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 and Larry Stephens
Producer: Pat Dixon
Recorded: Sunday 16 December 1956
First Broadcast: Thursday 20 December 1956 on the BBC Home Service
It is December 1665. Samuel Pepys (Neddie Seagoon) sports with Mrs. Fitzsimmons and then goes to Ward’s Coffee House for breakfast. There he meets Grytpype and Moriarty, who are without lodgings. He takes them in. When the two scoundrels discover that he is Secretary to the Navy, they hatch a fiendish plan. Moriarty deliberately lets their trained flea, François, bite him. They then sue the British Government. Pepys denies having ever seen the flea before and claims that he’s a foreigner. Court is adjourned until the flea’s nationality can be determined. Grytpype and Moriarty go to Min and Henry’s flea circus where they find Little Jim, a British flea who’s the spitting image of François. Meanwhile, Eccles and Bluebottle are guarding François in Newgate Prison. Pepys records in his diary yet another session sporting with Mrs. Fitzsimmons. Just then Bluebottle arrives to report that Grytpype and Moriarty overpowered them with a quarter of Pontefract Cakes, switched fleas, and made off with François. They must be stopped from leaving the country or the Crown will lose the case. Pepys visits Major Bloodnok and finds him with Mrs. Fitzsimmons. McGregor (Ellington) arrives and reports that they have captured the two scoundrels. They’ve hidden François on one of forty long-haired sheepdogs. François is found and captured in a dustbin. But Grytpype has one last trick up his sleeve – he’s found a diary that says that Pepys did sport madly with Nell Gwyn whilst the King was away. Pepys offers to forget everything and Moriarty agrees – for £1000.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 