The Great Regent's Park Swim

From The Goon Show Depository

"The Great Regent's Park Swim"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.Series: 8
Episode: 4
Written by
AnnouncerWallace Greenslade
Produced byCharles Chilton
Music
  • Orchestra: Wally Stott
  • Geldray: No One Ever Tells You
  • Ellington: Swaller-tail
Recording
Number
TLO 40052
First broadcast21 October 1957 (1957-10-21)
Running time30:58
Episode Order
← Previous
"The Burning Embassy"
Next →
"The Treasure in the Tower"
The Goon Show series 8
List of episodes

The Great Regent's Park Swim is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the fourth show in the eighth series.

The recording for transmission took place Sunday 20 October 1957, 5pm. at The Camden Theatre, Camden Town, London (TLO 40052).

The first Home Service broadcast was the next day, Monday, at 8.30pm 21 October 1957, its ratings were 1.5 million.

The show was repeated:

  • Thursday 9pm, 24 October 1957, on the Light Programme to 3.0 million listeners.
  • Sunday 12.00 noon, 8 August 1982 on Radio 4 in Smash of the Day.

Transcription Service Synopsis

This episode is unique. It contains the only fully authenticated recording of the sound of a river being driven by a Chinese. As if that weren't enough. listeners will be enthralled by the fascinating story of the discovery of swimming by the eminent scientists Professors Eidelburger and Yakkamoto. The human guinea pig for the experiment is, of course, Neddie Seagoon.

Music

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 40052 (15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).

The TLO 40052 master tape no longer exists, and the C/TLO from BBC Wood Norton was used for the version of the show appearing on Compendium 7, with the opening dialogue attacking BBC planners restored from the TGS disc.[1]

Show Notes

From the The Great Regent's Park Swim show for the next few weeks, Bloodnok would sometimes be heard to sing a bizarre song to a waltz tempo, starting with The Curry and Rice Waltz. Topical humour in the script included comments about BBC planners flying to Europe in conjunction with Eurovision, which the Corporation had joined for the first time the previous March

References

  1. ^ Kendall, Ted (2012). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 7 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-4458-9133-0.