Starring Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, with Valentine Dyall
Announcer: Wallace Greenslade
Music by Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet
The Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
Script: Spike Milligan
Producer: Peter Eton
Recorded: Sunday 31 October 1954
First Broadcast : Tuesday 2 November 1954 on the BBC Home Service
After forty-nine years at school, young Ned Seagoon returns to his ancestral home, Seagoon’s Folly, but as they approach the mansion, the cab is caught in a thick fog. Neddie decides to walk the rest of the way, but loses his way and falls into the canal. On arrival at the mansion, he is greeted by his father, the sinister Lord Valentine Dyall, who makes him promise never to go into the canal. The mansion has changed – there are terrifying screams from the basement, mother has gone missing, and Lord Dyall’s third child, Flowerdew, is wandering about in a state of mad delirium. Eccles, Neddie’s brother, moves his things (a herd of cattle) out of Neddie’s room. In the night, Lord Dyall and the sinister Dr. Justin Eidelburger creep into Neddie’s room, knock him unconscious with a mallet, and throw him in the canal. Lord Dyall phones Lloyds of London to collect on the life insurance policy that he’s taken out on Neddie, but just then Ned walks in the door. Lord Dyall had Drs. Eidelburger and Yakamoto set concrete blocks on Neddie’s feet to stop him playing in the canal. Seagoon is tossed in the canal, whereupon the lock-keepers, Henry and Minnie, try to rescue him. Meanwhile, Lloyds agent Bluebottle arrives to pay out the £40,000 on the policy – in pennies. While he’s counting it out, Neddie arrives. To get the concrete blocks off Ned’s feet, Lord Dyall has Eccles put sticks of dynamite in the concrete blocks and light the fuse. He then sends Neddie to wait in the garden. The dynamite removes the concrete blocks, but pitches Neddie into the canal. Bluebottle is recalled and again counts out the money. Just as he finishes, Neddie arrives. This time, Lord Dyall refuses to hand the money back and imprisons Neddie and Bluebottle in the dungeon. Neddie convinces Eccles, who had been chaining them to the wall, of their father’s evil intent. They conspire to escape and attempt to throw Lord Dyall in the canal, but end up being pitched in themselves. But as Lord Dyall gloats over them, he is thrown in the canal by Henry Crun, who calls up Lloyds to collect on that life insurance he took out on the four gentlemen . . . .
The Goon Show Preservation Society 