Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister

Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister are two of the characters from the 1950s United Kingdom radio comedy series The Goon Show. Crun and Min are performed by Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, respectively. In the episode "The Macreekie Rising of '74", Sellers had to do the voice role of Minnie Bannister in Milligan's absence. They are both elderly, and often play significant roles in the story. Neither appears to be particularly bright. In one incident, Henry claimed to have an idea, forgot it, remembered it, told Minnie, forgot it again, was told by Minnie and then declared, "What a good idea." Minnie then went on to ask what was a good idea. Minnie (or "Modern Min") is a fan of "modern, sinful dancing".

In conjunction with being a modern, sinful dancer, Minnie is also a modern, sinful music lover, and something of a wunderkind when it comes to expression of music that drives Henry wild. She has been caught playing the Paganini Violin Sonata on the soup spoon while stirring soup with a violin, flirtations with George Chisholm's trombone, and the omnipresent Saxophone.

In "The Affair Of The Lone Banana", Neddie Seagoon went to Henry Crun's shipping office to book a passage to Guatemala to search for Fred Nurke. For a good three minutes, Henry appeared to be taking down Neddie's details, asking him to spell everything, usually more than once, and even falling asleep before finally saying, "It's no good, I'll have to get a pencil and some paper and write all this down."

In "The Mighty Wurlitzer", Neddie is at Daytona Beach, attempting to break the world land speed record for cinema organs; he discovers that Henry and Minnie are trying to achieve the same thing, while wearing knitted crash-helmets.

In "Dishonoured - Again", Neddie is rescued by Minnie and Henry in their motor car, which arrives with many backfires, honking etc. As they come to a halt, the car expires dramatically, with a slowed down klaxon noise, ending in a plop, and the sound of small pieces of metal falling to the ground. Henry remarks: "Oh dear Min, the wick in the engine's gone out!"

In "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea", after surviving both a German and a British bombing attack caused by lighting a match to see the batter pudding that had been hurled at Minnie, Henry introduces her to Seagoon (playing a policeman) as "Minnie Bannister, the world-famous poker player. Give her a good poker and she'll play any tune you like."

In "The Vanishing Room", Crun is the local police constable in Brodley-on-Cleat, and upon the arrival of Ned Seagoon, Minnie panics about the door (with Crun falling asleep), they sing an impromptu piece of music based around the word "knock" before Crun attempts to hold off Seagoon with an eiderdown (despite asking for a loaded dishcloth immediately previously). Upon learning that Seagoon was on an official visit and thus Crun had to put his helmet on, Crun comments "It'll mean repotting the geraniums," and Minnie adds "And the baby too."

Henry wears false teeth, as demonstrated in the episode "The Whistling Spy Enigma", when they fall out during his whistling. He is also bald, as when Neddie told him he wouldn't harm a hair on his head, he declared, "If you can find a hair on my head I'll pay you for it."

It is also suggested that both these characters form part of the band, a note made in the episode "Scradge". Minnie plays the saxophone and Henry plays a carpet loom (but Minnie put the safety catch on before leaving him alone).

Both Crun and Minnie would often welcome others with the word "Morrrrrning!", repeated again and again. Another of Crun's catchphrases was "You can't get the wood, you know..."

In "The Last Goon Show Of All", they were found driving the easy rider piano.

Spin-Offs

Jef Raskin once ran a technical-writing firm called Bannister & Crun, which produced manuals for computers and software. In the late 1970s, he accepted a contract with the startup company Apple Computer. B&C became the Publications Department at Apple, setting high standards for the personal-computer industry.