McGough was responsible for much of the humorous dialogue in the Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine, although he did not receive an on-screen credit.[19]
On 2 March 1978, McGough appeared in All You Need Is Cash, a mockumentary detailing the career of a Beatles-like group called the Rutles. Interviewed by Eric Idle, the introduction of McGough takes so long that he is only asked one question, "Did you know the Rutles?" to which McGough cheerfully responds "Oh yes", before the documentary is forced to move along to other events. In 1980 he recited a high-speed one-minute version of Longfellow's poem "The Wreck of the Hesperus", complete with sound effects, on the album Miniatures produced by Morgan Fisher.[20]
One of McGough's more unusual compositions was created in 1981, when he co-wrote an "electronic poem" called Now Press Return with the programmer Richard Warner for inclusion with the Welcome Tape of the BBC Micro home computer.[21] Now Press Return incorporated several novel themes, including user-defined elements to the poem, lines which changed their order (and meaning) every few seconds, and text which wrote itself in a spiral around the screen.[22] He contributed poetry to and narrated a programme in 1991 for Channel 4 called Equinox: The Elements about the elements.[23] He made a guest appearance on quiz panel show QI in 2006.
Three plays written by the 17th-century French playwright Molière have been translated by McGough and directed by Gemma Bodinetz. Tartuffe premièred at the Liverpool Playhouse in May 2008 and transferred subsequently to the Rose Theatre, Kingston.[24] The Hypochondriac (The Imaginary Invalid) was staged at the Liverpool Playhouse in July 2009.[25] The Misanthrope was staged at the Liverpool Playhouse in February–March 2013 before touring with the English Touring Theatre.
McGough has also done some voiceover work narrating The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories by Eric Carle,[26] and TV advertisements for the supermarket chain Waitrose.[27][28]
He is a patron of Barnes Literary Society.[29] In 2019 he became the President of Arts Richmond for one year.[30][31]
