From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hercules Grytpype-Thynne was a character from the British 1950's comedy radio programme the Goon Show. He was voiced by Peter Sellers.

Grytpype-Thynne is the smooth spoken and sophisticated principal villain on the show, and is usually accompanied by his companion in crime, Count Jim Moriarty. The main plot usually follows an impoverished Grytpype-Thynne thinking up a money making scheme which involves the (usually equally-impoverished) Neddie Seagoon being the fall-guy. In early scripts, however, Grytpype was often cast as a government official, and not necessarily a villain. For instance in The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea he is a police inspector; in The Whistling Spy Enigma he is the secret Government agent who sends Neddie Seagoon to Hungary to booby-trap the boots of the national soccer team; and in The Jet-propelled Guided NAAFI he is Prime Minister Neddie's butler and confidante, but also an undercover Soviet agent plotting with Moriarty to sell the guided NAAFI secrets to the Russians. In later series, he and Moriarty are much further down the respectability scale, often found sharing the same suit, eating newspaper stew, or living up trees, in dustbins, or on top of disused factory chimneys.

Grytpype's relationship with Moriarty goes downhill in later series; he often refers to Moriarty in very insulting tones. The lowest point appears in The Pam's Paper Policy; on the way out of Ray Ellington's musical piece, there is the prolonged sound of clubbing, mixed in with Moriarty's howls of pain, and Grytpype says: "Let that clubbing be a lesson to you, you crutty French schlapper!"

Grytpype sometimes offers Neddie things instead of cigarettes, such as gorillas or pictures of Queen Victoria. this would normally be followed by "No I'm trying to give them up", "No, they hurt my throat", or "I've just put one out" from Neddie. This happened most notably in Rommel's Treasure, The Great International Christmas Pudding and Napoleon's Piano.

In a 1972 book^[1], it was revealed that Hercules Grytpype-Thynne was, in fact, gay. The same authority also intimated that he was the half-brother of Willium "Mate" Cobblers, having the same mother, a certain "Vera Colin".

Sellers revealed in an interview for Irish television that he drew inspiration for the character from actor George Sanders.

1. ^ The Goon Show Scripts, by Spike Milligan Woburn Press, London, ISBN 0-7130-0076-7