The Scarlet Capsule

"The Scarlet Capsule"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 9 Episode: 14
Written by	Spike Milligan
Based on	Quatermass
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	John Browell
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby Ellington: After You've Gone
Recording Number	TLO 76513
First broadcast	2 February 1959 (1959-02-02)
Running time	28:23
Guest appearances
Andrew Timothy (pre-recorded and uncredited)

The Scarlet Capsule is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the fourteenth 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 9pm on Sunday 1 February 1959, at The Paris Cinema, 12 Lower Regent Street in central London.

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day at 8.30pm on Monday 2 February 1959, its ratings were 0.8 million.

The show was repeated:

• Wednesday 9.31pm, 4 February 1959, on the Light Programme to 1.9 million listeners.
• Thursday 7.30pm, 10 March 1960 on the Home Service to 0.5 million listeners.
• Monday 11pm, 16 November 1992 on the Radio 4.
• Thursday 11pm, 23 April 1998 on the Radio 4 (unscheduled).

Transcription Service Synopsis

This is a story in true science fiction style. An Unexplained Thing is discovered deep in the earth beneath London. It soon becomes obvious that it has arrived there from outer space but how and when, nobody knows. There is no doubt, however, of the extraordinary effect that the Thing has on Londoners, or of the horrific solution.

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby (Jimmy McHugh / Dorothy Fields)
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays After You've Gone (Turner Layton / Henry Creamer)

Roger Wilmut's note

Announced as "Quatermass OBE". The show is a parody of the highly successful BBC TV serial Quatermass and the Pit. Andrew Timothy, who is pre-recorded, reads announcements at the beginning and end of the show that were originally intended to have been read by John Snagge.

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 76513 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).

The TLO 76513 master tape survived until 1970, when it was erased in a purge of Goon Shows thought to be of no further use to TS. The version of the show found on Compendium 11 was compiled from a combination of a commercial version, the TGS disc and a domestic recording of the original transmission.