The Great Bank of England Robbery

"The Great Bank of England Robbery"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 4 Episode: 29
Written by	Spike Milligan
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Hot Toddy Ellington: Such a Night
Recording Number	TLO 52583
First broadcast	12 April 1954 (1954-04-12)
Running time	29:37

The Great Bank of England Robbery is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twenty-ninth show in the fourth series.

A rehearsal pre-recording show was performed and recorded (TLO 52583A) on Thursday 8 April 1954 which featured the performance of the Ray Ellington Quartet which was used in the broadcast show.

The main show was recorded the following Sunday at 9pm 11 April 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 the next day, Monday 12 April 1954 at 8.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 1.5m.

The show's first repeat was three weeks later at 1.10pm, Monday 17 May 1954, on the Home Service. It was listened to by 1.5 million.

No publically available recording is known to exist as of 15 December 2024.

Transcription Service Remake Synopsis

'Tis not such a far cry from the respectable Bank of England to a hovel in the Street of a Thousand Dustbins (in London's Chinatown) in whose sinister atmosphere the seeds are planted for the crime of the century — the Great Bank of England Robbery! The trail leads from Chinatown to the bed of one of London's famous underground rivers which runs directly beneath the bank. What happens next is unfolded in this gripping tale…

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays Hot Toddy (Ralph Flanagan / Herb Hendler)
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Such a Night (Lincoln Chase)

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 52583 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).