Bluebottle (character)
Encyclopedia
Bluebottle is a comedy character from the Goon Show, a 1950s British
comedy
radio show. The character was created and performed by Peter Sellers
.
Bluebottle is an adenoidal squeaky-voiced boy scout
from East Finchley
(the same neighborhood of London
where Peter Sellers grew up). He was noted for reading his own stage directions out loud, and was always greeted with a deliberate round of applause from the audience ("Enter Bluebottle wearing string and cardboard pyjamas. Waits for audience applause. Not a sausage.") As was common with Goon Show characters, Sellers' Bluebottle was paired with a Spike Milligan
character, usually Eccles
(the third Goon, Harry Secombe
, usually stayed in his alter-ego of Neddie Seagoon
throughout the show).
Bluebottle is also prone to humorous misnaming of characters, including himself. For example, he has referred to himself as "Bluebontle" and "Blatbottle" on occasion. Other characters are often misnamed as well, including "Count Morinanty" for Count Jim Moriarty
, "Robin Chood" for Robin Hood and "Miss Balustrade" for Minnie Bannister. Neddie is always "My Captain", pronounced with four syllables [ma-cap-i-tain]. In The Yehti he reads his own name and pronounces the result "Blunbintle".
According to The Goon Show Companion, Bluebottle was originally known as Ernie Splutmuscle. In the 3rd series episode "The Man Who Never Was", he was cast in a small role. Secombe strides across the ceiling of his club, hurling members to the floor. He bumps into Splutmuscle:
Even at this early stage, the character was popular with the audience. On recordings of the above sequence, the audience claps after Splutmuscle's first line.
Four shows later, in the episode "The Greatest Mountain in the World", the script refers to "Peter (Bluebottle)".
Early in season 5, Bluebottle would enter with a direct appeal to the audience: "Bluebottle enters, waits for audience applause. Not a sausage." As the character became more popular, he would actually earn the applause that he sought, which he would acknowledge with a grateful, "Oh! Sausinges!" In later seasons, no request or response was needed - Bluebottle's entry into the show would generate a loud, sustained applause by itself.
Bluebottle was often killed during the course of an episode. This would be punctuated by a lamentation such as, "You rotten swine! You've deaded me!" After a while, the character began to anticipate this fate, noting at the appearance of a dangerous prop that "the dreaded deading" is approaching.
, a scoutmaster Sellers once met. In an interview with Michael Parkinson
, Sellers described trying to keep a straight face while talking with a large red-bearded scout leader who nevertheless spoke in a falsetto voice and had an ingratiating manner. The identity of the individual was later revealed in The Goons, one of several books featuring memoirs and scripts from The Goon Show.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
radio show. The character was created and performed by Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
.
Bluebottle is an adenoidal squeaky-voiced boy scout
Boy Scout
A Scout is a boy or a girl, usually 11 to 18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split this age group into a junior and a senior section...
from East Finchley
East Finchley
East Finchley is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, in north London, and situated north-west of Charing Cross. Geographically it is somewhat separate from the rest of Finchley, with North Finchley and West Finchley to the north, and Finchley Central to the west.- History :The land on which...
(the same neighborhood of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
where Peter Sellers grew up). He was noted for reading his own stage directions out loud, and was always greeted with a deliberate round of applause from the audience ("Enter Bluebottle wearing string and cardboard pyjamas. Waits for audience applause. Not a sausage.") As was common with Goon Show characters, Sellers' Bluebottle was paired with a Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
character, usually Eccles
Eccles (character)
T.F. Eccles is the name of a comedy character, created and performed by Spike Milligan, from the 1950s United Kingdom radio comedy series The Goon Show. In the episode "The Macreekie Rising of '74", Peter Sellers had to fill-in for the role in Milligan's absence...
(the third Goon, Harry Secombe
Harry Secombe
Sir Harry Donald Secombe CBE was a Welsh entertainer with a talent for comedy and a noted fine tenor singing voice. He is best known for playing Neddie Seagoon, the central character in the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show...
