“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.

This month I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to two of the finest comedy writers of the last fifty years – Andrew Marshall and David Renwick – specifically about their 1986 film Whoops Apocalypse, which borrowed the title, a few plot elements and a handful of cast members from their 1982 one-series sitcom of the same name.

The film was inspired by the events surrounding the Falklands War and the ongoing tensions between East and West and starred Peter Cook as increasingly deranged British premier Sir Mortimer Chris, Loretta Swit as US President Adams (no relation), Michael Richards (pre-Seinfeld) as international terrorist Lacrobat and a whole host of familiar faces such as Richard Wilson, Rik Mayall, Alexei Sayle, Ian Richardson, Herbert Lom and John Sessions.