The Case of the Vanishing Room
| "The Case of the Vanishing Room" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 4 Episode: 21 |
| Written by | Spike Milligan |
| Announcer | Wallace Greenslade |
| Produced by | Peter Eton |
| Music |
|
| Recording Number | TLO 49191 |
| First broadcast | 15 February 1954 |
| Running time | 28:09 |
The Case of the Vanishing Room is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twenty-first show in the fourth series. The show was recorded at 9pm on Sunday 14 February 1954 The recording was made at the Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.
The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Monday 15 February 1954 at 8.30pm (except Midlands, Scotland, Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 1.1m.
The show's first repeat was the following Saturday at 8.45am, 20 February 1954, on the Home Service. It was listened to by 0.8 million.
Transcription Service Remake Synopsis
In the charming hamlet of Brodley-on-Cleet lives Lord Cretinby in his country seat, secure, so he thinks, of reaching a ripe old age. But he is shot, poisoned and stabbed by an unknown assailant who, to hide his tracks, removes not only the body, but also the scene of the crime to an unfashionable hotel in Paris. Inspector Neddie Seagoon is once again responsible for solving the mystery.
Music
- The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
- Max Geldray plays Somebody Stole My Gal (Leo Wood)
- The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Ida! Sweet as Apple Cider (Eddie Leonard / Eddie Munson) / I Wish I Were Twins (Edgar DeLange / Frank Loesser / Joseph Meyer)
Technical
Originally recorded on TLO 49191 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).
Ted Kendall's Restoration
Unlike the other acetates used in his restorations the disc containing this show were problematic. The first minut or so had a groove so shallow that it could not be consistently tracked, and noises of poor swarf control or a blunt cutter plagued the rest of the show. The opening minute was reconstructed using original material where possible, otherwise using material from the Vintage Goons remake, and the extraneous noises were tackled by using the quieter groove wall and removing the remaining disturbances by hand — several thousand of them. The closing sig, being truncated, was restored from another show in the series.[1]
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.
