The Telephone

"The Telephone"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 7 Episode: 1
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: The High and the Mighty Ellington: Mr. Sandman / I Ain't Got Nobody
Recording Number	TLO 52769
First broadcast	29 March 1954 (1954-03-29)
Running time	30:29

The Seagoon Memoirs is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the seventh show in the ninth series.

SHOW 163 (7/11):TheTelephone (CD 5,Track 11) Pre-recording: Sunday 9 December 1956, I. I 5pm,Aeolian I. DLO 19660 (In the Mood played on piano by Peter Sellers). Recording: Sunday 9 December I 956, 9pm,Aeolian I. TLO 17963. First Home Service Broadcast: Thursday 13 December 1956, 8.30pm. Ratings: 1.9 million. Repeat Monday 17 December 1956, 8pm, 4.1 million [Light Programme]. BBC Audiobooks' Synopsis: In this 'daring sex drama', a sensual, pleasure-loving devil wants a phone: Henry Albert Sebastopol Queen Victoria Crun. The job of installing it falls to Neddie, who arrives at Crun's house only to find out that he's moved to 17a Africa. And odd numbers are on the other side of the continent. At least,Seagoon will have two suntanned veterans of the safari to escort him - Bluebottle and Eccles ... Music: Max Geldray plays Ain't Misbehavin' (Harr y Brooks/Fats Waller/Andy Razaf);The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Singing the Blues (Melvin Endsley).

Two pre-recording sessions took place:

• Wednesday 28 January 1959, 4.15pm/5.15pm. Aeolian Hall Studio 2 (TLO & C/DLO 76382, TLO 77924)
• Saturday 1 February 1959, 5.45pm, The Paris Cinema (DLO 76513/A)

The recording for transmission was created at 8pm on Sunday 14 December 1958, at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London (TLO 72138).

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day at 8.30pm on Monday 15 December 1958, its ratings were 1.1 million.

The show was repeated:

• Wednesday 9.31pm, 17 December 1958, on the Light Programme to 2.3 million listeners.
• Friday 9.30pm, 6 March 1964 on the Home Service in Vintage Goons, to 0.5 million listeners.
• Friday 9.30pm, 20 August 1965 on the Home Service in Let's Laugh Again, to 0.2 million listeners (the broadcast was affected by a fault on the reproduction equipment).

Transcription Service Synopsis

'To open the scene, take a knife and cut along the dotted line. Inside you will find the Great North Road in an icy blizzard.' This is how Spike Milligan describes the setting for the start of the latest unexpurgated edition of Seagoon's memoirs. Listeners can, in fact, buy a copy (in a plain sealed envelope) at any local Second Class Slipper Bath.

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays I Kiss Your Little Hand, Madame (Ralph Erwin (music) / Fritz Rotter (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays The Late Late Show (Murray Berlin (music) / Roy Alfred (lyrics))

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 72138 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).

The TLO 72138 master tape no longer exists, and the version of the show included on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 10 was compiled from the TGS disc, the POTG master tape and domestic recordings of both the original transmission and the 1964 repeat.

7 /1 I - The Telephone Originally recorded on TLO 17963.This tape no longer exists, and the master tape of the TGS issue was destroyed in 1963.This issue has therefore been compiled from the TGS disc and a domestic recording of the original transmission.