Archie in Goonland
| "Archie in Goonland" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 4 Episode: Special |
| Written by | |
| Announcer | Peter Brough |
| Produced by | Roy Speer |
| Music | BBC Variety Orchestra: Paul Fenoulhet |
| Recording Number | TLO 55169 |
| First broadcast | 11 June 1954 |
| Guest appearances | |
Archie in Goonland is a series special as a combination of the The Goon Show and Educating Archie. It was broadcast as the thirty-first show in the fourth series. The show had a guest lineup of Archie Andrews, Peter Brough, Hattie Jacques and the BBC Variety Orchestra
The special was recorded at 8pm Sunday 16 May 1954. The recording/show took place at the Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square, central London.
The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Friday 11 June 1954 at 7.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 1.1m.
The show's first repeat was on the following Thursday at 7.30pm, 17 June 1954, on the Home Service. It was listened to by 3.4 million.
No publically available recording is known to exist as of 16 December 2024.
BBC Audio Synopsis
Spotting a mouse at their home, Peter Brough and Archie Andrews call in a rodent exterminator… only to learn that mice are undermining London and threatening the entire city. Being the smallest, Archie is sent down the mouse hole to locate Mouse Headquarters, encountering Bloodnok and his batman who are still tunnelling out of a POW camp after 30 years, being trapped in one of the mouse traps laid by Bluebottle, and then seeking the saxophone skills of the genius Mr Crun who proposes to move London to Cleethorpes|
Music
The usual music sets from Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet were absent from this show. However the orchestra music was not conducted by Wally Stott. Instead the BBC Variety Orchestra was used, conducted by Paul Fenoulet
Technical
Originally recorded on TLO 55169 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).[1]
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.
