Robin Hood

"Robin Hood"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 7 Episode: Christmas Special
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Based on	Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Pat Dixon
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: You're the Cream in My Coffee Ellington: Three-Handed Woman
Recording Number	TLO 17360 (renumbered to T6/l124-5)
First broadcast	25 December 1988 (1988-12-25)
Running time	31:12
Guest appearances
Valentine Dyall, Dennis Price

Robin Hood is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the Christmas special in the seventh series. The show, being a special, also had two guests, Valentine Dyall and Dennis Price.

The recording for transmission (TLO 17360) was created at 7pm on Sunday 2 December 1956, at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London.

The show was not originally intended to be broadcast domestically, having been written specifically for Transcription Services' use. As a result the first broadcast wasn't until it was aired on Radio 2 on Christmas Day, 32 years later, at 1pm on Sunday 25 December 1988. However, the show, along with Foiled by President Fred, had been released on a Parlophone LP (their fifth release of Goon Show LPs), First Men on the Goon , in October 1971.

Transcription Service Synopsis

Will the Sheriff of Nottingham capture Robin Hood? Who will win the archery contest? How does Robin escape from the dungeon dark, dank and donk? Will Robin's outlaws triumph over the soldiers of Prince John? Listen to the Christmas Goon Show, ‘Robin Hood’, and you may hear some of the answers.

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays You're the Cream in My Coffee (Ray Henderson / Buddy G. DeSylva / Lew Brown)
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Three-Handed Woman (Ben Raleigh / Irv Taylor)

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 17360 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House), later re-numbered to T6/l124-5 on 13 January 1965. This show survives more or less as recorded on these reels, and has been so transmitted domestically. For the version of the show included in Compendium 12, Kendall removed the gaffes and tidied up some of Dennis Price's lines. Also included on Compendium 12 was a retake from the show, unfortunately, the retake could not be cut satisfactorily into the body of the show, so Kendal went with what he thought was the best solution given the available material.

Show Notes

• Robin Hood, was the Christmas special made for Transcription Services and was effectively a rewrite of Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest, the Yuletide edition from two years earlier. which in turn had drawn upon a Christmas show from 1952.
• In October 1971, Parlophone issued a fifth LP entitled First Men on the Goon, which contained the 1955 episode Foiled By President Fred and also the special edition Robin Hood and his Merry Men which had never been broadcast in the UK.
• During 1988, The Goon Show was covered by broadcaster Russell Davies in his Radio 4 series Radio Fun in the editions of 9 and 16 September. Meanwhile, BBC Enterprises continued to make the series available on double cassette reissues of the earlier LPs; the first two albums appeared as Goon Show Classics, part of the BBC Radio Collection in September 1988 and were quickly followed by others. Then on Christmas Day, Radio 2 listeners were treated to another unheard classic when the Robin Hood special made for Transcription Services in 1956 received its UK broadcast debut courtesy of Richard Edis.

Official script

• Robin Hood