Ten Snowballs that Shook the World

"Ten Snowballs that Shook the World"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 8 Episode: 20
Written by	Spike Milligan
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Charles Chilton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: I Can't Get Started Ellington: Buona Sera'
Recording Number	TLO 48542
First broadcast	10 January 1958 (1958-01-10)
Running time	29:19

Ten Snowballs that Shook the World is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twentieth show in the 8th series.

A pre-recording (DLO 48542A) session took place Sunday 9 February 1958, 6.30pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London. The recording (TLO 48542) for transmission was created later that same Sunday, also at The Camden, at 9.45pm.

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day, Monday, at 8.30pm 10 February 1958, its ratings were 1.9 million. The show was repeated on the following Thursday at 10pm, 13 February 1958, on the Light Programme to 2.3 million listeners.

Transcription Service Synopsis

Asked to describe Ten Snowballs that Shook The World, Spike Milligan gazed quizzically at the waiting microphone before he enlightened us with these words: ‘This has no story and is basically a fantasia!’ While whole-heartedly endorsing this analysis of the programme, it is perhaps relevant to add that all the usual characters are involved - Bluebottle, Bloodnok, Eccles, and Messrs. Banajee and Lalkaka.

Story

The London Stock Exchange, 1882. Tin, wool and rain are falling, and there's been talk of the Bank Rate going up. Has there been a leak? Why? They saw a plumber going in. Sterling is in danger — it's dropped from F sharp to E flat — and Exchange Runner Neddie is entrusted with putting it in the key of G. He plans to raffle the Equator to save the Pound whilst wily Bluebottle cashes in by singing his famous ‘Sewer Song’, ‘There is nothing wrong with a good old British pong’. Yes folks, it's a real stinker!

Music

• The BBC Orchestra is conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays I Can't Get Started (Vernon Duke (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Buona Sera (Carl Sigman and Peter de Rose).

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 48542 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).

This tape survived in TS, but was cut for the POTG issue, and the cuts were not kept, so the version of the show included on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 8 was compiled from the TGS master tape and domestic recordings of the original transmission.

Show Notes

• The Ten Snowballs that Shook the World script by Spike which took its title from Ten Days that Shook the World, a 1919 eye-witness account of the Russian October Revolution written by John Reed, a founder of the Communist Party in the USA.
• The script included numerous instances of Seagoon encouraging people to go and see Davy – Harry Secombe's first major starring movie which had now gone on general release – and although some of these were cut from the script, many were retained.
• A long opening prologue to the show about Peter Sellers’ obsession with cars and Wallace Greenslade explaining that this was a ‘private joke between Peter Sellers and the cast’ was also removed.
• Harmonica player Max Geldray and the Ray Ellington Quartet all recorded their musical items in advance of the main taping, and the other musical element for the show was the song Sewers of the Strand as sung by the schoolboy character Bluebottle; this too was re-recorded by Spike for Parlophone in 1960 as the other side to I'm Walking Out with a Mountain.