Nineteen Eighty-Five

 

Series: 5 Episode: 15 and 20

Recorded: ?? and 30/01/55 First broadcast: 04/01/55 and 08/02/55 Ref:TLO 70044 and TLO 71798

Cast: Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers

Script by: Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes

Producer: Peter Eton



[ ... ] denotes text in the first recording 5/15 (broadcast 4-1-55) only
{ ... } denotes text in the second recording 5/20 (recorded 30-1-55, broadcast 8-2-55) only

Nineteen Eighty-Five is based on Nigel Kneal's television version of George Orwell's 1984. The show was so successful that it was re-performed on February 8th, with a pre-recorded appearance of John Snagge replacing Peter Sellers for the "Attention England State" announcement. It was the first version which was released on LP.
Greenslade:This is the BBC Home Service.
Sellers:(pre-recorded) Big Brother is watching YOU!
Eccles:OooOooow
FX:LARGE RESOUNDING DULL GONG
Secombe:(town cryer) Listeners! You are warned. This programme, is NOT, to be listened to! (manic laugh)
Milligan:aurrrggg eurgggh eaurggh (strangulated noise)
Bluebottle:Ehee hee! I don't like this game!
Greenslade:(town cryer) The BBC would like to caution parents this programme is unsuitable for the very young, the very old, the middle aged, those just going off, those on the turn, young dogs and Alderman John Snagge.
FX:LARGE RESOUNDING DULL GONG
Milligan:(announcing) This is the story of the year Nineteen Eighty-Five!
OMNES:GROANING, WHALING AND CRYING INTO SCREAMING
ORCH:TEA PARTY DANCE MUSIC (1922 JACK PAYNE ONE-STEP?)
Seagoon:My name is eight-four-six Winston Seagoon. I am a worker in the great news collecting centre of the Big Brother Corporation, or as you knew it, the BBC. In every room is a TV screen that gives out a stream of orders.
Big Brother:([Sellers]{John Snagge}) Attention people of England State. Thanks to derationing and the free market the price of tea has now gone down to eighty-five guineas a quarter. And here is good news for state housewives, the following goods are now in the shops: plastic and sawdust elephant night-shirts; second hand concrete parachutes; artificial explodable woollen bloomers; mens self igniting tailess shirts - with anti thundersheet attachment. There are UNLIMITED SUPPLIES IN THE SHOPS!!
Eccles:Oh, it's good to be alive, in 1985
Big Brother:Now here is announcer [2839476253245342567789657/32] {2839476252324769854327618976/2}
Seagoon:Good old Greenslade.
Greenslade:(announcing) Special interest to BBC workers. By mixing water with earth our scientists have invented MUD! Its now on sale in the BBC canteen under the name of Macaroni au Gratin or coffee.
Seagoon:Big fat slob, get off the screen!
GRAMS:WHOOSH
Vision Master:(Sellers- Grytpypy Thynne voice) Worker Seagoon, did I hear you complaining?
Seagoon:Ohh, Vision Master Ronnie Waldman.
Vision Master:You are not complaining about our new BBC TV are you?
Seagoon:No, oh no. I ...
Vision Master:(quickly) What is the finest TV programme in the world?
Seagoon:(automatically) Kaleidoscope.
Vision Master:You are forgiven. As a penance you will put a copy of the RadioTimes in your window. Don't forget to watch tonights programme...
Seagoon:Oh yes, "Ask Son of Pickles".
Vision Master:Yes. Tonight he hopes to have a one-legged dying Eskimo play the piano for him. Now everybody, face the TV screen. Time for the "Hate Half Hour"
Moriarty:Attention all! Coming on the screen now is the one man you must hate! The sworn enemy of the Big Brother Corporation, this is him!
Minnick:(Sellers Lew/Cash voice) Listen, listen! Don't believe them! Listen! BBC workers. Rise and overthrow your masters before it's too late. I will lead you against them. Strike now! Revolt!
Seagoon:So this was [Maurice Winnickstein] {Horrace Minnick}, leader of the ITA.
Minnick:Join the Independent Television Army now.
OMNES:HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE!...
Moriarty:STOP! Stop. Enough. Now here is a special announcement from Big Brother!
ORCH:FANFARE
