The Search for the Bearded Vulture

"The Search for the Bearded Vulture"
The Goon Show episode
Episode no.	Series 03 Episode 16 (excerpt
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Presented by	Andrew Timothy
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: All God's Chillun Got Rhythm Ellington: Shine
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Production code	SLO 22973
Original air date	22 February 1953 (1953-02-22)
Running time	8 mins 21 secs

The Search for the Bearded Vulture (aka Show 58) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the sixteenth show in the third series. The show was recorded at 9.30pm on Sunday 22 February 1953 The recording took place at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London. Only an eight minute excerpt of the show currently (as of 25 December 2024) exists.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday 24 February 1953 at 9.30pm (except Wales and the West). It reached a peak listenership of 2.6m. Its first repeat on the Light Programme at 1.45pm on Sunday 1 March 1953 increased the peak listernship to 6.2m.

Sketches

• Handsome Harry Secombe: Moriarty tells Handsome Harry Secombe to buy a special expanding ladder from builders merchant Clanger Sellers so that he can burgle the home of Sir Whatchett Crump.
• The Search for the Bearded Vulture: In which Lord Hanjunk the Second and his Uncle Crun set off to Java following a British Ornithological Society sighting of the rare bearded vulture.

Music

• Max Geldray plays All God's Chillun Got Rhythm (Walter Jurmann / Gus Kahn / Bronisław Kaper)
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Shine (Cecil Mack / Lew Brown / Ford Dabney)

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 22973 (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).

This extract does not make for comfortable listening, but is all we have of Graham Stark in a Goon Show. The domestic recording was made on a 'wire machine', and these were notorius for distortion, and, especially, speed instability. The Ellington numberr was recorded, but the wow is so excruciating that Ted had to omit it. Other speed variations have been smoothed out as far as current technology allows.