The Evils of Bushey Spon

"The Evils of Bushey Spon"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 8 Episode: 25
Written by	Spike Milligan
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Charles Chilton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Lulu's Back in Town Ellington: You'd Better Know It
Recording Number	TLO 50769
First broadcast	17 March 1958 (1958-03-17)
Running time	30:16
Guest appearance
A. E. Matthews

The Evils of Bushey Spon is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twenty-fifth show in the eighth series.

A pre-recording (DLO 50769B) session took place Sunday 16 March 1958, 6.30pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London. The recording (TLO 50769) for transmission was created later that same Sunday, also at The Camden, at 9pm.

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day, Monday, at 8.30pm 17 March 1958, its ratings were 1.1 million. The show was repeated on the following Thursday at 9.30pm, 20 March 1958, on the Light Programme to 2.6 million listeners.

BBC Records Synopsis by E ‘Stan’ Stancliffe of BBC Transcription Services

At a meeting of the Bushey Spon Council in the spring of 1958, the Committee Report on a Proposed Lamp Post was read having been first submitted in 1919. Various schemes were put into operation to find a design for the lamp post. Soon, two men started to dig a hole outside a quiet cottage in Bushey Spon, watched daily by an elderly couple who feared what their 'Master' would say – indeed what he might do – when eventually a concrete lamp post arrived from Africa. This programme is more than a story of a lamp post. It is the story of a man – Mr A. E. Matthews, veteran actor and a great character of his time, a man of determination who resisted the idea of a new concrete post being erected outside his cottage. Mr Matthews was able to join the Goons to tell his story and give his view on concrete lamp posts and, as a bonus, over-acting on Goon Shows.

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays Lulu's Back in Town (Harry Warren (music) / Al Dubin (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays You'd Better Know It (Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn)

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 50769 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House). This tape survived intact in TS, and has been used for the show included on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 8. The opening announcement was taken from a domestic recording of the original transmission.

Show Notes

• An earlier episode in the series, Tiddleywinks, had a series of ad-libs from Lalkaka and Banajee about a concrete lamp post were a reference to the activities of 89 year-old stage and film actor A. E. Matthews who had spent Saturday 8 March sitting on a chair over a hole outside Prospect Cottage, Little Bushey Lane in Bushey Heath preventing council workmen from erecting the ‘hideous monstrosity’ outside his house.

• Spike had been delighted by the stand taken by A.E. Matthews ('Matty') against the urban council of Bushey Heath, and in tribute to him had written a script entitled The Evils of Bushey Green in which he wanted the veteran actor to make a brief appearance. A BBC car would be sent to collect the octogenarian at 6.30pm and then take him home again once recording at the Camden had been completed; ‘Mr Milligan has asked me to let you know that he is in complete agreement with you about the erection of the lamp-post, and needless to say the questions you will be asked by the cast during the recording, will be based on the whole issue,’ assured Doreen. She then wrote to Spike to confirm Matty's attendance: ‘I have had a word with Mrs Matthews, and have tried to outline to her the type of thing Mr Matthews will be required to do, i.e. have said that he will be asked questions by the cast, and that he will not be overworked in any way, and that the theme will obviously be based on the lamppost issue.’ After Spike had delivered the script for Doreen to type on Friday morning, Doreen wrote to Spike, ‘A.E. Matthews will be in the studio at about 7.15pm – have not sent him a script, as the bulk of it does not affect him, and think he will probably work without one anyway! Personally speaking, Spike, for what it's worth – I think this script is the funniest, most topical and inspired one I've seen from any writer for a long, long time – shall look forward with great interest to seeing it performed on Sunday.’

• Then came The Evils of Bushey Green (retitled The Evils of Bushey Spon at the last moment); this very long script had various cuts made to it, omitting an opening discussion about Eurovision (the BBC having not taken part in the Song Contest the previous week), a visit by Bogg to Min and Hen to collect a kettle of hot water, and Bloodnok phoning Seagoon from Africa. Spike's script then had Matty entering to comment: ‘I'm worth ten of all you ruddy councillors … Put my chair over the hole and chain me to a bottle of brandy … I'm sitting here until you take that blasted monstrosity away.’ Following this it was planned that the various characters would ask Matty questions; ‘Look sir, are you telling us our job?’ asked Bloodnok, with Spriggs then saying, ‘Do you think you could make a better lamp post?’ Matty had not been given scripted responses and would simply answer the characters' questions until the dialogue would be drowned by a battle sound effect. However, Matty had other ideas and instead discussed his media appearances and the press coverage which had resulted from his stand against the council. (Ultimately Matty lost; when he woke on Friday 27 March, he found that council workers had installed the lamp-post at dawn).