6th Series

Basic Cast :-

  • Peter Sellers,
  • Harry Secombe,
  • Spike Milligan,
  • The Ray Ellington Quartet,
  • Max Geldray.

  • Announcer is Wallace Greenslade.

  • Produced by Peter Eton (nos. 1-21) and Pat Dixon (nos. 22-27).

    Broadcast Tuesdays, pre-recorded the previous Sunday (except nos. 10 & 15).

    1 20-Sep-55 TLO 86722 The Man Who Won the War 2
    (TS: Seagoon MCC)
    (Spike & Eric Sykes)
    2 27-Sep-55 TLO 87028 The Secret Escritoire
    (Spike & Eric Sykes)
    3 04-Oct-55 TLO 87493 The Lost Emperor 1
    4 11-Oct-55 TLO 88253 Napoleon's Piano 3
    5 18-Oct-55 TLO 88477 The Case of the Missing CD Plates 4
    6 25-Oct-55 TLO 88977 Rommel's Treasure 5
    7 01-Nov-55 TLO 89727 Foiled by President Fred 6
    8 08-Nov-55 TLO 90136 Shangri-La Again 7
    9 15-Nov-55 TBU 52103 The International Christmas Pudding 8
    -- 22-Nov-55 TLO 67468 (No. 10 postponed to 03-Apr-56, 9
    replaced by repeat of 'China Story', first broadcast 18-Jan-55)
    11 29-Nov-55 TLO 91637 The Sale of Manhattan 10
    (TS: The Lost Colony)
    12 06-Dec-55 TLO 92346 The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu-Manchu 11
    SP 08-Dec-55 TLO 92849 The Missing Christmas Parcel - Post Early for Christmas
    (Written by Eric Sykes)
    (15 minutes broadcast in Children's Hour; recorded 27-Nov-55: without musicians). Devised and produced by Peter Eton and John Lane
    13 13-Dec-55 TLO 93483 The Lost Year
    14 20-Dec-55 TLO 93839 The Greenslade Story
    (with John Snagge)
    15 27-Dec-55 TLO 93838 The Hastings Flyer - Robbed 12
    (recorded 18-Dec-55)
    16 03-Jan-56 TLO 94673 The Mighty Wurlitzer
    17 10-Jan-56 TLO 94832 The Raid of the International Christmas Pudding 1
    18 17-Jan-56 TLO 95608 Tales of Montmartre 10
    (Spike & Eric Sykes)
    (with Charlotte Mitchell)
    19 24-Jan-56 TLO 95990 The Jet-Propelled Guided NAAFI 1
    20 31-Jan-56 TLO 96271 The House of Teeth 1
    (with Valentine Dyall)
    21 07-Feb-56 TLO 97228 Tales of Old Dartmoor
    (orch. cond. by Bruce Campbell)
    22 14-Feb-56 TLO 97297 The Choking Horror
    (orch. cond. by Bruce Campbell)
    23 21-Feb-56 TLO 98295 The Great Tuscan Salami Scandal 13
    (without musicians, with John Snagge - pre-rec.)
    24 28-2-56 TLO 98661 The Treasure in the Lake 14
    (orch cond. Bruce Campbell)
    SP 01-3-56 TLO 98662 The Goons Hit Wales
    (5½ minute insert in St. David's Day programme, recorded 26-Feb-56)
    25 06-Mar-56 TLO 74145 The Fear of Wages 15
    (Spike and Larry Stephens)
    26 13-Mar-56 TLO 98950 Scradje
    (Spike and Larry Stephens)
    27 20-Mar-56 TLO 99481 The Man Who Never Was 16
    (Spike & Larry Stephens)
    10 03-Apr-56 TLO 90647 The Pevensey Bay Disaster 9
    (recorded 20-Nov-55)
    SP 29-Aug-56 TLO 11466 China Story 17
    (recorded 24-Aug-56 at the National Radio Show. Produced by Dennis Main Wilson)
    Notes to the 6th series

    1. Not coherently announced.

    2. Announced as 'Seagoon MCC' (because he was a batman...).

    3. The script and the Programme Index entry are wrongly titled 'The Sale of Manhattan'.

    4. Announced as 'A Strange Case of Diplomatic Immunity'.

    5. Announced as 'The Search for Rommel's Treasure'.

    6. Announced as 'In Honour Bound'.

    7. Announced as 'Lost Horizon'.

    8. Announced as 'The Great International Christmas Pudding'.

    9. On the day the show was recorded there was a serious train crash at Didcot in which 10 people were killed and 116 injured. In view of the fact that the show contains a train crash, the broadcast was cancelled and replaced with a repeat of 'China Story' from the previous series. (See 'The Hastings Flyer - Robbed' 12)

    10. Announced as 'The Lost Colony'.

    11. Announced as 'Fred Fu-Manchu and his Bamboo Saxophone'.

    12. This script is identical to that for 'The Pevensey Bay Disaster' (see 9), incorporating the timing cuts made for that occasion; only the announcements are changed, to 'The Hastings Flyer'. The earlier version of the show is the one issued by TS, as they recorded directly by line from the studio, so that to them 'The Hastings Flyer' was a repeat. 'The Pevensey Bay Disaster' was eventually broadcast two weeks after the end of the series, so that to the British listeners 'The Hastings Flyer' is the original version.

    13. There was a musicians' strike on at the time. In common with other Variety shows, the cast made do without music. This show and the next also include Milligan's famous ballad 'I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas'. The programme is not coherently announced.

    14. Announced as 'The Treasure of Loch Lomond'.

    15. Inspired by the film 'The Wages of Fear'.

    16. This is an expanded version of the script which formed parts 2 & 3 of the
    20th of the 3rd series. It appears again in the 8th series.

    17. This is a new production of no. 17 of the 5th series - the script is almost identical.