Wanted: Glompus Van Der Hloed's Tales From The Crypt

[TeaLeaf]

I listened to this radio serial in the 80's and would love to obtain a copy of it if anyone knows where I can buy one.  I am pretty sure it had Mel Smith in it, can;t remember who else, but had leading characters Inspector Bribeasy, Sgt Adolf Porno, Sandy Cheeseburger (and american from UCLA), and the retired super-natural investigator Prof Glumpus Van de Heut(sp) who ran a taxi cab firm.  The infamous Bishop of Darkness also made an appearance.

The story followed a hilarious chase to capture the Bishop of Darkness and his assistant Creephole who were undertaking the most dastardly thing known to man.

Please help me find it!  I lost my cassette tape of it when I lent it to a friend and he or his kids lost it!

TL.

[Benny]

Thought I'd get your hopes up then dash them.

I've found reference to Simon Jones - he of Hitchhikers fame - I assume it was a bbc radio show?

Still looking, but it's not an easy one that...

[delanvital]

From what I can gather it is from 1979 and is by Rory McGrath and Griff Rhys Jones?

The next twelve months was a largely fragmented                period for Cook, with one shining highlight. The fragments included                playing Prince Disgusting in the Cambridge Footlights radio pantomime                Black Cinderella 2 Goes EastRadio 4), devised                by Douglas Adams and written by Clive Anderson and Rory McGrath,                and a role as Count Yourchickens in a radioTales                From The Crypt (1979) by Rory McGrath and Griff Rhys Jones.                While no series was commissioned from the latter, the programme                may or may not bare a resemblance to the album Glompus Van Der                Hloed's Tales From The Crypt by McGrath and Jimmy Mulville,                which starred Andrew Sachs. Cook also took part in a series of interviews                with David Dimbleby, Person To Person (1979), which took                a distinctly aggressive turn when Dimbleby began pointing out the                present lull in Cook's career.

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:8fv0DeJFoc8J:stabbers.truth.posiweb.net/stabbers/html/biography/biography_03.htm+%22mel+smith%22+%22tales+from+the+crypt%22+radio&hl=da&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=dk

Wikipedia does however not mention it on either person:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griff_Rhys_Jones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_McGrath

[TeaLeaf]

Ooooo, nice info!  Followed the link through to Jimmy Mulville and found this:

Jimmy Mulville co-wrote and starred with Rory McGrath in the two series of Chelmsford 123, a comedy set in Roman Britain, broadcast on Channel 4 in 1988 and 1990. They also co-wrote the album Glompus Van Der Hloed's Tales From The Crypt, which starred Andrew Sachs, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones.

So there's the Mel Smith reference, so it must be the one.  Also found a quote for Ninja from the show:

"Arumph! Excuse me. Are you French?"
"No, no I'm not. I don't think I've really got a country I could call my own."
"Ah, must be Canadian......"

So, Glompus Van Der Hloed's Tales From The Crypt is the album I am after, now just to find it!

An anonymous german fan review lists it at number 5 in his top ten 'island discs':

5. Glompus Van De Hloedt: Tales From The Crypt
Die Geschichte von den Zombies, die eine Gewerkschaft gründen obwohl sie ja bekanntlicherweise kein Gehirn haben, das aber dadurch wettmachen, indem sie die Mumien überreden mitzumachen, ist noch das normalste, was bei dieser Sprech-LP (Hörspiel) geschieht. Da wird einem jungen Mann bei lebendigem Leib das Herz herausgerissen, weil man ihn mit einer Artischocke verwechselt, eine Frau wird in ihrem Badezimmer von einem Zug überrollt und das alles nur, weil der belgische Professor des Paranormalen Glompus Van De Hloedt seine Laufbahn als Geistersucher aufgegeben hat und Taxifahrer wurde. Wird der "Bishop Of Darkness" diesmal gewinnen? Wird Van De Hloedt seine Taxifirma aufgeben? Wird seine Assistentin Sandy Cheeseburger jemals wieder das Licht der Sonne sehen? Der Soundtrack und die Backgroundmusik stammen übrigens von den brillanten Stargazers!

But where do I get hold of it............?

TL.

[delanvital]

From a German site I can see that it was at least issued on a LP and that the sound fx etc is, quite interestingly, from Stargazers lol. It is one of ten albums this dude would take with him on a deserted island.

>snip< - same find

The search continues...

Edit:
The mentioned Simon Jones reference (see bottom sum-up):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/simon.shtml

Edit2:
http://voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=5335
It seems Simon Jones did a voice in some radio version of "Tales from the Crypt"

Edit3:
I'd say the trail ends there. I have been through the BBC Radio, int. radio and BBC shop as well and could not find it. I'd say send an e-mail to BBC or track down some contact info on either Mel Smith, Simon Jones or Rhys Jones and see what happens

[Glandelf]

Hello Tealeaf & team,
I have the album as an mp3 recorded off my record.

Happy to email it if you like.

Paul.

[TeaLeaf]

Hello Tealeaf & team,
I have the album as an mp3 recorded off my record.

Happy to email it if you like.

Paul.

Ahah!  I missed this reply somehow, just got pointed at it last night during the BBQ.  I have sent you a PM for more info!  Many thanks  Might be a chance to find an old record/tape somewhere if I can get the reference numbers from the album!

TL.

[delanvital]

I've PM'ed the same guy for details, but got no response. You still out there mate? :blink:

[TeaLeaf]

I asked Glandelf to send the catalogue/reference number to the album as I would love to try to track this one down and have a copy for myself.  There must be some record stores out there somewhere that have a copy.

TL.

[thi]

I managed to track it down in 2004, got it at //www.shop4vinyl.co.uk for the princely sum of £10.60 including postage. Of course I then had to buy a turntable with the express purpose of playing this one record!

It was broadcast on Capital Radio, not the BBC, which is probably why no-one's had any luck tracking it down that way. The LP is an edited version of the radio series (presumably due to length) but that didn't bother me because I grew up with a tape of the LP in the first place. I do have all but one of the radio series episodes somewhere, someone had a web page up with them but it doesn't seem to be around now. Whilst I was trying to find a copy I did contact Capital but didn't get any decent response other than "try online record collectors shops".

Here's a snippet of the mail confirmation of my order - that number may be of some use (I recently moved house and don't know which box my actual LP is in so I can't help with serial number etc. at the moment):

==========================================
Ost - Tales From The Crypt - LP - 1981 - K58406
Ost/Tv x 1 @ £7.20
==========================================

[TeaLeaf]

Cheers for the info thi, that shop doesn't have it any longer, but hopefully the reference might help me in my search!

TL.

[John Ainsworth]

If you're still out there looking for this LP, there is a copy on e-bay at the moment. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tales-From-The-Crypt-comedy-LP-V-Rare_W0QQitemZ180274535490QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item180274535490&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318

[OldBloke]

If you're still out there looking for this LP, there is a copy on e-bay at the moment. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tales-From-The-Crypt-comedy-LP-V-Rare_W0QQitemZ180274535490QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item180274535490&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318

Hi John. Thanks for taking the time to post this. Tealeaf is in the States at the moment but he said he should be able to check the forum occasionally.

[DuVeL]

PM might get him sooner online?
And I reckon you have Paul's phonenumber so a textmessage should work fine OB?

[smite]

Last i heard he managed to get one.