Product Description

The Goons ruled the airwaves in the 1950s and became the most celebrated and influential clowns in radio history. This title includes: 'The Lost Year'; 'The Great Bank of England Robbery'; 'The Siege of Fort Night'; and, 'The Chinese Legs'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61874 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-06
• Released on: 2009-08-06
• Format: Audiobook
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Features

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Customer Reviews

A rare chance to hear these episodes
There is little point in reviewing the Goons themselves, you'll either be familiar with them or not. Modern audiences might wonder why their humour is so often described as `groundbreaking' yet, for those who look back on them fondly like myself, you just can't get enough! This compilation as usual contains four episodes:

- the Lost Year
- the Great Bank of England Robbery
- the Siege at Fort Night
- the Chinese Legs

all in the by then well-established format, with the familiar characters present and correct, absolutely crazy plots, wonderfully imaginative sound effects and weak endings in some cases. They have received the digital enhancement treatment, just as well since some of the original transcriptions were originally classified less than top quality for broadcast.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this compilation is that all four episodes are rarely heard; in fact to my knowledge, none have been broadcast since the Goon Shows originally ended. The exception is, as another reviewer has pointed out, the Siege at Fort Night, which was not broadcast anyway until the 1980s. None of the others have yet turned up on BBC 7 (the complexity of copyright issues has always eluded me) so this is indeed going to be a rare treat for many.

Not among their finest perhaps, though by no means the worst, this will be a great item for those who want to hear a selection of new shows - or who, like me, just can't get enough of the Goons!

my review
There is little in the World of today's comedy that can touch the humour and use of words as the Goon Show did. This latest collection of four shows adds to the collection already re-recorded and digitally enhanced. Hopefully within time every show will become available.

Ye cannae gae wrang wi' Milligan BUUUUUT......
My advice to anyone offered a BBC CD Goon Show release has got to be BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY. As the years go by the better known shows have been released already so some of the lesser vehicles are trundled out. All have had the miracle treatment whereby bits excised for Transcription Service issue and later rebroadcast have been painstakingly replaced using cardboard string and glue to give us the glorious whole. The shows here are oddities (Hence the date of "Siege of Fort Night" being 1986). There are "Vintage Goons" here. These were old scripts re-recorded in 1958 for the Transcription Service to issue ABROAD. "Fort Night" never reached the UK until '86, hence the date. Some of these shows sound s bit odd as the characters had developed between the original scripts ('53 - '54?) and 1958. Moriarty in particular had degenerated from a criminal mastermind to a mere frog eating lackey to Grytpipe-Thynne....
But we have here a worthwhile purchase for the student of insanity. While you are at it buy the Goon Show Compendiums too. Buy the previous 25 double CD issues.
I reckon (just a guess) the the BBC has issued more Goon Shows on CD than any other show from the archives. They are all well worth the money. You can't take it with you folks but you can have the show played at the crem and give your mourners a good laugh. YOU SEE! I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL!!!