The Fireball of Milton Street

"The Fireball of Milton Street"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 5 Episode: 22
Written by	Spike Milligan Eric Sykes
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Ellington: Ko Ko Mo Geldray: Sweet Georgia Brown
Recording Number	TLO 72538
First broadcast	22 February 1955 (1955-02-22)
Running time	30:55

The Fireball of Milton Street is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twenty-second show in the fifth series. The show was recorded at 9.15pm on Sunday 20 February 1955. The recording took place at the Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday 22 February 1955 at 8.30pm. It reached a peak listenership of 3.4m.

The show's first repeat was the following Friday at 12.25pm / 12.30pm (depending on area), 25 February 1955, on the Home Service. It was listened to by 1.1 million. Then the show was repeated again on the Light Programme on Friday 24 June 1955 at 7.30pm where 3.8 million listened in.

Synopsis

The Long Man of Wilmington

In the little Sussex hamlet of Milton Street 'twixt Alfriston and Polegate, word spread among the villagers that the end of the world was at hand. Henry Crun, the gouty old village alchemist, had seen a strange phenomenon through his telescope. Then, on the night of Tuesday 11 January 1801, the Long Man of Wilmington disappeared. It was a night that never ended — darkness completely enveloped East Milton for more than 50 hours. The villagers said the sky had fallen but Mistress Bannister, an old trot from Pevensey Marshes, knew better. She had foreseen it all in her readings of the pitchblende.

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Ko Ko Mo (Forest Gene Wilson (music) / Jake Porter (music) / Eunice Levy (lyrics))
• Max Geldray plays Sweet Georgia Brown (Kenneth Casey / Ben Bernie / Maceo Pinkard)

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 72538 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House). This tape no longer exists. The source for the show included on The Goon Show Compendium Vol 2 was a compilation of a domestic recording and TGS 94 disc.