The Pevensey Bay Disaster
| "The Pevensey Bay Disaster" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 6 Episode: 10 |
| Written by | |
| Announcer | Wallace Greenslade |
| Produced by | Peter Eton |
| Music |
|
| Recording Number | TLO 90647 |
| First broadcast | 3 April 1956 |
| Running time | 31:53 |
The Pevensey Bay Disaster is an episode from The Goon Show. It was originally scheduled to be the tenth show in the sixth series. However, due to a serious train crash in Didcot (10 deaths and 116 injured), and a plot line in the show where a train crashes, it was decided to not air the show at its scheduled time of 8.30pm on Tuesday 22 November 1955. The show was replaced with a repeat of series five's China Story. Likewise, the scheduled Saturday Light Programme repeat was replaced with Family Favourites.
The show was recorded at 9pm on Sunday 20 November 1955. The recording took place at the Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London.
The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday 3 April 1956 at 8.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 2.6m. This was the last, non-special show of the series, the equivalent of episode twenty-eight.
The show's script was rewritten to exclude the train crash element and was broadcast as the series six, episode fifteen show, The Hastings Flyer — Robbed.
Script Book Synopsis for the Hastings Flyer — Robbed:
Our story begins on the night of the Great English Blizzard. Owing to a sever outbreak of hand-typing on his snow-plough, Neddie Seagoon, engine driver extraordinary, has been foiled in his valiant attempt to clear the line between Hastings and Pevensey Bay for the Hastings Flyer. His hi-jacked snow-plough races on through the night – at the wheel two unscrupulous down and out MPs with a dastardly plan to wreck the Flyer. Things look pretty hopeless for Neddie as he lies bound hand and foot in a snow drift. Meanwhile, midnight ticks nearer and nearer… And a signal box west of Pevensey Bay station, the crime of the century is about to be committed…
Music
- The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
- Max Geldray plays One, Two, Button Your Shoe (Johnny Burke (lyrics) / Arthur Johnston (music))
- The Ray Ellington Quartet plays I Want You To Be My Baby (Jon Hendricks)
Technical
Originally recorded on TLO 90647 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House). This tape no longer exists, and the version included on Compendium Vol 3 was compiled from the TGS disc, the POTG master tape and a domestic tape recording.[1]
Show Notes
- Planning ahead for Christmas on Friday 9 December. Assistant Head of Variety, Jim Davidson, indicated that two programmes would have to be recorded on Sunday 18 December, and noted that one of these could be a fresh version of the unbroadcast The Pevensey Bay Disaster, but with all references to a train crash deleted. So Spike made minimal changes to the script and, now entitled The Hastings Flyer — Robbed, it was recorded on Sunday 18 December before The Greenslade Story.
- The trio were back in London taping The Pevensey Bay Disaster. Unfortunately, the same day there was a serious derailment of a passenger train at Milton in which eleven people were killed. Suddenly a comedy show about a railway became decidedly less funny. In place of the recorded show, China Story – a popular edition from the previous series and one of Spike's favourites – was put out in its place on Tuesday, while the Light Programme replaced that week's Saturday repeat with Family Favourites on 'financial grounds'.
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2009). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 3 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4084-1044-8.