Announcer:(over public address system) BBC workers. The canteen is now open. Lunch is ready. Doctors are standing by.
Seagoon:As I sat at my table eating my boiled water I began to hate Big Brother Corporation.
Eccles:Hey Winston. Guess what I found in my dinner.
Seagoon:What?
Eccles:Food! Oh, it's good to be alive in 1985!
Seagoon:Poor producer fool. Still sixty years with the Huggets would turn
Fnutt:(Sellers Cynthia voice) I love you darling!
Eccles:I love you too, darling.
Fnutt:Not you two-one-three Eccles, you eight-four-six Wintson.
Seagoon:You are a woman, aren't you?
Fnutt:Yes.
Seagoon:Thank heaven, you have got to be careful these days.
Fnutt:Eight-four-six Winston, darling, I have loved you from afar.
Seagoon:My favourite distance. But who are you?
Fnutt:I am six-one-two Miss Fnutt. I operate the Pornograph Machine in the Forbidden Records Department. I love you, do you hear me!
Seagoon:No... love is not for us.
Fnutt:no...
Seagoon:... love is only for the higher income group, John Snagge, Audrey Cameron and Paul Fenoulhet.
Fnutt:Let's take a chance. Let's meet somewhere under the moon alone. We can clasp each other to each other and then... ohhhh...
Eccles:Ohhh! It's good to be alive, in 1985!
Seagoon:Shut up, Eccles!
Eccles:Shut up, Eccles...
Seagoon:Now darling, where?
Fnutt:Somewhere where no one is listening.
Seagoon:I know the [very] place. Home Service, eight thirty Tuesday night.
Fnutt:You mean the forbidden Goon Sector...
Seagoon:Yes. Wait, that belt you are wearing...
Fnutt:That's the Anti-Sex League belt.
Seagoon:Ahemm, [Well] I don't think I will come.
Fnutt:No, no, but you too are wearing the Anti-Sex League belt.
Seagoon:I was forced to.
Fnutt:Why?
Seagoon:My trousers kept falling down.
Fnutt:Till Tuesday, darling...
FX:HORSE GALLOPING OFF INTO DISTANCE (COCONUT SHELL)
Fnutt:(quietly) Till Tuesday . . .
Seagoon:There she goes, little fairy. That night in my room I sat out of range of the TV screen. I loved Fnutt, and I hate Big Brother. I wrote it in my diary "I hate BB, I hate BB, I hate BB, I hate BB"
FX:PHONE RINGING. RECEIVER UP.
Seagoon:Hello?
[Ben Lyon] {Groucho}:Don't tell anybody, but I hate BB too.
Seagoon:Who are you {, Ben Lyon} ?
[Ben Lyon:Ben Lyon.]
{Groucho:No. I was, but this script was altered.}
Seagoon:{Karl Marx,} so there was an underground movement. I must try and find it. {I strode into the street, pausing only to hear worker Geldray play a perforated haddock sock at the slope... }
MAX & ORCH:MAX GELDRAY - "IT HAD TO BE YOU"
Bloodnok:Now lads I know you are all enjoying yourselves, but silence, silence please for the cabaret. I have pleasure in presenting those glamorous Grandmothers, the three Beverly Sisters!
FX:GUN SHOT
Bloodnok:Correction, the Beverly Twins!
FX:GUN SHOT
Bloodnok:Miss Beverly will sing...
FX:GUN SHOT
Bloodnok:Everybody dance!
GRAMS:BAR PIANO PLAYING, HUBUB OF CUSTOMERS
Seagoon:To think, this used to be Palm Court. I looked around the bar. They were dressed in cloth caps, corduroy trousers, rough lumberjacket shirts, bald heads and beards, and some of them men were dressed the same.
Bluebottle:Eheehee!
Seagoon:I'm sorry, I didn't see you...
Bluebottle:Fear not. You did not hurt me. Enter Bluebottle the toast of the Goon Sector. Thank you fellow Goons for the sausanges.
Seagoon:What is that plain wrapper book you are reading?
Bluebottle:It is a naughty little bookule. Listen to this: "In the darkness she felt his hot breath on her bed rails. Then a warm hand fell on her marble wash stand."
Seagoon:STOP! Stop, stop that at once. Give me that book!
Bluebottle:Why?
Seagoon:I want to read it. What's it called?
Bluebottle:It's called "Mrs Dale's Real Diary".
Seagoon:Mrs Dale's...?? Heavens, would the BBC stop at nothing? So this was how they kept the masses from thinking.
Bluebottle:Eheehee! Look at this page! Eheehee! It's a Three-D picture of Mrs Dale in her nightshirt being chased Richard Dimbleby... Eheehee! Eheeheehee! fsssssl Eheeheeoooooughhhh... Pauses to wipe drool off chin. Eheh!
