Nineteen-Eighty-Five (2)

"Nineteen-Eighty-Five"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 5 Episode: 20
Written by	Spike Milligan, Eric Sykes
Based on	Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: I Don't Know Why Ellington: Shake, Rattle and Roll
Recording Number	TLO 71798
First broadcast	8 February 1955 (1955-02-08)
Running time	29:02
Guest appearance
John Snagge (pre-recorded)

Nineteen-Eighty-Five is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twentieth show in the fifth series. This show was a repeat, due to popular demand, of 5/15. Unusually this wasn't a taped repeat, but a brand new performance with some slight differences. The script had been retyped and incorporated all but one of the edits from the earlier show. This show features John Snagge in a pre-recorded segment reading the telescreen announcement near the beginning. In 5/15 this was read by Sellers.

The show was recorded at 8.15pm on Sunday 30 January 1955. The recording took place at the Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London. John Snagge's announcement segment was recorded on Thursday 27 January 1955 (TLO 72160).

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday 8 February 1955 at 8.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 3.0m.

The show's first repeat was the following Friday at 12.25pm/12.30pm (depending on area), 11 January 1955, on the Home Service. It was listened to by 2.3 million.

Synopsis

The action takes place in the shallow-end of an open air swimming bath in Woodmansterne and on the grass verge of the Great North Road. This play is unsuitable for human beings, young horses, and Alderman John Snagge.

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Bruce Campbell
• Max Geldray plays I Don't Know Why (Fred Ahlert / Roy Turk)
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Shake, Rattle and Roll (Jesse Stone)

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 71798 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).

Ted Kendall's Restoration

The original recorded tape no longer exists, and the version that appears on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 2 was compiled from two domestic, off-air, recordings. One comprising approximately 20 minutes of the show, in quite exceptional quality and the other equally dreadful. Unfortunately these are now the only available sources.