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Product Description
Product Description
This title includes four episodes of the classic radio comedy from the earliest surviving series. "The History of Communications/The Siege of Khartoum" (23 January 1954), "The Toothpaste Expedition" (12 February 1954), "Western Story 'Drain!" (22 March 1954) and "The Great Bank of England Robbery" (12 April 1954). The Goons included Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. They burst onto the radio with surreal storylines, absurd logic, puns, catchphrases and groundbreaking sound effects. These four superb episodes - three of which have never been available on audio before, and have been specially restored for this release - show why "The Goon Show" deservedly belongs to the Golden Age of Comedy, and how it inspired generations of comedians to come.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
This is a very welcome release from the BBC, containing four previously unreleased episodes from the "lost" period of The Goon Show. Of the 100 episodes in the first four series of The Goon Show, the BBC only retained a recording of one episode in its archives: "The Greatest Mountain In The World", released on The Goon Show Classics: You Have Deaded Me Again (Previously Volume 8) (BBC Radio Collection). Recordings of around a dozen other episodes from this early period survive only because they were recorded by diligent fans on primitive home recording devices.
Two of the episodes presented here were recorded on early tape machines ("The Siege Of Khartoum" and "The Great Bank Of England Robbery"), and two survived only in the cracked grooves of home-made acetate discs ("The Toothpaste Expedition" and "Western Story"). This explains the poorer sound quality here than is usual for the BBC's Goon releases; although it must be noted that significant effort has gone into bringing these recordings up to even this standard.
"The Siege Of Khartoum" and "The Toothpaste Expedition" are actually composed of sketches which had been performed previously in even earlier shows from the first, second and third series. This reuse of scripts may have seemed like a cheat at the time; but as none of those original recordings survive today, these remakes give us a chance to peek back into the formative years of the Goons. The other two episodes see the show morphing into the storyline based format well-known from later series, and many of the regular characters are starting to appear.
The BBC is to be congratulated for restoring and releasing these ultra-rare episodes. The casual listener may want to try one of the many other Goon releases first, but for the Goon connoisseur this is pure gold. Hopefully there will be a Series Four Part Two in future, as there are certainly another four episodes of similar vintage and sound quality that would fit the bill perfectly.
Two of the episodes presented here were recorded on early tape machines ("The Siege Of Khartoum" and "The Great Bank Of England Robbery"), and two survived only in the cracked grooves of home-made acetate discs ("The Toothpaste Expedition" and "Western Story"). This explains the poorer sound quality here than is usual for the BBC's Goon releases; although it must be noted that significant effort has gone into bringing these recordings up to even this standard.
"The Siege Of Khartoum" and "The Toothpaste Expedition" are actually composed of sketches which had been performed previously in even earlier shows from the first, second and third series. This reuse of scripts may have seemed like a cheat at the time; but as none of those original recordings survive today, these remakes give us a chance to peek back into the formative years of the Goons. The other two episodes see the show morphing into the storyline based format well-known from later series, and many of the regular characters are starting to appear.
The BBC is to be congratulated for restoring and releasing these ultra-rare episodes. The casual listener may want to try one of the many other Goon releases first, but for the Goon connoisseur this is pure gold. Hopefully there will be a Series Four Part Two in future, as there are certainly another four episodes of similar vintage and sound quality that would fit the bill perfectly.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
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OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. What have we here! THREE previously unavailable episodes (two more than one of the compendiums, by Thunnn!)and a NEW prevously unseen CD imprint - AudioGO instead of BBC Enterprises or BBC Worldwide..... Firstly, criticism of the inlay information, limited to the minimum of Title and date of First Broadcast. As these shows are from the Fourth Series, let us thank Ted Kendall, also Frank Harvey and Steve Arnold for the provision of such antiquities, only seen before if at all in Transcription Services Vintage Goons resurrected rerecordings of 1958....
The sound quality is...acceptable. There's a bit of surface noise here, and the recordings sound like received AM, but they are clear enough. What strikes the listening Goonatic will be the marked difference between 4th series shows, still introduced with an announcement and a burst of the Goons Gallop like many a lesser show and also without (for the most part) a continuous plot from start to finish.
The content of the shows is surprising for those used to classic Goons as heard from the 5th series onwards (see the Compendiums!)... "Western Story" manages to drag in McCarthy and his Unamerican Activities paranoia and as for "The Great Bank Of England Robbery" (oh, Moriarty thou wert translated!) - hilarious and insane, better than the rework even with that muffled sound. (The reworked version is available on The Goon Show Volume 26, "Bank Statement no.349"!)
Oh, and Bluebottle is delightfully deaded right on cue....
