the
House of Reeks! [to Moriarty] I thought you were at the front?
MORIARTY: [incomprehensible Moriartish French-type words] ...at the front.
SEAGOON: Then why did you come all the way back here?
MORIARTY: [more incomprehensible words, roughly:] ...civlilation Francais.
Non... saxophone et le cafe je ... [hums] Do dedoo dedootdooooo, do dedoo,
dedoooooooo! [speaks] Alorss, bonjours, comment c'est la guerre? je suis
Capitain Jim Moriarty ... somebody in charge warning, saton deuz Charlie in
the army .. avance, attack! [hums Marseillaise] [makes marching noise]
Aieee! Vive le soldat de la patrie .. Alors, apres deux heurs sus la kippers
.. sont les tres fatige, alors ... Ooooh! .. [ktchk] c'est sur le ground ..
Shh! Silence, attention! Listoon [whistle of bomb, explosion] OOOOOOH! ...
Je toot suite, pomme de terre, je long Charlie, stay le front.
SEAGOON: Yes, very interesting, but... What made you come back to England so
quickly?
MORIARTY: My braces were caught on a bollard at Southend Pier!
SEAGOON: Must the man we want! A man with a pier tied to his braces, a
perfect diguise.
MORIARTY: Ah!
SEAGOON: Now then, here are the sealed orders from Whitehall. I shall
contact you later. Until then, here is an unsealed envelope containing Ray
Ellington and his Quartet.

Ray Ellington Quartet [Musical Interlude]

GREENSLADE: And so the Woolwich Arsenal, set about building a full scale
model of this secret German weapon. And soon the Arsenal rang to the sound
of British workmen, at top pressure.
WORKMAN: [whistling]
FX: [thump]
WORKMAN: [whistling]
FX: [thump]
WORKMAN: [whistling]
FX: [thump]
WORKMAN: [sings] Ummm da deee
FX: [thump]
WORKMAN: [whistling]
FX: [lunch wistle, tool dropped, many people running away]
SEAGOON: Gad! They were away rather smartish, weren't they? Don't those
workmen know there's a war on?
BLOODNOK: I haven't had the heart to tell them. Be madness: if they knew
they'd rush off and join the army. Anything rather than work, you know.
SEAGOON: Haha... Ahem, yes, well, I'll tell you why I called this meeting.
It is essential that we fool the Germans into thinking that we haven't got
the plans of their secret weapon. Isn't that so, Hugh Jampson?
JAMPTON (MILLIGAN): Ahh-eerrrr, yes, ah, ahhhhhahhahh, er, perfectly
correct, sir, yes, I-eerr-aahhhh, I suppose it is, yes, ahhhhh, atahhhhh,
perfectly right, yes, I, I-I-I-I-I- jus-yeh-I suppose, er I-I-I-I...
FX: [gunshot, thud]
SEAGOON: Well done, Bloodnok!
BLOODNOK: I hated to see him suffer, you know.
SPRIGGS: Gentlemen, I think we're wasting time! I have here a man who claims
that he has the perfect plan to hoodwink these naughty Germans with regard
to the secret weapon
SEAGOON: Well! How do you do sir?
HENRY CRUN: Ahhhh... Mnk, mnk.
MINNIE BANNISTER: Ooooh! He's going to say "how do you do".
SEAGOON: Well, tell him not to bother.
MINNIE BANNISTER: The man says not to bother to say "how do you do", Henry.
HENRY CRUN: How do you do, Henry?
MINNIE BANNISTER: Very well, Hen.
SEAGOON: Sir, please... Sir, please. Would you care to give us a brief
resume of your plan?
HENRY CRUN: Ehhh...
MINNIE BANNISTER: Give him the Sunday thing...
HENRY CRUN: I got the whole idea from a Sunday newspaper.
SEAGOON: Certainly get some wonderful ideas from them, can't you?
MINNIE BANNISTER: Ohhh! You naughty Seajune!
HENRY CRUN: Naughty Seagoon.
MINNIE BANNISTER: Oh, the vapours! We don't spend our Sunday mornings
reading that kind of sinful Sunday newspapers.
HENRY CRUN: No, we just sleep on 'til teatime.
MINNIE BANNISTER: Then we read the sinful Sunday newspapers. Ooooohhh, that
naughty-type music [sings] Yim-bolla-bakka [etc]
FX: [Minnie dancing]
HENRY CRUN: Min!
MINNIE BANNISTER: Ooooh!
HENRY CRUN: Stop that sinful gyrating the lower portion of the torso-type
danging!
MINNIE BANNISTER: It's all the rage, buddy...
SEAGOON: Please, please! Explain this plan!
LEW (SELLERS): Now, look, er, listen, I know all about, I'm their agent.
MINNIE BANNISTER: He's our agent...
