The Great Regent's Park Swim
| "The Great Regent's Park Swim" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 8 Episode: 4 |
| Written by | |
| Announcer | Wallace Greenslade |
| Produced by | Charles Chilton |
| Music |
|
| Recording Number | TLO 40052 |
| First broadcast | 21 October 1957 |
| Running time | 30:58 |
The Great Regent's Park Swim is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the fourth show in the eighth series.
The recording for transmission took place Sunday 20 October 1957, 5pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London (TLO 40052).
The first Home Service broadcast was the next day, Monday, at 8.30pm 21 October 1957, its ratings were 1.5 million.
The show was repeated:
- Thursday 9pm, 24 October 1957, on the Light Programme to 3.0 million listeners.
- Sunday 12.00 noon, 8 August 1982 on Radio 4 in Smash of the Day.
Transcription Service Synopsis
This episode is unique. It contains the only fully authenticated recording of the sound of a river being driven by a Chinese. As if that weren't enough. listeners will be enthralled by the fascinating story of the discovery of swimming by the eminent scientists Professors Eidelburger and Yakkamoto. The human guinea pig for the experiment is, of course, Neddie Seagoon.
Music
- The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
- Max Geldray plays No One Ever Tells You (Carroll Coates / Hub Atwood)
- The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Swaller-tail (Barry Kay)
Technical
Originally recorded on TLO 40052 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).
The TLO 40052 master tape no longer exists, and the version of the show included on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 6 was compiled from the TGS disc, the POTG master tape and domestic recordings of both the original transmission and the 1964 repeat.[1]
8/4 - The Great Regent's Park Swim. Originally recorded on TLO 40052. This tape no longer exists, and the C/TLO from Wood Norton was used for this issue, with the opening dialogue attacking BBC planners restored from the TGS disc.
Show Notes
From the The Great Regent's Park Swim show for the next few weeks, Bloodnok would sometimes be heard to sing a bizarre song to a waltz tempo, starting with The Curry and Rice Waltz. Topical humour in the script included comments about BBC planners flying to Europe in conjunction with Eurovision, which the Corporation had joined for the first time the previous March
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2012). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 7 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-4458-9133-0.
