Show Notes
Following on from last week’s conversation with Samira Ahmed about A Hard Day’s Night we continue the Richard Lester theme with a look at his 1967 anti-war satire How I Won the War - a film often lazily regarded as a John Lennon vehicle, but in reality a far stranger, darker, and more ensemble-drivenpiece of cinema.
The film stars Michael Crawford as Lieutenant Ernest Goodbody, a hapless officer leading a doomed platoon through a series of absurd and increasingly brutal Second World War missions. Although Lennon features prominently in the film’s marketing, his role as Musketeer Gripweed is supporting rather than central - albeit memorable. We look at why Lennon was used to sell the film, where he was personally and creatively at the time and how his detached, cynical performance fits the film’s tone.
Told largely in flashback, the story follows Lieutenant Goodbody recounting his wartime experiences to a cultured German officer after his capture near the Rhine. Missions include the wholly pointless task of setting up a cricket pitch behind enemy lines in North Africa, followed by campaigns through Europe and the final crossing at the Rhine.
The platoon is made up of a host of familiar faces, including Roy Kinnear, Ronald Lacey and Lee Montague, with Michael Hordern almost stealing the film as Colonel Grapple, still fighting World War One in his head.
Novelist Adam Leslie joins Tyler to talk about HIWTW, discussing the film’s class commentary, British fascism and why the film was poorly received on release despite later reassessments. Adam is also the man behind both the Goon Pod feem choon and logo – cheers Adam!
(This episode was originally published in January 2026 as part of Goon Pod Film Club, the Patreon subscription feed)
More from Goon Pod
The Queen in America, Eurovision, Elvis, knitting a Spon, a Russian Love Song, Harry Rocking the Town! - it's all here this week! Plus: how much do we love Moriarty, a glaring goof and Watch That Tiger!
Jet Storm, also known as Jet Stream or Killing Urge, is a British thriller directed and co-written by Cy Endfield and starring Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, Patrick Allen and Virginia Maskell. It is an early example of what would become the aviation disaster-film genre, preceding films such as Airport by more than a decade. Released in October 1959, it centres almost entirely on a transatlantic flight from London to New York and the psychological and moral crisis that develops among its passengers when one of them threatens to destroy the aircraft.
Broadcast on Channel 4 on 2nd December 1985, The Last Laugh Before TV-am was Spike Milligan’s attempt to bring his particular vein of humour to a new generation... although very little about it suggested that Milligan had changed his approach since the early Q series.