LEW: Let me talk for them. [mutters] I'll talk for them. You see, we put a
copy of German microfilm in the pocket of a man dressed up as a German Naval
officer and float him ashore form a submarine onto the enemy coast, and
then, for an encore...!
SEAGOON: We don't need an encore, I have my own piano.
LEW: Oh...
SEAGOON: Commander Ginsberg, you'll get an OBE for this.
LEW: What have I done wrong? I'm living the good life, 'ain't I?
SEAGOON: Yes, yes...
LEW: What are you talking about?
SEAGOON: Commander, who would be idiot enough to be dressed up as a German
Admiral, and thrown overboard from a submarine?
LEW: Don't worry! Don't worry, I have, in this box here, an idiot who's been
specially drowned for the job. Leslie, take the lid off.
FX: [wooden box being prized apart type noise, and something lumpy falling
out]
LEW: There you are gentlemen, meet the man who never was!
ECCLES: 'Aaaallo!
SEAGOON: Wait a moment! Wait a minute, this man is damp.
LEW: 'Course he's damp. We damped him down for the night, I told you! He's
the only Field Marshal with a private's batten [?] in his knapsack.
SEAGOON: But can we spare a Field Marshall?
LEW: This Field Marshall don't count!
SEAGOON: He doesn't count?
LEW: No! He don't read or write either! 'S why he's working at the Romford
this week.
SEAGOON: But we can't float him ashore, he's not dead!
ECCLES: Wanna bet?
SEAGOON: Shut up, Eccles!
ECCLES: Shut up, Eccles! Shut up, Eccles! Shut up! Shut up when you say shut
up to me! [sings] Shut up, Eccles!
SEAGOON: Oh dear. This man is completely S-T-U-P-I-D.
ECCLES: I heard that! Ooooo, I heard that! Soooo, you think that I'm
S-T-U-P-I-D, eh?
SEAGOON: Candidly? Yes I do.
ECCLES: Oooooh. It's a good thing for you I can't spell. A good thing!
[sings] Shut up, Eccles [gibbers, wanders off]
BLOODNOK: Look here, let's forget about this idiot...
BLUEBOTTLE: Captain, they gotted ready the secret German weapon, what they
have buildit from the microfilm, plan.
SEAGOON: Great news, little cardboard grenadier!
BLUEBOTTLE: Eheehee! Can I come with you to the testing, Captain? Captain,
Captain?
SEAGOON: I'm sorry, Bluebottle, it's too dangerous. We can't afford to risk
the lives of young idiots like you.
BLUEBOTTLE: Is that why they're sending an old idiot like you?
SEAGOON: Exactly.
BLUEBOTTLE: Oh.
SEAGOON: Taxi!
FX: [taxi noises]
ALL: [various mutterings and rhubarbs]
SECOMBE: [off] Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.
SEAGOON: It... It was an exciting moment as I stood amongst the high ranking
officers. In the centre of the testing area stood the sinister outline of
the mysterious German secret weapon.
MILLIGAN: Gentlemen, before we remove the cover from the V-3, I'd like to
say that we're not quite sure what it's potential is. It might well be the
most devastating weapon we've ever tested in the Woolwich Arsenal, I assure
you.
SELLERS: Yes, we've taken great care to construct an exact replica of the
plan found in the uncooked German boot.
SEAGOON: Hear, hear. Well done! Good show, well done!.
SELLERS: Oh dear, Charlie's here. Now then, as I remove the cover, you will
note that the weapon is mounted on a pair of wheels. At one end, we have two
shafts, which are obviously used for manipulating the weapon into position.
Now the rather omninius part the only operating mechanism is this small
metal handle plotted high up in the body. Before we turn it, gentlemen, we
must take precaution. Sergeant?
SERGEANT (SECOMBE): Yessir? Gentlmen, will you please take up position
behind the forty inch, anti-gamma-ray, lead-lined wall.
SELLERS: Right, Sergeant. Close main protection doors and put on warning
lights.
VOICE: [off] Light on, sir!
FX: [machinery noise]
SEAGOON: I trembled with excitement as the moment drew nigh. Here we had a
German weapon which they did not know we posessed. With it, we could well
turn the tables on the Bosh!
SELLERS: Right, gentlemen. I shall be turning the handle five seconds from
now.
SERGEANT: Ready now, sir!
SELLERS: Five, four, three, two, one. Turn.
FX: [jet engine powering up, turning into barrel organ type music]
BLOODNOK: Gentlemen... Plan B!
FX: [rush of feet, panicked yelling]
ORCHESTRA: [end music]
GREENSLADE: That was the Goon Show, a BBC recorded programme, featuring
Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with the Ray Ellington
Quartet, and Max Geldray. The orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott. Script
by Spike Milligan and Larry Stevens. Announcer Wallace Greenslade. The
programme produced by Pat Dixon.