How many puppets were constructed for The Telegoons TV series?
The following Goon Show characters were made as puppets: Eccles, Bluebottle, Ned Seagoon, Major Bloodnok, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, Count Jim Moriarty, Henry Crun, Minnie Bannister. A number of extras were also constructed, including “Fifi” (TG 2nd Series, #10), who did female parts in some of the other episodes as well; Willium Mate (who also did a stint as Fred Fu-Manchu); and an Ellington-like puppet. These latter two puppets did most of the other extra parts. It is quite obvious from the films that string puppets were used in medium and wide shots. A larger type of puppet, controlled by rods and electrical switches, and incomplete from the waist down, was used for close-ups involving dialogue and the need for the head and neck, eyes, eyelids, and mouth to move. The GSPS Ned Seagoon is the remains of one of the close-up puppets. Therefore, there were at least two puppets built for each character, for a total of at least twenty puppets.
