List of The Goon Show episodes

Availability of ''The Goon Show'' episodes

Lost episodes

Many of the earliest radio episodes no longer exist. When the first episodes were broadcast, recording technology was still expensive and primitive by later standards. Audio tape was not in general use, and any recordings were made directly on to acetate discs. These could be played back, but tended to wear out quickly and did not survive unless further processed to create a master disc, which was only done for recordings intended for sale. Only one episode from the fourth series was preserved in the BBC Sound Archive (as a tape dub from an acetate disc).

Other episodes from Series 2–4 have survived, sometimes in incomplete form, as off-air recordings of varying quality. Four episodes from Series 4 were released on CD as The Goon Show: Series Four, Part One (2010). A further seven episodes from Series 2–4 are included in The Goon Show Compendium Volume 13 (2017) along with the only surviving fragment of the Series 4 episode "The Giant Bombardon". Volume 14 (2018) includes all of the remaining Series 4 episodes, including those from the 2010 set.

The special episodes "Archie in Goonland" (1954) (a crossover with Educating Archie) and "The Missing Christmas Parcel – Post Early for Christmas" (1955) (a 15-minute insert in Children's Hour) are also believed lost.

Surviving episodes

Commencing with the start of the fifth series (in 1954), BBC Transcription Services began making copies for overseas sales, and even commissioned re-recordings of some key fourth series episodes for the "Vintage Goons" series, which was mainly intended for overseas markets. The Transcription versions were then cut to remove topical and parochial material and anything that might be potentially offensive. Later, Transcription Services releases had further cuts for timing purposes. For many years, these abridged versions were thought to be only surviving copies of many episodes.

In 1987, when BBC producer Richard Edis selected "The International Christmas Pudding" for a Radio 2 repeat, he discovered the edited Transcription Services copy was too short for the intended slot. He consulted sound engineer and researcher Ted Kendall, who'd been working on rebuilding the BBC's Goons archive and had found a tape of the original transmission version of the episode in a collection made by dubbing mixer Peter Copeland. Kendall was able to restore the missing material.

In 1991, Dirk Maggs brought Kendall onto the team for his documentary At Last the Go On Show, and Kendall informed him of twelve episodes whose commercial rights had been licensed to EMI, which had then released them in truncated form. The BBC therefore didn't have the rights to release them commercially - but they did still hold the broadcast rights. This prompted Maggs to commission Kendall to restore sixteen episodes, including the ones tied up with EMI, for two repeat runs. The first of these ran on Radio 2, starting with "The Lost Emperor" on 18 April 1992, and the other was on Radio 4 starting with "The Call of the West" on 12 October 1992.

In the years since then, a considerable amount of missing material has been found and restored to the Transcription copies. Kendall states in his sleeve notes to the Goon Show Compendium CD box sets that the episodes have been pieced together from sources including the BBC Sound Archive and Transcription Services master tapes and discs, unofficial copies made by engineers or other BBC staff, and domestic off-air recordings, using the best quality source in each case.

Kendall also notes that Transcription Services seem to have used the original broadcast tapes as the basis for their versions, making cuts as necessary. The cut material was often spliced onto the end of the reels in case it needed to be restored. When the "Vintage Goons" series began, episodes were recorded by TS at Maida Vale. Since these were performed on the same nights as Series 8 episodes, it made sense for Transcription Services to make their own simultaneous recordings at Maida Vale and it seems that this technique was also used on Series 9 and 10. These were then edited to match the broadcast versions before TS made its own cuts. However, it seems that in some cases the TS versions inadvertently preserved lines slated for deletion, meaning that longer cuts of these episodes can be reassembled.

Commercial releases

Parlophone, a division of EMI, released several discs of The Goon Show starting with The Best of the Goon Shows in 1959. In all, EMI released twelve episodes, but for contractual reasons these were all heavily cut to remove musical interludes and other music cues.

BBC Records issued the first volume of Goon Show Classics in 1974 on record and tape, featuring "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler" and "The Histories of Pliny the Elder". The Goon Show Classics label was used for several further records and subsequently a series of double-cassette collections containing four episodes each. In 1996 this gave way to CD sets of remastered episodes, eventually running to 30 volumes containing 120 shows, plus an additional CD set comprising The Last Goon Show of All and Goon Again.