AudioGo appear to have marketed this as part of a Golden Age wave of shows including Take It From Here, Hancocks Half Hour, The Navy Lark, Round The Horne.... this double disc is labelled Series Four PART ONE and I would hope that there will be a PART TWO, if you all buy this AS YOUUUUUU SHOUUUULD DOOOOO then there possibly will be....
The trouble is of course that while TIFH hasn't been out in Complete Series Form the last three certainly have. (Man, see what Round The Horne series boxes fetch now) and so the over all sales of the range may suffer. The fanatic has bought the series boxes and for that matter the double CDs as they were issued annually (The Goon Show must be the best represented show on CD!). Those who remember the series from first broadcast (who would have been the potential purchasers when these hit cassette back on the 1980s) are disappearing from natural wastage which would explain why ITMA and TIFH and similar aren't as prolific on CD as they were on cassette.... Kenneth Horne, although evident in "Much Binding In The Marsh" lasted as did the Navy Lark well after the so called Golden Age of the 1950s, many still remember those shows with love.
The Goons of course are timeless for the most part (although it might help to remember that Joe DiMaggio was married to Marilyn Monroe during 1954... youngster asks who DiMaggio and Monroe were)...
And these CDs are more than acceptable given the rarity of the material we are getting.
GIVE US MORE! GIVE US MORE! WE WILL, WE WILL BUY THEM!
The sound quality is...acceptable. There's a bit of surface noise here, and the recordings sound like received AM, but they are clear enough. What strikes the listening Goonatic will be the marked difference between 4th series shows, still introduced with an announcement and a burst of the Goons Gallop like many a lesser show and also without (for the most part) a continuous plot from start to finish.
The content of the shows is surprising for those used to classic Goons as heard from the 5th series onwards (see the Compendiums!)... "Western Story" manages to drag in McCarthy and his Unamerican Activities paranoia and as for "The Great Bank Of England Robbery" (oh, Moriarty thou wert translated!) - hilarious and insane, better than the rework even with that muffled sound. (The reworked version is available on The Goon Show Volume 26, "Bank Statement no.349"!)
Oh, and Bluebottle is delightfully deaded right on cue....
AudioGo appear to have marketed this as part of a Golden Age wave of shows including Take It From Here, Hancocks Half Hour, The Navy Lark, Round The Horne.... this double disc is labelled Series Four PART ONE and I would hope that there will be a PART TWO, if you all buy this AS YOUUUUUU SHOUUUULD DOOOOO then there possibly will be....
The trouble is of course that while TIFH hasn't been out in Complete Series Form the last three certainly have. (Man, see what Round The Horne series boxes fetch now) and so the over all sales of the range may suffer. The fanatic has bought the series boxes and for that matter the double CDs as they were issued annually (The Goon Show must be the best represented show on CD!). Those who remember the series from first broadcast (who would have been the potential purchasers when these hit cassette back on the 1980s) are disappearing from natural wastage which would explain why ITMA and TIFH and similar aren't as prolific on CD as they were on cassette.... Kenneth Horne, although evident in "Much Binding In The Marsh" lasted as did the Navy Lark well after the so called Golden Age of the 1950s, many still remember those shows with love.
The Goons of course are timeless for the most part (although it might help to remember that Joe DiMaggio was married to Marilyn Monroe during 1954... youngster asks who DiMaggio and Monroe were)...
And these CDs are more than acceptable given the rarity of the material we are getting.
GIVE US MORE! GIVE US MORE! WE WILL, WE WILL BUY THEM!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Yes the sound is very low-fi - but I've heard worse - and the episodes themselves are great fun. So I'd recommend approaching this release as a way of sampling how the shows must have sounded at the time of the original broadcast on those creaky old wireless sets. Clamp your ear to a large single speaker and then thank your lucky stars you have the opportunity to listen again and again to these little pieces of comedic history.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great CD Set
The sound quality on this CD set isnt as good as on other releases of Goon Show recordings but if it wasn't for these recordings remastered there wouldn't be any of the 4th series... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Malcolm Gordon
"I'm having a good time!"
Well where to start? Yes the audio quality is poor on three out of the four episodes but these are the ONLY copies of the show available to date, since the Beeb seems to have kept... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. I. T. Williams
Goons
Can't rate CD2 of the pair, as it cracked in two while trying to pry it from its case - it seemed almost to be glued in there! Read more
Published 17 months ago by David Reid
dreadful quality
I have all previous volumes of Goon shows released by the BBC and they are all of a very good standard, even ones from the same period as these episodes. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Kevin Taylor
The Goon Show, Series 4 Part 1 - Well Done BBC!
For me, this is the release of the year, yet somehow it seems to have been slipped out quietly with none of the requisite fanfare. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Victor
Be Careful!
In "gently" prying CD2 from the case, the disc cracked from center to edge--a total loss. Well, at least it wasn't scratched from coming loose in the case during shipment. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Richard Simonton
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