The Expedition for Toothpaste

"The Expedition for Toothpaste"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 3 Episode: 5
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Andrew Timothy
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	Orchestra Conductor: Wally Stott Geldray: Lady is a Tramp Ellington: Got a Brand New Suit My Very Good Friend, the Milkman
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 18848
First broadcast	9 December 1952 (1952-12-09)

The Expedition for Toothpaste (aka Show 47) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the fifth show in the third series. The show was recorded at 9.30pm on Sunday 1952-12-07 December 1952 The recording took place at Piccadilly, 16 Denman Street, London. Due to illness, Milligan was absent from this episode.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday 9 December 1952 at 9.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 2.2m. Its first repeat on the Light Programme at 4.30pm on Sunday 14 December 1952 increased the peak listernship to 5.1m.

Sketches

There's a Moose loose aboot the hoose, eh...

• Handsome Harry Secombe is informed by Moriarty that if he can marry before his rich Aunt Henrietta dies, he will inherit a million pounds.
• The Expedition for Toothpaste: Commander Burke investigates reports of toothpaste below the Sahara Desert.
• Sportsmen Henry Crun, Sam Secombe and Eccles embark on the annual Canadian Moose hunting season.

Music

• Max Geldray plays Lady is a Tramp (Richard Rodgers (music) / Lorenz Hart (lyrics)).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Got a Brand New Suit (Howard Deitz (music) / Arthur Schwartz (lyrics)) / My Very Good Friend, the Milkman (Johnny Burke (music) / Harold Spina (lyrics).

Show Trivia

• At the start of December, the strain became too much for Spike. He was exhausted from writing and performing, June (his wife) had been in terrible pain with a breast abscess, and Laura (his newly born daughter) had been ill from shortly after her birth. In addition, Peter Eton was asking for early delivery on scripts, and Peter Sellers wanted to drop by at all hours to discuss ideas with his friend. Spike began to hallucinate. Taking a potato knife, he made his way to Peter’s flat, later explaining: ‘I was so mad that I thought that if I killed Peter it would all come right. I think I just wanted them to lock me up. I was totally demented. Poor Peter hadn’t done anything.’
• Spike was hospitalized for a few weeks in Muswell Hill. Strait-jacketed and in isolation, within days he wanted to be back at work writing The Goon Show – which he saw as his only means of supporting his wife and daughter. His therapists however wanted him to rest and he was given sedatives, with the doctors and nurses taking pencils away from him to enforce rest.

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 18848 (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).