Chronological Index
This index comprises a complete chronological listing of the ten for: Transcription Services concurrently with the 8th series, and the
broadcast series, together with the 'Vintage Goons' series recordedspecials such as 'Cinderella', 'The Starlings', 'The Reason Why' and
'Archie in Goonland'.
Short contributions to other programmes are also included if they were recorded during Goon Show sessions, which also includes 'The Last Goon Show of All', and other appearances since the original Goon Shows finished in 1960.
The Chronological Index is laid out as follows:
- Page Headings
- Producer
- Script Credits,
- Day of Broadcast and Pre-Recording, and
- Changes of cast applicable to the whole series.
The script credits are given as in the official documentation; in fact it seems likely that Larry Stephens made at least some contribution to many of the scripts credited to Milligan alone, and that some of the scripts listed as collaborations were largely Milligan's work.
In general, Stephens's plots tend to have a beginning, a middle, and an end; whereas Milligan's tend to have a middle....
SHOW-BY-SHOW DETAILS
- SERIES NUMBER:
Straight numerical listing within each series. Some BBC files list cumulative numbers; these get progressively more inaccurate.
- TRANSMISSION DATE:
Date of first transmission only.
All first transmissions were on the Home Service except 'The Goons Hit Wales' (Light Programme 1-3-56), and 'Operation Christmas Duff' (General Overseas Service, 24-Dec-56).
Most in-series shows were repeated a few days after the first placing, usually on Light Programme. Many shows also went out on the General Overseas Service. None of these repeats has been listed. There were also a number of repeats between series, and since the shows ended; for details of these see Repeats.
To facilitate the repeats on Light Programme, most shows from the 6th series on had separate Light Programme announcements pre-recorded and cut into the tape after the first transmission to replace the Home Service identifications.
- RECORDING NUMBER:
Reference number of the original recording made over landline, usually at Broadcasting House, from the outside studio (the Playhouse Theatre, the Camden Theatre, etc.).
SLO = 33 r.p.m. coarse groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House.
SBU = ditto recorded at Bush House.
TNC = ditto recorded in Newcastle (!)
- TITLE:
The title given here is the official BBC title; links are given to the notes on each series' page.
Transcription Services have adopted different titles for several shows; these have been shown adjacent to the original title. The first two series do not have titles, as the shows are episodic.
- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Changes of cast for individual shows (mostly the addition of guest artists) and recording dates other than the previous Sunday are also shown. Except where noted, the shows are nominally half an hour long, usually with about a minute and a half of playout to bring the duration to just over thirty minutes.
- NOTES
Notes to each series (except the first two, which do not require detailed notes) follow each series listing. Announced titles which differ from the official have been detailed, together with any other relevant information.
Note 1 indicates throughout these listings that the show is not announced by any coherent title (except, of course, as 'The Goon Show'); for the purposes of these notes, only announcements at or near the beginnings of the show are being considered, not those after the musical items. The 3rd series shows are not included in this, as the titles given do not usually apply to the first sketch, which often does not have a title in any case. Those 4th series shows which are episodic have been detailed in the notes; there is usually no particularly coherent title given to the first episode in these shows.