The Mustard and Cress Shortage (VG)

"The Mustard and Cress Shortage"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: Vintage Goons Episode: 8
Written by	Spike Milligan
Based on	The Collapse of the British Railway Sandwich System
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Tom Ronald
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Just for a Thrill Ellington: Stomp, Look and Listen
Recording Number	T1/AG/3875
First broadcast	17 September 1994 (1994-09-17)
Running time	30:00

The Mustard and Cress Shortage (aka The Collapse of the British Railway Sandwich System) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the eighth show in the Vintage Goons series (although the show's title was announced as 'The Collapse of the British Railway Sandwich System') and was based on the series 4 episode 24 sho 'The Collapse of the British Railway Sandwich System'. There was a pre-recording rehearsal show at 2pm Sunday 12 January 1958, but the show was actually recorded later at 5.15pm. Both the pre-recording and recording was done at The Camden Theatre, London.

The first British public broadcast was on Radio 2 on Monday 17 September 1994 at 2.30pm (in The Golden Days of Radio, SLN435/94LD0220).

Story

The Collapse of the British Railway Sandwich System, or I Was General Wolff's Chiropodist by John Bunyan, or The Collapse of General Wolff's Saxophone System on the Monetoba Sandwich Railway, it's up to Neddie to find out who has been removing all the mustard and cress from the sandwiches in the first shortage to cause havoc to British Railways. The story opens in the hell Londoners know as… Victoria station tea buffet. It takes a brave person to ask for something to eat or drink. Bluebottle seems to be involved in the mystery and Neddie goes in search of information. But will Henry Crun be able to replace all of the cress? He's going to grow 6,000 acres of the stuff in the Amazon, so he'll be away for six years. At least Min will keep his dinner warm in the oven.

Music

• The BBC Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays Just for a Thrill (Lil Harding Armstrong (music) / Don Raye (lyrics))
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Stomp, Look and Listen (Duke Ellington)

Technical

Originally recorded on T5/AG/4417 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at St. Hilda's, Maida Vale). This tape survived intact at TS and was used to create the version included on Compendium Vol 9 and CD Vol 29.