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 13 November 1955
First Broadcast : Tuesday 15 November 1955 on the BBC Home Service
William J. MacGoonigal starts things off with a poem about the Great International Christmas Pudding, erected in ancient days, broken into portions when struck by lightning in 562 BC, and carried off to the far corners of the earth. In 1843 a large, fossilised fragment of the Pudding was discovered, prompting a question in the House of Commons. It is suggested that if all the portions of the Pudding could be reassembled, it would be the turning point for the prestige of England. Lord Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty encounter, and try to cook for dinner, young Neddie Seagoon, but they don’t have a penny for the gas meter. When they find out that Neddie has money, they talk him into financing an expedition to Africa to capture the Pudding. On arrival in the Sudan, Seagoon meets Major Bloodnok, International Pudding Agent for the Sudan. After a payment of £3000, Bloodnok reveals that all of the Pudding is in Africa. Three quarters of it is worshipped as a god by the savage Naringi Berbers. The remaining quarter has turned man-eater and roams the forest of Ying Tong Iddle-i Po. They mount an expedition equipped with much strange gear, including long bent things with a sort of lump on the end. Meanwhile, Minnie and Henry are on a different expedition in the forest of Ying Tong Iddle-i Po, gathering moss for the BBC. As they bed down for the night, there is a growling noise outside their tent. It isn’t their tiger – it’s the savage portion of the International Christmas Pudding. They scream quietly so that they don’t wake Eccles, who needs sleep because he’s a brain worker. Neddie answers their cries for help. As they make plans to take the portion of Pudding alive, the Neringi Berbers ride up and capture the Pudding. Grytpype and Moriarty arrive with a guide, Bluebottle, who leads them to the Berber city. But the natives have fled the city because the Pudding has hydrophobia. They capture it on a large plate and send Neddie in with an anti-hydrophobia shot. They hear knocking on the lid. They open it and ask Neddie how the pudding is. He responds, with a loud burp, “Delicious!” Jim Pills is brought in for a few lines of song because the show was under-running.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 