BBC Radio 4 Extra airs one Goon Show per week, played in three time slots on a Tuesday. That much is old news. What’s new is that, for the first time, they’re using episodes from the Vintage Goons series.
The first show in the series, The Mummified Priest, was played on 29th November, and more shows from the series are queued for the next few weeks.
The Vintage Goons shows were fresh recordings of updated Series 4 scripts, taped on the same nights as Series 8 shows in 1957 and 58. They were intended to be used for overseas sales (the Canadians were particularly keen), not for UK broadcast at that time. Within a year however, many had aired on the BBC Home Service as the public demanded more Goons.
There was an exception to this, and a favourite Goon Show trivia question is about to be ruined.
“Which Goon Show episode has never been broadcast in the UK?”
The answer was the third of the series, The Missing 10 Downing Street. That show is best remembered perhaps as being featured on an abridged version with a fake stereo effect on the EMI release The Very Best of the Goons in 1974.
It’s going to be broadcast on R4x on Tuesday 12th December, starting at 8am.
After broadcast, the shows are being added to and should continue to be available for 30 days for streaming through BBC Sounds. Whether they’ll remain available after that, like other Goon Show episodes, remains to be seen.
Links
Vintage Goons series listing
BBC Sounds – the Vintage Goons series streams
The Goon Show Preservation Society 