Starring Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan
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 20 November 1955
First Broadcast : Tuesday 3 April 1956 on the BBC Home Service
On the day of the recording, there was a serious train crash in which 10 people were killed. As this show includes a train crash, the original broadcast scheduled for 22 November 1955 was cancelled.
MacGoonigal sets the scene: A blizzard in December 1882 has buried the railway lines never Pevensey Bay under the snow. Lew, director of the Filthmuck and Scanson’s Railway, sends Neddie to drive a snow plough to clear the line before midnight so that the Hastings Flyer, carrying a mail car full of gold bullion, can go through. Grytpype and Moriarty bribe Neddie to let them travel on the snow plough. They plan to derail the Hastings Flyer, blow it up, open the mail van, and take the gold. Meanwhile, at Pevensey Bay Station, Minnie and Henry are wondering why they haven’t sold any tickets today. Grytpype and Moriarty tie up Seagoon and throw him out of the snow plough. Bloodnok, beating a bass drum, happens by and relieves the helpless Seagoon of his wallet and money belt. Eccles rescues Neddie and they drive off to the station in Eccles’s wall. Neddie warns Henry that the two fiends are coming on the snow plough. When there’s a knock on the door, Henry opens it and fires his blunderbuss, but it was Bluebottle. In return for a quarter of dolly mixtures, Bluebottle tells them that he saw two men heading towards the signal box. Neddie phones the signal man, Willium, but Moriarty knocks him out before he can set the signal to danger to warn the Hastings Flyer. They place dynamite under the bridge and wait in the signal box for the train to come. Neddie, Eccles, and Bluebottle set out for the signal box. Bloodnok goes by, walking up the line beating his drum. Bluebottle finds the dynamite in the bridge. Neddie tells him to stow it away under the signal box for safety. They then enter the box and confront the villains. Just then the Hastings Flyer approaches. It must be stopped or it will crash into the snow plough. Grytpype tells Neddie he can stop it by pressing the plunger. He does so, thereby blowing up the signal box and killing everyone . . . except Bloodnok, who gets the money in the bullion van from the Hastings Flyer.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 