Michael Bentine (January 26, 1922 - November 26, 1996) was a comedian, comic actor, and member of the Goons. January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... November 26 is the 330th day (331st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... A comedian (also comedienne, female) is a person who attempts to make people laugh through a variety of methods, normally through joke telling, or a stream of funny banter. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... It has been suggested that The Teahouse of the August Goon be merged into this article or section. ...

Bentine was born in Watford, of Anglo-Peruvian parentage and grew-up in Folkestone, Kent. He was educated in Eton College. In World War II he served as an RAF Intelligence officer, and took part in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He had acted before the war, and afterwards he decided to become a comedian, specialising in off-the-wall humour, often involving cartoons and other types of animation. For example, a prominent feature of his series, It's a Square World, was the imaginary flea circus. Watford is a town and district (styled as borough due to the historical charter granted by Henry VIII) just to the north-west of London. ... The term Anglo can be used as a prefix to indicate a relation to England, as in the phrases Anglo-American or Anglo-America. It is also used, somewhat loosely, to refer to a person or people of English or British ethnicity in North America. ... Map sources for Folkestone at grid reference TR2236 Folkestone is a coastal resort town in the Shepway district of Kent, England. ... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a public school (that is, an independent, fee-charging secondary school) for boys. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Bergen-Belsen, sometimes referred to as just Belsen, was a German concentration camp in the Nazi era. ... A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... Animation is the illusion of motion created by the consecutive display of images of static elements. ... A flea circus refers to a circus sideshow attraction in which fleas were attached to miniature carts and other items, and encouraged to perform circus acts within a small housing. ...

He was also a television presenter and writer. A television presenter is a British term for a person who is known for introducing or hosting television programmes. ...

He appeared in the Goon Show film Down Among the Z Men, and at the time seemed perhaps the most comfortable of the cast in working in a visual medium. The Goon Show was a hugely popular and extremely influential British radio comedy programme, which was originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. ...

During the 1960's he also took part in the first Hovercraft expedition up the Amazon river. A U.S. Navy hovercraft attached to the Amphibious assault ship Kearsarge (LHD-3) michael bradley was here A hovercraft, or air-cushion vehicle, is a vehicle or craft that can be supported by a cushion of air ejected downwards against a surface close below it, and can in principle... See also explorations, sea explorers, astronaut, conquistador, travelogue, the History of Science and Technology and Biography. ... The Amazon River (occasionally River Amazon; Spanish: Río Amazonas, Portuguese: Rio Amazonas) of South America is one of the two longest rivers on Earth, the other being the Nile in Africa. ...

His interests included parapsychology; this is a result of his and his families extensive research into the paranomral which resulted in him writing the 'The Door Marked Summer' and the "The Doors of the mind". Parapsychology is the study of the evidence involving phenomena where a person seems to affect or to gain information about something through a means not currently explainable within the framework of mainstream, conventional science. ...

Appeared in:

• The Goon Show (1950-52)
• Round the Bend in Thirty Minutes (1959)
• It's a Square World (1960-64)
• The Golden Silents (1965)
• Michael Bentine's Potty Time (1973-80)
• ...and many other programmes

It has been suggested that The Teahouse of the August Goon be merged into this article or section. ... Its a Square World was a ground breaking British comedy show, starring Michael Bentine and was produced by BBC. It ran from 1960. ... Michael Bentines Potty Time was a long-running childrens show made by Themes TV. Categories: Television stubs ...

External link

• http://www.rbadsign.demon.co.uk/michaelbentine.html
• The Spike Milligan Appreciation Society