The ₤50 Cure

"The ₤50 Cure"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 9 Episode: 17
Written by	Spike Milligan
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	John Browell
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: (I'll Be with You) In Apple Blossom Time Ellington: 'Tain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)
Recording Number	TLO 78107
First broadcast	23 February 1959 (1959-02-23)
Running time	29:56
Guest appearances
Kenneth Connor No Harry Secombe

The ₤50 Cure is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the seventeenth, and final, show in the ninth series.

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.

Note

When Spike submitted his final script, The £50 Cure, John Browell was unsure about the cast signing off with a chorus of Ivor Novello's sentimental We'll Gather Lilacs. When John indicated that he would like to cut this, Spike responded, ‘It is just too bad if you don't see the point in it. Harry Secombe thinks that it is funny, and so does Peter Sellers… I've spoken to [Assistant Head of Light Entertainment (Sound)] Jim Davidson about it and told him how I feel so I'd be grateful if you would understand quite clearly now that I don't want to cut it out of the recording. If it is I shall just kick up merry hell’

A few days later Browell messaged Milligan with ‘I have left your We'll Gather Lilacs in, so that we end up the series with a feeling of sweet violets and all that… Hope you have a pleasant trip to Australia.’

Audience Research Report

An Audience Research Report on The £50 Cure gave John Browell feedback from 339 listeners on Thursday 12 March 1959. While a minority continued to dismiss the series as ‘nonsensical rubbish’ a large group of fans found it ‘completely enjoyable’ with a Bank Clerk commenting, ‘The script was magnificent. Its originality, its many off-beat irreverences, its unpredictable distorted logic, combined to make a fitting and memorable end to the series.’ Some listeners had found the show disjointed, and generally attributed any short-comings to Harry's absence.

The report was longer than usual and covered several other aspects, noting ‘Rumours that this might be the very last Goon Show of all caused great dismay among a large proportion or the sample’ with a Clerk/Typist commenting, ‘Steam Radio without the Goons is like Christmas cake without the icing.’ Amongst the usual negative comments however, it was noted that ‘This series was frequently compared unfavourably with those of several years ago.’

The report concluded with seven extended quotations from listener's reports, many of which echoed the same theme. ‘Six years ago this was probably the most original, most topical, wittiest show on radio. Year by year it has deteriorated to its present level. Occasionally in this series, it has produced some of its former sparkle, but all too seldom,’ wrote a Photo-Process Engineer. The end of the series was also marked by a letter from Henry O'Brien of London in the Radio Times on Friday 13 March 1959: ‘It is not only the uproarious comedy that makes the Goon Shows so fabulous. It is also the completely unexpected things that occur in them… for the Goon series to finish is not just the end of a brilliant show; it is the end of a host of strange characters that have become our friends, very dear friends.’