Volume 1 of The Goon Show Compendium, containing the first 13 episodes of series 5, was released on 7 April 2008, starting a comprehensive release programme of all extant Goons material. In 2015 three of the EMI-licensed episodes were included without the cuts, in their original chronological order, on The Goon Show Compendium Volume 11, indicating that the rights had by then reverted to the BBC. It was later confirmed that Volume 12, released on 3 November 2016, would include all of the remaining EMI episodes, plus The Last Goon Show of All and bonus features.

Broadcasting

Archive episodes of The Goon Show are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra; previously they were occasionally repeated on Radio 2 or Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.

The ABC Radio National network in Australia has regularly broadcast The Goon Show since the 1960s. For many years, the series was broadcast every Saturday afternoon, just after the midday news bulletin. More recently, it was broadcast twice a week, on Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons. The network took the series off the air in January 2004, but following listener response to the cancellation, broadcasts of the show resumed in the Friday time slot in June. The ABC's broadcasts of the series have made The Goon Show one of the most repeated and longest-running of all radio programmes.

The programme has been broadcast in the United States. NBC broadcast The Goon Show as early as the mid-1950s. Terry Gilliam of the Goon-influenced Monty Python comedy troupe recalled first hearing it broadcast on FM radio in New York City in the 1960s. When Vermont Public Radio signed on the air in 1977 (as a single station which has since evolved into a statewide network), the first programme to air was an episode of The Goon Show. The show was described as a "madcap radio comedy classic".

Episodes

The following list of episodes of The Goon Show includes any "specials" and all episodes made for the BBC Transcription Service unaired domestically at the time (and therefore listed at the date of their recording).

Series overview

One-off special shows

First series: ''Crazy People'' (1951)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine, The Ray Ellington Quartet, The Stargazers, Max Geldray and the BBC Dance Orchestra, conducted by Stanley Black.

Announcer: Andrew Timothy

The shows were all recorded on a Sunday; episodes 1–9 were broadcast on Mondays, 10–17 were broadcast on Thursdays. No episodes are known to survive.

Second series (1952)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine, The Ray Ellington Quartet, Max Geldray and the BBC Dance Orchestra, conducted by Stanley Black. The Stargazers were present for the first six shows only.

Announcer: Andrew Timothy

The shows were all recorded on a Sunday, except episodes 24 and 25; all episodes were broadcast on Tuesdays. Only three episodes are known to survive as truncated, off-air recordings.

Episodes 1, 3 and 25 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.13.

Third series (1952–53)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet, orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.

Announcer: Andrew Timothy

The shows were all broadcast on Tuesdays, with the exception of episode 7, a Christmas special. Only one excerpt and one full episode are known to survive.

Episode 17 and an excerpt of episode 16 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.13

Fourth series (1953–54)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet, orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.

Announcers: Andrew Timothy (Episodes 1–5) and Wallace Greenslade (Episodes 6–30, plus specials)

Episodes 1–20 were broadcast on Fridays; episodes 21–30 on Mondays.

Episodes 2, 3, 15 and an excerpt of episode 13 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.13; Episodes 18–21, 23–27, 29 and "The Starlings" special released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.14

Fifth series (1954–55)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet, orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.

Announcer: Wallace Greenslade

The shows were all broadcast on Tuesdays. All episodes from this and subsequent series survive, though a handful do so only in the form of domestic off-air recordings.

Episodes 1–13 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.1; Episodes 14–26 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.2

Sixth series (1955–56)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet, orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.

Announcer: Wallace Greenslade

The shows were all broadcast on Tuesdays.

Episodes 1–6 and 8–14 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.3; Episodes 15–17, 19–27 and "China Story" special released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.4; Episodes 7 and 18 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.12

Seventh series (1956–57)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet, orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.

Announcer: Wallace Greenslade

The shows were all broadcast on Thursdays, except episodes 10 and 13, which were on Wednesdays.

Episodes 1–3, 5–12 and "Operation Christmas Duff" special released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.5; Episodes 14–20, 22–25 and "The Reason Why" special released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.6; Episodes 4, 13, 21 and "Robin Hood (and His Merry Men)" special released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.12

Eighth series (1957–58)

Cast: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, with Max Geldray and The Ray Ellington Quartet, orchestra conducted by Wally Stott.

Announcer: Wallace Greenslade

The shows were all broadcast on Mondays.

Episodes 1–6 and 8–15 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.7; Episodes 16–26 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.8; Episode 7 released on The Goon Show Compendium Vol.12