Operation Christmas Duff

"Operation Christmas Duff"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 7 Episode: Special
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Pat Dixon
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Sweet Lorraine Ellington: Ol' Man River
Recording Number	TLO 17962
First broadcast	24 December 1956 (1956-12-24)
Running time	30:23

The Seagoon Memoirs is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the seventh show in the ninth series.

SPECIAL: Operation Christmas Duff (CD6,Track 11) Recording: Sunday 9 December 1956, 7 pm,Aeolian I.TLO 17962 First Genero/ Overseas Service Broadcast Tuesday 25 December 1956, 5.30pm [Mediterranean]/ 10. ISpm [Antarctica] First Domestic Broadcast Thursday 25 December 1986, 12.27 noon. [Radio 4] Script Book Synopsis: Entrusted with the task of driving a giant Christmas pudding to the Forces Overseas (minus one slice destined for the TransAntarctic Expedition), Eccles and Bluebottle run into trouble in the shape of two starving ne'er-do-wells, Moriarty and Grytpype. Meanwhile, in the icy arctic wastes, their strength ebbing away.Admiral Seagoon and Major Bloodnok are on the horns of a classic dilemma: whether to have their pudding, or eat it. The choice is agonising ...

Music: Max Geld ray plays Sweet Lorraine (Cliff Burwell/Mitchell Parish); The Ray Ellington Quartet plays 0/' Man River 0erome Kern).

Two pre-recording sessions took place:

• Wednesday 28 January 1959, 4.15pm/5.15pm. Aeolian Hall Studio 2 (TLO & C/DLO 76382, TLO 77924)
• Saturday 1 February 1959, 5.45pm, The Paris Cinema (DLO 76513/A)

The recording for transmission was created at 8pm on Sunday 14 December 1958, at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London (TLO 72138).

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day at 8.30pm on Monday 15 December 1958, its ratings were 1.1 million.

The show was repeated:

• Wednesday 9.31pm, 17 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 10 was compiled from the TGS disc, the POTG master tape and domestic recordings of both the original transmission and the 1964 repeat.

SP - Operation Christmas Duff Originally recorded on TLO 17962. This tape survived in TS, and has been used for this issue. I prepared this show for its first domestic transmission in 1986, and have to admit to some re-editing.This arose because, for some reason, the audience on this Goon Show didn't laugh very much. The Telephone was recorded on the same evening, after this show if the tape numbers are any guide, so maybe the audience hadn't warmed up.Whatever the cause was, Pat Dixon found it necessary to splice several laughs into the tape.The joins showed, and some laughs were obviously in the wrong place. The engineer who did the editing evidently thought so, too - there is a note in the tape log saying 'producer states OK for GOS transmission' (in other words - 'I was told to do this and pointed out the faults, but Pat says it'll be all right for transmission on shon wave1. Given this history, I felt it was appropriate to remove some spurious laughs and tidy up otherso