"It's the only time Sellers had to duplicate himself, at least physically." - Roger Lewis on The Prisoner Of Zenda.

This 1979 film is an adaptation of the classic Anthony Hope adventure yarn with a screenplay by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais. Peter Sellers plays both Rudolf V, the bumbling King of Ruritania, and his English look-alike, Sydney Frewin, who must impersonate the monarch after Rudolf is kidnapped by his villainous half-brother, Duke Michael (Jeremy Kemp).

As Frewin struggles with royal duties and falls for Princess Flavia (Lynne Frederick) the hunt is on for the imprisoned King, with his trusted subordinates General Sapt (Lionel Jeffries) and Fritz (Simon Williams) anxious to restore order to Ruritania.

The film suffers from a rather lacklustre screenplay containing a paucity of jokes yet somehow Sellers manages to wring comedy out of the lumpen script, particularly with his characterisation of Frewin. Tensions were high on the set and Sellers' increasing manic behaviour and demands impacted not just Jeffries and Williams but the film's director Richard Quine. Famously they had to repaint an entire train to accommodate Sellers' bizarre superstitions!

Joining Tyler to discuss the film is writer & performer John Hewer, who also has some exciting news for Spike Milligan fans!

"My dear sir, without doubt you have done for the art of singing what Columbus did for the steam engine."

Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty plan to escape dire poverty by taking out a £10,000 life insurance policy on Neddie Seagoon. They tell him he can collect the money the moment he’s deceased, and give him an instruction book. After a number of stupid attempts to bring this about - which puts him into contact with Willium, Bluebottle, Eccles and Bloodnok - Seagoon finally discovers the meaning of the word 'deceased' and goes into hiding at the Albert Memorial. The drama climaxes in a shootout with him in between Bloodnok's regiment and a loaded record.

Yet another Goon Show concerned with the vagaries of insurance policies, this episode was likely penned largely by Larry Stephens and if so it shows. It's not a bad episode at all but if anything the script lacks a certain something - a bit of inimitable Milligan magic perhaps.

Returning guest Andy Bell and Tyler discuss the 'filth' which runs through the show and also: The Indigestion Waltz; Kenneth Griffith; the Radio Times; Royal Command Performances; producer Roy Speer and baseless allegations; Jayne Mansfield-type walking; the Tiddleywinks Tournament; George Martin and ITV's packed schedule!

“Aw, don’t come the raw prawn!” (Barry McKenzie)

“There’s too many Barrys!” (Tyler)

Based on the character created for Private Eye, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie was a huge hit in Australia when it was released in 1972, surpassing $1m in box office receipts thus making it the first Australian film to do so. Starring Barry Crocker in the titular role, it tells the story of the misadventures of a lantern-jawed larrikin when he leaves Australia and travels to London with his aunt (Edna Everage, played by co-writer and creator of Barry McKenzie, Barry Humphries). See what I mean about too many Barrys?

Directed by the up-and-coming Bruce Beresford (thankfully Mr & Mrs Beresford decided against christening him Barry too), the film explores the cultural gulf between Australian and British culture in the early nineteen-seventies in a comic and often quite dark fashion. Jokes about ‘chundering’ and ‘unbuttoning the mutton’ abound as Barry navigates his new environment, along the way falling in with a sex-mad actress, a flamboyant ad man, a masochistic war veteran, his repressed daughter and her mad mother, exploitative hippies, a hard-nosed agent, doctors, a loopy psychiatrist, a lesbian and her sympathetic friend, a fickle television executive and Spike Milligan.

Barry McKenzie is one of life’s innocents, a fish out of water, and we could almost believe he’s a distant cousin of Mick Dundee, though possessing none of the latter’s intuition, agility, courage or ‘success with the sheilas’. And what about the charge often levelled against the character that he is an outrageous depiction of the typical Aussie male? Barry Humphries said “I consider Barry McKenzie as no more representative of the average Australian than Macbeth was of the average Scotsman in Shakespeare’s audience.”

The film is worth watching for the Spike scene alone, but there is plenty else amusing enough – the ‘One Eyed Trouser Snake’ song, the terrible Gort family, Barry with underpants full of beef curry – to keep audiences engaged.

Joining Tyler this week to talk about it is co-host of Waffle On podcast Simon Meddings. You can check out Waffle On HERE: https://waffleon.podbean.com/

As mentioned in this week’s show, Griff Rhys Jones is currently touring: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/griff-rhys-jones