The History of Communications

From The Goon Show Depository

"The History of Communications"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.Series: 4
Episode: 18
Written by
AnnouncerWallace Greenslade
Produced byPeter Eton
Music
Recording
Number
TLO 42842
First broadcast29 March 1954 (1954-03-29)
Running time29:50
Episode Order
← Previous
"The Mummified Priest"
Next →
"The Kippered Herring Gang"
The Goon Show series 4
List of episodes

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

Music

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

  1. ^ 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

  1. ^ Kendall, Ted (2018). The Goon Show Compendium Vol 14 (Booklet 2). BBC Worldwide. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-7875-3266-3.