List of Goon Show episodes

The following is a List of The Goon Show episodes. The Goon Show was a popular and influential British radio comedy series, originally produced by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 and broadcast on the BBC Home Service.

Many of the earliest radio episodes no longer exist. No episodes from the first series survive. Only Episodes 1 and 3 from the second series (1951–2) survive. Only one full episode and one ten-minute extract from the third series survive. Only one episode from the fourth series was preserved in the BBC Sound Archive (as a tape dub from an acetate disc), and a few others exist only as off-air copies made by fans at the time of the original broadcast.

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.

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.

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 BBC Transcription Services versions were then cut to remove topical and parochial material and anything that might be potentially offensive (and The Goon Show did feature quite a lot of politically incorrect humour, much of it sneaked under the noses of BBC censors). Later BBC 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, but in recent years restoration experts such as Ted Kendall have found and restored a considerable amount of missing material.

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