The Starlings
| "The Starlings" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 4 Episode: Special |
| Written by | Spike Milligan |
| Announcer | Andrew Timothy |
| Produced by | Peter Eton |
| Music | No musicians or orchestra |
| Recording Number | TNC 408 |
| First broadcast | 31 August 1954 |
| Running time | 31:04 |
The Starlings is an episode from The Goon Show. It is a special to end the fourth series, it was the 32nd episode in the series.
The show was recorded, without musicians or audience, over two days, Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 August 1954. The recordings started at 10am both days at BBC Radio Studio Newcastle.
The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday 31 August 1954 at 9.45pm (except Northern Ireland and North Wales). It reached a peak listenership of 0.8m.
The show's first repeat was on Monday 2 January 1955, on the Home Service (London, West and Wales only) at 7pm. It was listened to by 0.4 million people. Further repeats came…
- 6.30pm, Sunday 6 October 1957 (Light Programme 1.5m listeners)
- 11.30am, Monday 25 December 1989 (Radio 4)
- 11.30pm, Thursday 4 January 1990 (Radio 4 with introduction from Spike)
- 11pm, Thursday 9 April 1998 (Radio 4)
Radio Times Synopsis
A comment on the recent efforts to rid Trafalgar Square of starlings. Written for radio by Spike Milligan.
Cast in order of speaking:
- 'Overcoat' Charlie, a beard refiner - Andrew Timothy
- The Rt. Hon. Spurgeonbuckle Bladdock - Harry Secombe
- Major Denis Bloodnok - Peter Sellers
- Miss Throat - Spike Milligan
- Mr Henry Crun - Peter Sellers
- Miss Bannister - Spike Milligan
- Sgt. Spinewracker - Harry Secombe
- Field-Marshall Scotbell - Peter Sellers
- Scrongleshot Bowser - Harry Secombe
- Jim 'Tigernuts' Bluebottle - Peter Sellers
- Fred - A horse
The action takes place in Trafalgar Square; in Major Bloodnok's dustbin; at a Murmansk Beard Refinery; and in a lonely girls' residential school on Romney Marsh. Any resemblance to a Goon Show is due to the laxity of the producer, Peter Eton.
Music
This special show featured no musicians, orchestra or audience.
Technical
Originally recorded on TNC 408 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at BBC Radio Studio Newcastle).[1]
Ted Kendall's Restoration
Although the original tape no longer exists, the programme exists in many forms — the 1956 repeat, with the reference to the OBE excised, was transmitted from a slow-speed acetate disc, later transferred to LP for BBC Sound Archiveson the modified BBC Type D equipment used for the first BBC microgroove discs. The quality is not of the best. However a set of pressed 78 rpm discs of this version , copied from the edited master tape, was used for some time at Bush House for training technical operators in the art of seamless side changes, and a set of 78 rpm acetates cut from the unedited tape was also in circulation at the BBC. This show was compiled from tape copies of these two sets, with a few words taken from a domestic recording of the 1956 repeat and the music inserts replaced from source discs, eliminating the distortions caused by the pickups in use at the time. Milligan's introduction to the 1988 repeat was taken from a domestic recording. This repeat was the first, since the original 1954 transmission, to contain the OBE reference, and was one of of Kendall's earliest Goon Show restorations. He had "fought" The Starlings at intervals over the intervening three decades, but is now happy that he got it right![2]
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.
