The Tale of Men's Shirts

From The Goon Show Depository


"The Tale of Men's Shirts"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.Series: 10
Episode: 2
Written bySpike Milligan
AnnouncerWallace Greenslade
Produced byJohn Browell
Music
  • Orchestra: Wally Stott
  • Geldray: Night Bird
  • Ellington: I Want a Little Girl
Recording
Number
TLO 4230
First broadcast31 December 1959 (1959-12-31)
Running time30:08
Episode Order
← Previous
"A Christmas Carol"
Next →
"The Chinese Legs"
The Goon Show series 10
List of episodes

The Tale of Men's Shirts is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the second show in the tenth series.

Pre-recording show : Wednesday 23 December 1959, 4.15pm, Aeolian Hall Studio 2. (TLO & C/DLO 5500) and Sunday 27 December 1959, 4pm, The Camden Theatre. DLO 4230/A.

The show was recorded at 8pm on Sunday 27 December 1959. The recording took place at the Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Thursday 31 December 1959 at 7.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 0.5m.

The show's first repeat was the next morning at 8pm, Tuesday 5 January 1960, on the Light Programme. It was listened to by 2.0 million. Then again on Sunday 7 August 1960, 2.15pm, on the Light Programme (in The Best of the Best) with an audience of 2.9 million.

Transcription Service Synopsis

There are still, no doubt, certain military secrets of the last war that have not yet leaked out to the public. We are in the fortunate and exclusive position of being able, at last, to reveal one of them in this edition of The Goon Show. Have you, for instance, heard of the mysterious chemical which, applied to the tail of a military shirt, explodes when the wearer sits down! You haven't! Well, don't miss yet another exciting tale of spies and counter-spies as revealed by the inimitable Spike Milligan. It's better than any General's memoirs!

Music

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 4230 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).

This tape no longer exists (another 1970 casualty), and the version of the show on Compendium 11 was compiled from the TGS disc, a commercial issue and a domestic recording of the original transmission.[1]

References

  1. ^ Kendall, Ted (2015). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 11 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-7852-9129-6.