King Solomon's Mines

"King Solomon's Mines"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 8 Episode: 10
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Based on	King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Roy Speer
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Lady of Spain Ellington: Route 66
Recording Number	TLO 42899
First broadcast	2 December 1957 (1957-12-02)
Running time	30:15

The Junk Affair is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the second show in the eighth series.

A pre-recording session took place Sunday 6 October 1957, 4.30pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London (DLO 39090A). The recording for transmission was created later that same Sunday, at 9.15pm, also at The Camden (TLO 39090).

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day, Monday at 8.30pm 7 October 1957, its ratings were 1.5 million. It was then repeated on the Light Programme the following Thursday 10 October 1957 at 9pm to 2.6 million listeners.

The Vintage Goons first episode, The Mummified Priest, was recorded the same day as this show.

Transcription Service Synopsis

Collecting junk, as we know in this day and age. can be a lucrative business. Mr Neddie Seagoon is well aware of the financial advantages to be obtained and very soon becomes a junk millionaire. He corners the world market, but needless to say, he reckons without the machinations of the notorious Moriarty and Grytpype-Thynne who, as usual, are up to no good.

Story

"The time is 8.30 and here is the Nine O'clock News. The Ministry of Housing has granted permission to turn the Albert Memorial into flats, and a piece of junk has been stolen from the official Bank of England safe."

In the cellars beneath the House of Commons two masked men wearing leather wigs have tampered with the Bank's official wooden safe. Yes, Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty are up to their old tricks. Only junk millonaire Neddie can stop them cornering the world market in junk. He knows his rights (and his lefts). And Eccles and Bluebottle are also on hand (or are they on foot?)

Music

• The BBC Orchestera was conducted by Wally Stott.
• Max Geldray plays It's Only a Paper Moon (Harold Arlen (music), Yip Harburg and Billy Rose (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Don't Burn Me Up (Weisman / Laskoff).

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 26030 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House). This tape survived intact in TS, and was used for the show included in The Goon Show Compendium Vol 8.

Show Notes

• Starting the second week, the Transcription Service re-make – in this case The Mummified Priest – was recorded at 8.30pm immediately before the new episode, The Junk Affair. This new script saw Spike being rejoined by his old co-writer Larry Stephens who had been working regularly on the series since early 1956 and had been associated with the show since its earliest days in 1951. The scripts continued to feature comments from Harry of ‘round the back for the old brandy’ prior to the musical numbers; this was because although there was a ban on alcohol in the studio, Harry and the cast smuggled bottles of milk laced with brandy in for the Sunday recordings. Also back was the character of Little Jim and his catchphrase ‘He's fallen in the water’, which Spike had introduced in the previous series; similarly, Seagoon still suffered from duck's disease. An ad-lib from Greenslade also made reference to the Russian 'Satellite Moon' – i.e. the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 – which had been successfully launched two days earlier.