May 28 marks the 70th anniversary of the influential British radio comedy program “The Goon Show,” which inspired fans from the Monty Python group to John Lennon. The Jewish content of The Goons, comprising comedians Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers as well as the Welsh singer Harry Secombe, is usually overlooked amid the show’s comedic chaos and anarchy.
Milligan, the presiding genius over the surreal scripts, cherished the Jewish roots of his colleague Sellers, whose mother was of Ashkenazi and Sephardic origin.
After Sellers died in 1980, Milligan wrote a letter to the editor of The Jewish Chronicle, a periodical founded in 1841, to complain that “at no stage [of the funeral ceremony] was there any attempt to introduce any connection with the Jewish side of [Sellers’] family. As his Mother was Jewish, most certainly then he was Jewish, whereas he did choose to be a Christian (though sometimes he fancied various other religions), his whole attitude and personality seemed to be that of a Jew. Because of this I wish some small representation by the Jewish Synagogue could have been reported or mentioned during these Ceremonies.”