, usually stayed in his alter-ego of Neddie Seagoon
Neddie Seagoon
Neddie Seagoon was a character in the 1950s British radio comedy show, The Goon Show. He was created and performed by Welshman Harry Secombe....
throughout the show).
Bluebottle is also prone to humorous misnaming of characters, including himself. For example, he has referred to himself as "Bluebontle" and "Blatbottle" on occasion. Other characters are often misnamed as well, including "Count Morinanty" for Count Jim Moriarty
Count Jim Moriarty
Count Jim Moriarty is a character from the 1950s BBC Radio comedy The Goon Show. He was voiced by Spike Milligan...
, "Robin Chood" for Robin Hood and "Miss Balustrade" for Minnie Bannister. Neddie is always "My Captain", pronounced with four syllables [ma-cap-i-tain]. In The Yehti he reads his own name and pronounces the result "Blunbintle".
According to The Goon Show Companion, Bluebottle was originally known as Ernie Splutmuscle. In the 3rd series episode "The Man Who Never Was", he was cast in a small role. Secombe strides across the ceiling of his club, hurling members to the floor. He bumps into Splutmuscle:
Even at this early stage, the character was popular with the audience. On recordings of the above sequence, the audience claps after Splutmuscle's first line.
Four shows later, in the episode "The Greatest Mountain in the World", the script refers to "Peter (Bluebottle)".
Early in season 5, Bluebottle would enter with a direct appeal to the audience: "Bluebottle enters, waits for audience applause. Not a sausage." As the character became more popular, he would actually earn the applause that he sought, which he would acknowledge with a grateful, "Oh! Sausinges!" In later seasons, no request or response was needed - Bluebottle's entry into the show would generate a loud, sustained applause by itself.
Bluebottle was often killed during the course of an episode. This would be punctuated by a lamentation such as, "You rotten swine! You've deaded me!" After a while, the character began to anticipate this fate, noting at the appearance of a dangerous prop that "the dreaded deading" is approaching.
Origin
Bluebottle was based on Ruxton HaywardRuxton Hayward
Ruxton Hayward is a British eccentric. In the early 1950s, as a scoutmaster in London, he attempted to recruit acts for a stage show. He approached Michael Bentine, and then, at Bentine's recommendation, Peter Sellers...
, a scoutmaster Sellers once met. In an interview with Michael Parkinson
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...
, Sellers described trying to keep a straight face while talking with a large red-bearded scout leader who nevertheless spoke in a falsetto voice and had an ingratiating manner. The identity of the individual was later revealed in The Goons, one of several books featuring memoirs and scripts from The Goon Show.
Cultural references
- The character "Pierre" in the BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
animated series Count DuckulaCount DuckulaCount Duckula is a British animated television series created by British studio Cosgrove Hall, and a spin-off from DangerMouse, a show in which the Count Duckula character was a recurring villain. The series first aired on September 6, 1988 and was produced by Thames Television for 3 seasons and...
(and later a similar character on Victor and HugoVictor and HugoVictor and Hugo, Bunglers in Crime is an animated series made by Cosgrove Hall for Thames Television and screened on CITV from 6 September 1991 to 29 December 1992 and is a spin off from Count Duckula....
) was voiced by David JasonDavid JasonSir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...
with a voice almost identical to Bluebottle's. - Geoffrey RushGeoffrey RushGeoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
(playing Peter Sellers) thanks a crowd who attended the premiere of one of the Pink Panther movies in character as Bluebottle in The Life and Death of Peter SellersThe Life and Death of Peter SellersThe Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a 2004 film about the life of English comic actor Peter Sellers, based on Roger Lewis' book of the same name...
. - Douglas AdamsDouglas AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
, in his book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
wrote a line of dialogue for the character Marvin, the Paranoid Android that said: "Nothing. Not an electronic sausage." Douglas Adams has often acknowledged having been influenced by the Goons.