Rawlinson End Radio Flashes were thirteen 20-minute radio shows, produced by Vivian Stanshall (of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) for BBC Radio 1 between 1975 and 1991. The earlier ones became the basis for his album, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (recording) (1978).
Contents
Background
Stanshall's first foray into radio began in 1970, when producer John Walters recruited him to substitute for BBC 1 radio DJ John Peel when Peel went on holiday. Stanshall created what he called "Radio Flashes" which consisted of playing records he liked, interspersed with spoken links and pre-recorded comedy bits. He created mock advertisements for large animal repellents such as "Repellaphant", "Rilla-Go" and "Rhi-No". He wrote and performed surreal continuing serials about the imaginary adventurers of Colonel Knut, starring himself, Who drummer Keith Moon, Traffic's Jim Capaldi and Chris Bowler.
In 1972 Stanshall created a similar track for the Bonzo Dog Band's post-breakup contractual obligation album, Let's Make Up and Be Friendly. It was a nine-minute serial entitled "Rawlinson End" and told the story, in music and words, of a very dysfunctional British family.
Walters suggested to Stanshall that the Rawlinson End saga could be expanded for the Peel show, and Stanshall readily agreed. Beginning in 1975 thirteen episodes were produced, each roughly twenty minutes long, featuring guest musicians and voices along with Stanshall's own cast of absurdist characters.
1996 reductions
In 1996 various parts of the series were edited down to five 14-minute programmes running Christmas week for Book at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4, in tribute to Stanshall who had died in 1995. These excerpts reportedly made even less sense than the originals.
Episode list
At present the original radio series remains unreleased, but exist as off air recordings made by listeners at home. The quality ranges from good to excellent.