The Man Who Never Was (s8e21)

"The Man Who Never Was"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 8 Episode: 21
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Based on	The Man Who Never Was
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Charles Chilton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Makin' Whoopee! Ellington: Will You Still Be Mine?
Recording Number	TLO 49421
First broadcast	17 February 1958 (1958-02-17)
Running time	29:28

The Man Who Never Was is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twenty-first show in the eighth series.

A pre-recording (DLO 49421B) session took place Sunday 16 February 1958, 6.30pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London. The recording (TLO 49421) for transmission was created later that same Sunday, also at The Camden, at 9pm.

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day, Monday, at 8.30pm 17 February 1958, its ratings were 1.5 million.

The show was repeated on the following Thursday at 10pm, 20 February 1958, on the Light Programme to 2.3 million listeners. Then repeated again in later years…

• Friday 9.30pm, 28 February 1964 on the Home Service in Vintage Goons, to 0.6 million listeners.
• Tuesday 10.30pm, 16 August 1977 on Radio 4 in The Golden Oldies.

Radio Times Repeat Synopsis

What is the significance of a pair of unoccupied boots on the seashore, and will the Germans be fooled by the body of Field-Marshal Eccles Montgoonery! Or will you be fooled as usual!

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays Makin' Whoopee! (Walter Donaldson (music) / Gus Kahn (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Will You Still Be Mine? (Tom Adair / Matt Dennis)

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 49421 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House). This tape survived in TS, and was used for the version of the show included on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 8.

Show Notes

• It had been decided that no new script would be written for the next Home Service recording; instead, The Man Who Never Was script from 1956 would be given a quick revision and act as the basis for further improvisation that Sunday; on Thursday 13, a recovering Roy Speer indicated that ‘Spike Milligan is not well enough to write a show this week’.

• The Man Who Never Was was heavily ad-libbed with unscripted appearances from Spriggs, Lalkaka and Banajee as well as the changing of various dubious names; ‘Colonel Minge’ became Colonel Gore while ‘Hugh Jampton’ was renamed Frank Furter.

• The recording was attended by the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra; the princess had attended a previous taping back in December 1957, and this time Spike was better prepared to receive the royal party. ‘I told the Princess I liked her new hair-do a lot better than her last one. She laughed,’ Spike told the Daily Express next day. On Thursday 20, Head of Light Entertainment Pat Hillyard informed the production team…

  ‘This is just to let you know that Mr Phillip Hay, Secretary to the Duchess of Kent, has ‘phoned me on behalf of the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra to say how much they enjoyed their visit to The Goon Show on Sunday night, and being able to meet some of the cast afterwards. Would you kindly convey this to all concerned.’