by saying it in between sentences. And more... It is a measure of Peter Sellers' vocal talents that he was able to speak all Milligan's characters so accurately that Spike's absences from the show were undetected by listeners until the final credits were read. An example of this is the episode The Macreekie Rising, featuring a harrowing exchange between Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister. Sellers had to take both sides of the conversation and clearly had trouble remembering which voice to use. On the single occasion when Sellers himself was absent, in Who is Pink Oboe?, four other actors and comedians were recruited to fill in for him. He also occasionally used a Laurence Olivier voice, later employed to great comic effect in his 1960s recording of "A Hard Day's Night" as a cod-Shakespearian speech. Michael Bentine Bentine was part of the regular cast for the first two seasons. As a tribute of sorts, unheard characters called Bentine are sometimes referred to in later episodes (e.g. The Man Who Never Was) Osric Pureheart The archetypal absent minded professor. Famously eccentric and possibly mad, Pureheart, at one point, created the Suez Canal after getting the rights after Cleopatra's death (despite the fact he waited two thousand years). Hugh Jampton (Bentine's character) See Milligan's character above. Other members Andrew Timothy – the show's original announcer, who left the show after the first few episodes of season 4, claiming that he "feared for his sanity". He did however make a brief pre-recorded appearance in the 1959 episode The Scarlet Capsule ('I would like to say that, whilst I read this stuff, I don't write it – fertannngggg!') and returned in 1972 for The Last Goon Show of All (due to the death of Wallace Greenslade 11 years earlier). Wallace Greenslade – announcer, he opened and closed each show (often parodying the traditional BBC announcing style, e.g. "This is the BBC, and it's going bald!"), and occasionally played himself in an episode, most notably "The Greenslade Story", as well as other small parts (e.g., he was "The Phantom Head-Shaver of Brighton"). Greenslade was also noted for what Secombe described as 'playing the part of the French prefect of police, and playing it very badly' in "Tales of Old Dartmoor". In "Insurance, the White Man's Burden", Greenslade opened the show by introducing himself as "Wallace the Pelvis" and singing "See You Later Alligator" in a