Seagoon:I had to go outside. I couldn't bear to watch these poor Goons wallow in misery. It was then I wandered into an antique shop.
FX:DOOR OPENS, SHOP BELL
Crun:(singing) I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts...
Seagoon:Good evening. Do you mind if I take a gander around the shop?
Crun:No, as long as it's housetrained... (continues singing)
Seagoon:I say! What's this old object?
Crun:That, beautiful isn't it? It's called a cricket bat.
Seagoon:Oh yes... yes... did they have test matches way back?
Crun:Yes, that's... that's right. As a matter of fact this bat was used in the very last {test by Len Hutton} [test by an Australian opening batsman], you can see it's quite unmarked.
Seagoon:Old man, tell me, what was it like back in 1954?
Crun:Well we had sports and games, coloured movies, Charlie Chester, Monkhouse, Rubert Harding, ohhh, it was terrible.
FX:DOOR OPENS, SHOP BELL
Eccles:Listen, look who I bought along.
Fnutt:Hello, dearest.
Seagoon:Darling, darling I love you.
Eccles:And I love you too.
Seagoon:Shut up, Eccles!
Eccles:Shut up, you!
Fnutt:We were looking in the window for antiques and we saw you.
Seagoon:Ahhemm. We mustn't be seen together, quick, into this room.
FX:RATTLE OF KNOB, DOOR OPENS & CLOSES
Fnutt:Darling, alone at last!
Seagoon:Oh, dearest Fnutt, let me kiss you.
Eccles:Oh ho here! Don't start yet, I'll get a chair.
Seagoon:Eccles, you go outside and keep watch.
Eccles:I can watch better in here.
Seagoon:Eccles!
Eccles:Yup.
FX:RATTLE OF KNOB, DOOR OPENS & CLOSES OVER:
Seagoon:There's the door.. And now dearest, alone at last...
Eccles:Alone at last.
Seagoon:Eccles! Get out or I will...
Eccles:Ok...ok...
FX:RATTLE OF DOOR KNOB, DOOR OPENS & CLOSES
Eccles:Huh! Telling me to get out [like that]. See if I care. I don't care - I don't, I just don't care that's all. Slamming the door like that, they can stop in there all night for all I care. I don't mind, I'll wait here until they've finished. I don't mind...
Seagoon:WILL YOU STOP MUTTERING AND GET OUT!!!
Eccles:Ok...
FX:DOOR CLOSES
Eccles:Ooooh!
Bluebottle:Eheehee!!
Eccles:Bluebottle!
Bluebottle:Eccles!
Eccles:Here... you were looking through the key hole?
Bluebottle:Yes I was. Ehee!
Eccles:It's naughty to look through the key hole, very very naughty to look through the key hole... very naughty ...
Bluebottle:Well stop looking through it when you are talking to me!
Eccles:I was only looking because {, I tell you something }
{Bluebottle:What Eccles?}
Eccles:I ain't never seen a fella kiss a girl before.
Bluebottle:Cor... haven't you Eccles?
Eccles:Nooo! Here... here...
Bluebottle:What, Eccles?
Eccles:Have you ever kissed a girl?
Bluebottle:Eheehee!! Not gonna tell you!
Eccles:Come on, come on, I won't tell anyone.
Bluebottle:I'm not going to say, I'm a man of mystery!
Eccles:But I'm your friend. Come on ... [you're my friend] have you ever kissed a girl?
Bluebottle:Ehhhhee. ... Yes!!!
Blubottle & Eccles:(both laughing, tailing off over 10 seconds)
Bluebottle:Eccles?
Eccles:Yup!
{Bluebottle:Eccles, I've seen something you haven't seen .. }
{Eccles:What, what, what's that? }
{Bluebottle:I have seen, I've seen my sister's washing on the line!!}
Bluebottle & Eccles:(laughing)
Eccles:Ohhh, It's good to be alive!
Bluebottle:I'm a happy go lucky man! Eheehee! Thinks: I'm a happy go lucky man.
FX:RATTLE OF DOOR KNOB, DOOR OPENS
Seagoon:What's all this noise! You, what do you want?
Bluebottle:I have a messange, if you want to join the Independent Television Army, report at once to number ten R-U-Certain Street.
Seagoon:R-U-Certain?
Bluebottle:Positive!
Seagoon:Right! Lets go!
GRAMS:WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
Seagoon:(breathing heavily) Here we are. Number ten, the ITA headquarters.
Vision Master:Oh, Winston, I've been expecting you.
Seagoon:Vision Master Waldman, what are you doing...
Vision Master:Don't be frightened. I am {a secret member} [one] of the Independent Television Army.
