The History of Communications
| "The History of Communications" | |
|---|---|
| The Goon Show episode | |
| Episode: no. | Series: 4 Episode: 18 |
| Written by | |
| Announcer | Wallace Greenslade |
| Produced by | Peter Eton |
| Music |
|
| Recording Number | TLO 42842 |
| First broadcast | 29 March 1954 |
| Running time | 29:50 |
The History of Communications is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the eighteenth show in the fourth series. The show was recorded at 9pm on Sunday 24 January 1954 The recording took place at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.
The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Friday 29 January 1954 at 9.45pm (except Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 2.6m.
The show's first repeat was the next morning at 8.45am, Saturday 30 January 1954, on the Home Service. It was listened to by 0.8 million.
Sketches
- The History of Communications (from Show 7).[rw 1]
- The Siege of Khartoum in which Mr Crun leads a relief force to aid Major Bloodnok and his men against the Mardi in Sudan of the 1800s (from The Mystery of the Cow on the Hill).
Music
- The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
- Max Geldray plays Buckets and Spades (John Lindsay)
- The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Kiss Me Again (Tommie Connor (music) / Johnny Reine (lyrics)) / 'S Wonderful (George Gershwin (music) / Ira Gershwin (lyrics))
Technical
Originally recorded on TLO 42416 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).
Ted Kendall's Restoration
This programme (on Compendium Vol 14) came from an acetate disc cut from a domestic tape recording, probably taken from an AM transmission. The opening and closing were missing. The closing for this and the next two shows (4/19 and 4/20) were taken from the recording of 4/15 issued in Compendium Vol 13, as this is the best surviving fourth series closing announced by Wallace Greenslade and crediting Larry Stephens, who drops out of the credits for 4/21 onwards.The opening was completed using material from other recordings in the same collection.[1]
Roger Wilmut's Notes
- ^ Part 1 of the script is The History of Communications, originally part of the 7th of the 1st series and later re-worked into The GPO Show. Parts 2 and 3 are the Siege of Khartoum originally part of the 18th of the 3rd series.
References
- ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.
