The Thing on the Mountain

"The Thing on the Mountain"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 8 Episode: 15
Written by	Spike Milligan Maurice Wiltshire
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Tom Ronald
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: My Heart Stood Still Ellington: Long Black Nylons
Recording Number	TLO 45929
First broadcast	6 January 1958 (1958-01-06)
Running time	30:27

SHOW 8/15: The Thing on the Mountain (CD 7,Track 11) Pre-recording: Sunday 6 January 1958. 5pm. Camden.TLO 45929A.

Recording: Sunday 6 January 1958. 9pm. Camden.TLO 45929.

First Home Service Broadcast: Monday 6 January 1958, 8.30pm. Ratings: 1.9 million.

Repeat:Thursday 9 January 1958, 9pm. 2.6 million [Light Programme]

Audio GO Synopsis: Our story opens at the bottom of the great Mount Snowdon in a little Welsh village ... One bitter winter night, all of a sudden running down the mountain comes a terror-stricken madman. It seems a monster is on the mountain - and it must be captured! This sounds like a job for Neddie Seagoon - especially as there's a five pound reward. Meanwhile, in a small pigsty nearby, it is feeding time with Moriarty and Grytpype-Thynne.They're happy to help Neddie find the monster and offer him a Snow master Mountaineering Kit: a box of matches. As Seagoon searches the lower slopes of the mountain, he gets help from mountaineering expert Major Bloodnok who can get Neddie to the top of the mountain in two seconds. But his aim's off and Neddie finds himself at the top of Blackpool Tower instead - without a ticket.

Music: Max Geldray plays My Heart Stood Still (Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart): The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Long Black Nylons (Don Raye/Sonny Burke).

The Thing on the Mountain is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the fifteenth show in the eighth series.

A pre-recording (DLO 25010) session took place Sunday 17 February 1957, 5pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London. The recording (TLO 22507) for transmission was created later that same Sunday, also at The Camden, at 9pm.

The first Home Service broadcast was the broadcast was the next day, Monday, at 8.30pm 3 January 1957, its ratings were 2.6 million.

The show was repeated on the following Thursday at 9.30pm, 26 December 1958, on the Light Programme to 2.3 million listeners.

• Friday 9.30pm, 6 March 1964 on the Home Service in Vintage Goons, to 0.5 million listeners.
• Friday 9.30pm, 20 August 1965 on the Home Service in Let's Laugh Again, to 0.2 million listeners (the broadcast was affected by a fault on the reproduction equipment).

Transcription Service Synopsis

'To open the scene, take a knife and cut along the dotted line. Inside you will find the Great North Road in an icy blizzard.' This is how Spike Milligan describes the setting for the start of the latest unexpurgated edition of Seagoon's memoirs. Listeners can, in fact, buy a copy (in a plain sealed envelope) at any local Second Class Slipper Bath.

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays I Kiss Your Little Hand, Madame (Ralph Erwin (music) / Fritz Rotter (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays The Late Late Show (Murray Berlin (music) / Roy Alfred (lyrics))

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 72138 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).

The TLO 72138 master tape no longer exists, and the version of the show included on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 6 was compiled from the TGS disc, the POTG master tape and domestic recordings of both the original transmission and the 1964 repeat.

8/15 -The Thing on the Mountain. Originally recorded on TLO 45929.This tape no longer exists.and the TGS master tape was destroyed in 1963.This issue has therefore been compiled from the TGS disc and a domestic recording of the original transmission.