Ten Snowballs that Shook the World
| "Ten Snowballs that Shook the World" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 8 Episode: 20 8 |
| Written by | Spike Milligan |
| Announcer | Wallace Greenslade |
| Produced by | Charles Chilton |
| Music |
|
| Recording Number | TLO 48542 |
| First broadcast | 10 January 1958 |
| Running time | 29:19 |
Ten Snowballs that Shook the World is the twentieth show in the 8th series.
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).
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.
