1. In April 1998, many Radio 4 listeners were angry at the repeat broadcast of the episode ‘Dishonoured’ (aka ‘Dishonoured Again’, first broadcast 14/12/54). Their grievances centred on the fact that the show appeared to be crudely censored, with a reference to a Zulu warrior being cut from the classic show. Some listeners contacted Radio 4’s access show Feedback and protested, one correspondent using the excellent phrase ‘a dose of Stalinist airbrushing’. The presenter Chris Dunkley interviewed Richard Edis, the producer responsible for the repeat, questioning him about the ‘cack-handedly obvious edits’ (another excellent phrase):

DUNKLEY I’m joined in the Feedback studio now by Richard Edis, who was responsible for that Goon Show repeat. The first question seems to be ‘was this an edited version?’

DUNKLEY Why?

EDIS Because...er...under the new Radio 4 schedule, a nominal 30-minute slot is in fact only filled by a 28-minute programme.

DUNKLEY Hasn’t that always been true? Haven’t radio programmes always been a bit shorter than the slots they go in?

EDIS Yes, because of course we have to take account of trails, announcements...er...credits at the beginnings and ends of programmes...so, obviously, yes, a programme duration is always less than the slot it’s allocated to.

DUNKLEY But...so what’s the difference then? Why did you have to take something out of the old original programme?

EDIS I didn’t take anything out of the original recording. The original Goon Show was recorded at 30 minutes. The missing two minutes was removed by something called the BBC Transcription Services.

EDIS Forty years ago! Briefly - BBC Transcription Services is that part of BBC Radio that packages and sells radio programmes to overseas radio stations. They take a lot of old comedy programmes like The Goon Show. They still take The Archers. And they edit the original domestic recordings down from 30 minutes, if you take the example of The Goon Show, to 27/28 minutes in order to take account of the fact that most radio stations overseas are commercial radio stations and they need to fit the advertising breaks at the beginning and the end...

DUNKLEY So what you’re saying is, you took this already edited version because it would fit the new Radio 4 slot, is that right?

EDIS Exactly. Exactly.

DUNKLEY Does the BBC, as a matter of interest, still have the old 30-minute original?

EDIS Not of this Goon Show.

DUNKLEY So you couldn’t have put it out even if you’d wanted to?

EDIS Er, yes, I could have done....but that would have involved half a day in a studio like this one with a studio manager and reconstruct [sic] the original 30-minute show, but of course...

DUNKLEY You’ve got the off-cuts, is that what you’re saying?

EDIS Errrm...I don’t personally have the off-cuts, no. In fact, this particular Goon Show was released on a commercial record by Parlophone in 1959 and is indeed the first commercial record I ever bought as a small boy.

DUNKLEY For the benefit of those who are not Goon Show addicts and have no idea what came out, just briefly tell us what was taken out then?

EDIS Er, the original line ran...er, when Neddy Seagoon said ‘First I disguised myself as a Zulu Warrior of the Matabili Rising. So cunning was my make-up not even my own granny would have recognised me. (Husky voice) ‘’Ullo Neddy’, ‘Hello Granny’.’

DUNKLEY What about the other line?

EDIS The other line came out, erm, ‘clean’, if I can use a technical term...erm, and that was another line from Neddy Seagoon right at the top of the show when he says ‘Ah, here it is, Christmas Eve and still no offers of pantomime’ - a line that would have been absolutely meaningless to an overseas listener in the

DUNKLEY At whatever date those cuts were made, it does sound, doesn’t it, as though they were selected for reasons of what we’d now call Political Correctness.

EDIS This is true, because you have to remember that the programmes had to be deemed ‘suitable for overseas listeners’, and all topical references went, and anything deemed to be ‘offensive to a foreign audience’ was removed.

DUNKLEY The edits do seem to have been somewhat cack-handedly obvious. If you’d wanted to, surely you could have tidied them up and made them inaudible, couldn’t you? And yet they were noticeable.

EDIS (Pause) Well, that is a very good question. Yes, I could have done that, but again that would have involved booking a studio with a studio manager and spending more money.

DUNKLEY And the cack-handedness, again, goes back to the original cuts done for what you’re calling the...

DUNKLEY It’s a noticeable absence.

EDIS It’s a noticeable absence, yes.

DUNKLEY Do you feel that Goon Show addicts - of which there are many, clearly - are entitled to something of an apology over this?

DUNKLEY Richard Edis.

One of Richard Edis’ more successful productions

2. On 30/4/72, the cast reunited to record The Last Goon Show Of All at the Camden Theatre. A 59-minute version of the show (essentially the rushes) was broadcast on Radio 4, complete with the entire warm-up, but the television version (broadcast on Boxing Day 1972 and issued on video in 1990) was edited to 38 minutes. The video version and the original album release both omitted Spike Milligan’s ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’ pastiche for PRS reasons. This was reinstated for the 1997 CD re-issue.