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For other meanings, see bluebottle

Bluebottle is the name of a comedy character, created and performed by Peter Sellers, from the 1950's British radio comedy series The Goon Show.

Bluebottle, an adenoidally-squeaky voiced boy scout from East Finchley, was noted for reading 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, not limited to himself. For example, he has called himself "Bluebontle" and "Blatbottle" on occasion. Other characters are often misnamed, including "Count Morinanty" for Count Moriarty, and "Miss Balustrade" for Minnie Bannister. Neddie is always "My Captain". 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. ^[1] 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:

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!"

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.

Bluebottle was based on Ruxton Hayward, 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,^[2] one of several books featuring memoirs and scripts from The Goon Show.

1. ^ The Goon Show Companion, Roger Wilmut and Jimmy Grafton. 1976, Robson Books Ltd, Bolsover. pp 91.
2. ^ The Goons, edited by Norma Evans, Virgin Publishing 1997 ISBN 1-85227-679-7