Eccles (character)

Eccles (/ˈɛkəlz/), also referred to as 'The Famous Eccles' or 'Mad Dan Eccles', is the name of a comedy character, created and performed by Spike Milligan, from the 1950s BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show.^[1] In the episode "The Macreekie Rising of '74", Peter Sellers had to fill in for the role in Milligan's absence. Very occasionally, he was referred to as 'Field Marshal' Eccles.

Eccles was one of the show's secondary characters, but like his counterpart

Milligan visualised Eccles as a tall, lanky, amiable, well-meaning, but incredibly stupid teenager who often found himself involved—usually alongside Bluebottle and Neddie Seagoon—in one of the nefarious schemes created by arch-villain Hercules Grytpype-Thynne. As well as being frequently referred to as being something other than an ordinary human, Eccles also possesses remarkable stupidity when dealing with physical objects; in "The Greatest Mountain in the World" he describes two sticks of dynamite as "What luck! Two big cigars and they're both lit!"

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