King Solomon's Mines

"King Solomon's Mines"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 8 Episode: 10
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Based on	King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Roy Speer
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Lady of Spain Ellington: Route 66
Recording Number	TLO 42899
First broadcast	2 December 1957 (1957-12-02)
Running time	30:15

King Solomon's Mines is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the tenth show in the eighth series.

A pre-recording session (DLO 42899B) took place Sunday 1 December 1957, 6.30pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London. The recording (TLO 42899) for transmission was created later that same Sunday, at 9pm, also at The Camden.

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day, Monday, at 9pm 2 December 1957, its ratings were 1.9 million. It was then repeated on the Light Programme the following Thursday 5 December 1957 at 9pm to 2.6 million listeners. The next repeat was 18 years later on Friday 7 February 1975 at 6.15pm on Radio 4 (except Scotland and Wales) in ‘Encore the Goons’.

Transcription Service Synopsis

Many listeners may be familiar with Rider Haggard's gripping and immortal story of adventure in darkest Africa. If they are, they need not expect to find any resemblance to it in the Goons' version.

Music

• The BBC Orchestera was conducted by Wally Stott.
• Max Geldray plays Lady of Spain (Robert Hargreaves / Tolchard Evans / Stanley J. Damerell / Henry J. Tilsley)
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Route 66 (Bobby Troup).

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 42899 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House). This tape survived intact in TS, and was used for the show included in The Goon Show Compendium Vol 7.