Seagoon:I had a feeling you were. I knew it by the little things, the way you smiled at me across the room, the way you touched my hair when you passed my chair (singing) Little things meeeeeeeeean a lot!!
Vision Master:You silly, twisted boy, you. Now then, you want to join ITA?
Seagoon:Yes.
Vision Master:What do you know about television?
Seagoon:Three years at the BBC staff training college.
Vision Master:What did you learn?
Seagoon:Nothing.
Vision Master:Good. We'll make you a director. Now say after me, "down with the BBC!"
Seagoon:Down with the BBC!
Vision Master:Drink.
FX:SMASHING GLASSES
Seagoon:We drank and smashed our glasses in the fire place, I had to borrow a spare pair to find my way home. {As I walked home I paused only to build a rough brick radiogram to play a record of Ray Ellington and his proles.}
{ORCH:RAY ELLINGTON MUSIC "SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL"}
Moriarty:Silence! Un. Stop ! Attention! Eight-four-six Winston Seagoon. You are under arrest for conspiring with the Independent Television Army. You will wait detention by the studio attendants, you will then be prepared for the agonising death type three.
Seagoon:Had they suspected me?
Moriarty:{Silence!!} You will be taken to room one-oh-one
Seagoon:No! Not one-oh-one, not the listening room! Oh noo!!! (crying off into the background)
Greenslade:(over top of Winston crying) I would just like to mention that the Radio Times is now on sale at all [better class] book stores price threepence, and jolly good value for money it is too.
Seagoon:No! No! Let me go! Why are they strapping me in this box? Why these earphones?
Vision Master:Hello Winston, laddie.
Seagoon:Vision Master Waldman. So they got you too...
Vision Master:Yes, they got me a long time ago. I remember the date, Monday night at eight. Now Winston, we must torture you..
Seagoon:You .. you traitor, you deceived me!
Vision Master:Yes [,yes], of course you can save yourself.
Seagoon:How?
Vision Master:Just sign this three-year BBC contract.
Seagoon:What if I refuse?
Vision Master:You have no option.
Seagoon:A BBC contract with no option? Impossible. What has become of my beloved? What have you done to Miss Fnutt?
Vision Master:Fnutt will never walk the streets again.
Seagoon:Why not?
Vision Master:She's bought a scooter. Now, are you going to sign?
Seagoon:Fno {, fno!}
Vision Master:Greenslade, turn the knob to two four seven metres.
GRAMS:"MRS DALES DIARY", GETTING FASTER AND FASTER UNDER:
Seagoon:No! No stop it! Stop it! Stop it ! I can't stand it! (breaks down into nos and sobs)
Vision Master:You going to sign, Winston?
Seagoon:No! [No! I won't sign]
Vision Master:Greenslade, three thirty meters.
GRAMS:"LIFE WITH LYONS" SPEED UP
Seagoon:No! no, no. You fiend to let me hear that!
Vision Master:Sign!
Seagoon:No!
{Vision Master:You won't sign?}
{Seagoon:No!}
Vision Master:Greenslade...
GRAMS:"HAVE A GO" GETTING FASTER AND FASTER UNDER:
Seagoon:NOOO!! Not that. No, stop stop no, no, no ...
Vision Master:I warn you Winston, here we can change people into some body else. You know Eccles?
Seagoon:Yes?
Vision Master:He used to be Issy Bonn.
Seagoon:You're lying!
Vision Master:[Really?] {You think so?} Greenslade, call Barbara Kelly.
Greenslade:(calling) Miss Kelly!
Ellington:Yes, you calling me Ronnie?
Vision Master:Ahh, Barbara dear, what's your line?
Ellington:A coloured television.
Vision Master:Thank you dear, back on the old flying wire.
Seagoon:You fiend. Poor Barbara Kelly.
Vision Master:On the contrary, we think it is a great improvement.
Seagoon:It must be terrible at bed time with Braden.*
Vision Master:Well it gets dark early in Canada, you know.
Seagoon:So the awful torture went on. In three days I lost ten stone. My weight went down to a mere twenty stone. I looked so old and [so] ill Wilfred Pickles demanded me for his TV programme. Then the torture started again!
GRAMS:SECOMBE OPERA RECORD
Seagoon:No! No! Stop! This is agony, stop that voice, stop that voice! stop that voice. Stop it! Whose is it?
Vision Master:Yours!
