Peter Randolph Eton (28 May 1917 – December 1979) was a producer for BBC radio and television. He was invalided out of the navy after being wounded during the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the n ...

and joined the BBC. He worked at the Variety Department of the BBC from 1951 onwards and oversaw a number of radio series, notably ''

The Goon Show ''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September ...

''. He died in December 1979, at the age of 62.

Biography

Eton studied art before working as an artist and film art director; he joined the Royal Navy at the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, but was invalided out after he was injured by shrapnel during the

. Eton joined the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

in 1941 in the London Transcription Service—a wartime propaganda unit within the BBC—as a producer. After spending time as a features and drama producer, he moved to the Variety Department in 1951. In 1951 Eton worked with Spike Milligan on ''Bumblethorpe''; Milligan wrote the series with Larry Stephens and Peter Ling, and the cast included Milligan himself, Robert Moreton,

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and

Tony Hancock Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, ...

. In the summer of 1952 Eton had pushed within the BBC for a series for

, with the premise of Hancock playing an "estate-agent-cum-bachelor-town-councillor"; a pilot script was commissioned, but the series never materialised. Hancock's biographer John Fisher suggests that Eton was the first person in British broadcasting to use the term "

situation comedy A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

", in a memo dated 31 March 1953, suggesting the format as the ideal vehicle for Hancock's comedic style. In 1952 Eton took over as producer of ''

'', a position he held until 1956. He insisted that the Goons rehearsed properly and pushed for better facilities for the show; Spike Milligan noted that "Peter Eton was the one guy that used to beat the shit out of the sound-effects boys to get the right atmosphere." Towards the end of the sixth series of the Goons, Eton left the show to move to television production and his role was taken by Pat Dixon, although he returned to produce the first two shows of Series 7 after friction between Dixon and Milligan. In 1954 he then produced the BBC radio series ''The Starlings''. Eton was married to Squirrel. He died at his home in Sussex in December 1979, aged 62.

Selected credits

* ''Picture Parade'' (Radio, 1946–48) * ''This BBC'' (Radio, 11 November 1947—Special programme to mark the BBC silver jubilee) * ''Bumblethorpe'' (Radio, 1951) * ''Meet the Huggetts'' (Radio, 1953-1957) * ''

'' (Radio, 1952–1956) * ''The Starlings'' (Radio, 1954) * ''My Wildest Dream'' (Radio, 1955) * ''

The Army Game ''The Army Game'' is a British television sitcom that aired on ITV from 19 June 1957 to 20 June 1961. It was the very first ITV sitcom and was made by Granada, and created by Sid Colin. It follows the exploits of Hut 29, a dysfunctional gro ...

'' (TV, 1960) * ''

Bootsie and Snudge ''Bootsie and Snudge'' is a British sitcom that aired on ITV for three series from 1960 to 1963, with a fourth in 1974. The show is a spin-off of ''The Army Game'', a sitcom about soldiers undertaking national service, and follows two of the ma ...

'' (TV, 1960–63) * ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

'' (TV, 1964) * ''Colonel Trumper's Private War'' (TV, 1961) * ''Comedy Four'' (TV, 1963) * '' A Little Big Business'' (TV, 1963–65) * ''Mr. Aitch'' (TV, 1967) * '' Carry On Christmas Specials'' (TV, 1969 & 1970) * ''Quest for Love'' (Film, 1971) * ''Le Petomane'' (TV, 1979)

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eton, Peter 1917 births 1979 deaths British radio producers BBC radio producers The Goon Show British film producers Royal Navy personnel of World War II