The Greatest Mountain in the World (VG)

"The Greatest Mountain in the World"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: Vintage Goons Episode: 2
Written by	Spike Milligan
Based on	The Greatest Mountain in the World
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Charles Chilton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: 'Deed I Do Ellington: Run Joe
Recording Numbers	T7/AG/3654 TLO 65469
First broadcast	29 September 1958 (1958-09-29)
Running time	30:40

The Greatest Mountain in the World (aka Mount Everest) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the second show in the Vintage Goons series and was based on the series 4 episode 23 show: 'The Greatest Mountain in the World'. There was a pre-recording rehearsal show at 4.30pm Sunday 20 October 1957, but the show was actually recorded later at 8.30pm. Both the pre-recording and recording was done at The Camden Theatre, London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Monday 29 September 1958 at 8.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 1.1m listeners.

Story

Which is the greatest mountain in the world? Mount Everest, you may say. But you will be wrong. There is one much higher — forty thousand feet: but there is a small snag — it is under the sea, and the problem that comfounds our intrepid mountaineers is whether it should be climbed from the top or the bottom.

Music

• The BBC Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays 'Deed I Do (Walter Hirsh (music) / Fred Rose (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Run Joe (Louis Jordan)

Technical

Originally recorded on T7/AG/3654 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Channel 7 St. Hilda's, Maida Vale). This tape survived intact at TS but was cut about in the production of the PotG issue. Unfortunately the cuts were not kept, and these have been restored from the Vintage Goons disc (10" TS LP).