Seagoon:(clapping) More! Bravo! More, More! More! Encore! More! More, more. Let's have him back again, short fat fellow with the glasses, more!
Vision Master:Moriarty? Take over, I'm going to Jim Davidson for a saxophone lesson.
Moriarty:Very good. Little torturer!
Bluebottle:Enter torturer Bluebottle, with junior cardboard cut out torture kit.
Moriarty:Listen, little Lurgi-ridden Knuckoe. Prepare the screaming agony rack.
Bluebottle:Oh Goody Goody! Thinks: Perhaps 1985 is going to be a good year for Bloonbontle. Starts to get agony set ready.
Seagoon:(appealing frantically) No, Bluebottle, don't do it. Remember me? Your old pal Neddie Seagoon? Ha ha ha... Your friend? Ha ha...
Bluebottle:Yes?
Seagoon:Remember me? Ha ha ha ...
Bluebottle:My friend...
Seagoon:Yes, Bluebottle, you remember me? Ha ha ha...
Bluebottle:...you are the one who deads me every week, aren't you. Ehee hee hehe!! Thinks: I know the very thing for him. Prepares dirty big pile of [the] dreaded dynamite. Eheehee! I like this game now, I do, I like this. [This is a good game]
Seagoon:Bluebottle! Bluebottle, stop!
Bluebottle:There. All is ready for the dreaded deading of the traitor Seagoon. Ladies and gentlemen [ying-tong-iddle-slong-ding] I want you to witness, that, for the first time in the history of the Goon Show, Bluebottlns will not be deaded. Observe: I light a hundred foot fuse, so. Now, all that remains, is for me to escape. Taxi to the airport!
FX:TAXI DRIVING OFF
Bluebottle:Stop! Airplane, drive me to [Australia] {America}!
FX:JET TAKING OFF FAST
Bluebottle:Stop! Horse, drive to the desert!
FX:HORSE GALLOPING OFF (COCONUT SHELLS)
Bluebottle:Ladies and gentlemen. Observe. I am now six thousand miles away from the dreaded dynamite. Here I am [quite] safe in the middle of the desert ...
FX:EXPLOSION, FALLING RUBBLE AND METAL followed by short pause
Bluebottle:Eheeheehuu!!! You rotten swines you! Ehehehu, Exits left, never to play this rotten game again! Never never! Thinks: all right then next week. Ohh! Look at my knees, they've gone!
Seagoon:Meantime, back in the BBC [torture] {listening} room, I struggled to free myself before the dynamite exploded.
Bloodnok:Don't worry Seagoon.
Seagoon:Bloodnok! Eccles!
Bloodnok:Quick, untie him.
Eccles:OK, I had better hurry up before the...
FX:EXPLOSION
Eccles:That's got his legs free.
Seagoon:Yes, but where are they?
Eccles:Here dey are...
Voice:Attention! Attention! Face the TV screen
Seagoon:Look, it's [Maurice Winnickstein] {Horrace Minnick!}
Minnick:Listen, listen! Great news! After a telephone conversation lasting three days, and bribes worth ten pounds, I have gained control of the BBC.
Seagoon:Horray! Freedom at last!
Minnick:And here is the first of our new style [ITA commercial] {Independent Television Army} programmes!
GRAMS:SPED UP GOON SHOW PLAY OUT {"LIFE WITH THE LYONS" AND "RAY'S A LAUGH"}**
Seagoon:No!!!
ORCH:THEME TUNE UP AND UNDER, FADING FOR...
Greenslade:That was the Goon Show, a recorded programme featuring Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan with the Ray Ellington quartet and Max Gelgray. The orchestra was conducted by Bruce Campbell, script by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, announcer Wallace Greenslade, the programme produced by Peter Eton.

Notes:
* Reference Barbara Kelly and Bedtime with Braden: Bernard Braden was married to Barbara Kelly. (Martin Purdy ) 26/3/95)
** Due to copyright these tunes were removed from the versions we have, resulting in a show that appears to finish without a punchline. (Hugh Garsden 20/5/96)

Transcriber Russell Street , Sep 1993
notes on 2nd performance: Russell Street , Feb 1995
small edits by Paul Webster - Jul 1999
more notes & changes, from transcription by Kurt Adkins:
more notes on version differences from Dick Baker
all these changes and more edited together by Tony , Oct 2002
(but I only have a copy of the second performance to verify against)
version AJW6-11-02
Converted back to colourized HTML by Paul Webster - November 2002