The Silent Bugler
| "The Silent Bugler" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 4 Episode: 25 |
| Written by | Spike Milligan |
| Announcer | Wallace Greenslade |
| Produced by | Peter Eton |
| Music |
|
| Recording Number | TLO 50871 |
| First broadcast | 14 March 1954 |
| Running time | 28:51 |
The Silent Bugler is an episode from The Goon Show, it was also known as The Case of Agent X2, in fact, the closest there was to an official announcement was "…take the case of Agent X2". It is the twenty-fifth show in the fourth series. The show was recorded at 9pm on Sunday 14 March 1954 The recording was made at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.
The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Monday 15 March 1954 at 8.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 2.3m.
The show's first repeat was the following Saturday morning at 8.45am, 20 March 1954, on the Home Service. It was listened to by 1.1 million.
Transcription Service Remake Synopsis
Secret Agent X2 (in other words Captain Neddie Seagoon) is called to MI5 and told that the Russians have perfected a time machine, with which they can go forward into the future and, once there, build planes that travel faster than the speed of light. The Russian Intelligence has a deadly counter-spy — The Silent Bugler. This is the story of Seagoon's mission, which ends successfully in the Dresden Opera House.
Music
- The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
- Max Geldray plays You're Driving Me Crazy (Walter Donaldson)
- The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Lover, Come Back to Me (Sigmund Romberg (music) / Oscar Hammerstein (lyrics))
Technical
Originally recorded on TLO 50871 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).[1]
Ted Kendall's Restoration
The recording on Compendium 14 came from the same acetate disc collection that yielded 4/18. The opening was complete, and the closing sig substituted from another show. The 'Senator Vanderschmidt' sequence near the beginning is an excellent impression of of the short-wave reception that was the source of much foreign news material at the time, prior to the introduction of communication satellites — the distortion, interference, fading and muffling on Sellers' voice are very realistic.[2]
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.
