The Canal
| "The Canal" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 5 Episode: 6 |
| Written by | Spike Milligan |
| Announcer | Wallace Greenslade |
| Produced by | Peter Eton |
| Music |
|
| Recording Number | TLO 65467 |
| First broadcast | 2 November 1954 |
| Running time | 30:56 |
| Guest appearance | |
| Valentine Dyall | |
The Canal is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the sixth show in series five. It was recorded on Sunday 31 October 1954 at 9pm. It was recorded at The Paris Cinema, 12 Lower Regent Street in central London.
The first Home Service broadcast was on Tuesday 2 November 1954 at 8.30pm. It attracted a peak listenership of 3.4m listeners.
| Day | Date | Time | Ratings | Station |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | 5 November 1954 | 12.25pm / 12.30pm | 1.1m | Home Service |
| Friday | 27 May 1955 | 7.30pm | 3.8m | Light Programme |
Story
After fourty-three years at school young Ned Seagoon returns to Seagoon's Folly, the ancestral home, to find it empty save for a sinister oriental valet, a refugee heroin importer and Gravelly Headstone (played by Sellers), the butler.
Where is Seagoon's father, his four mothers, the first cook, the underfootman and the overfootman? All Ned's queries are met with silence. The, one night, three mysterious strangers are seen digging a grave nearly fifty-foot long in the rose garden. Hollow knockings and weird moans are heard in the buttery and Strangler Aagonschmidt, a notorius schizophrenic, is discovered in the act of setting fire to the library. Why is there a secret passage from the grave to Seagoon's bedroom? What is the secret of 'The Canal'?
Music
- The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
- Max Geldray plays C-Jam Blues (Duke Ellington)
- The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Sometimes I'm Happy (Vincent Youmans / Irving Caesar)
Technical
Originally recorded on TLO 65467 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House). This tape no longer exists. The version included on Compendium Vol 1 was compiled from the POTG 28 master tape and the TGS 5 disc.[1]
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2007). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 1 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-4056-7800-1.
