Show 32

"Harry Secombe Educates the BBC"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 2 Episode: 15
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Andrew Timothy
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	Max Geldray: The Trolley Song Ellington Quartet: Boum! The Goons (Grafton's Parodies) String Quartet in E Vive La Compagnie Incidental music: Wally Stott
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SBU 83555
First broadcast	6 May 1952 (1952-05-06)

The series 2 shows didn't have 'official' episode names per se, but for ease of reference using the show number and Handsome Harry sketch name is to differentiate them.

The show had now changed its name from Crazy People to "The Goon Show, featuring those crazy people…"

Show 32 (aka Harry Secombe Educates the BBC) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the fifteenth show in the second series.

The show recording session was on Sunday, 4 May 1952 at 9pm and was recorded at The Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, Central London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday, 6 May 1952 at 9.30pm (except Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 2.2m.

The show's repeat was broadcast the following Thursday at 7.30pm, 8 May 1952 on the Light Programme to an audience of 4.7 million listeners.

Sketches

• Harry Secombe has to educate the BBC after he is summoned by the Head of Variety following poor figures for The Goon Show in a Nosey Parker Listener Research Report;
• In another tale of engineering genius from 1944, Captain Pureheart builds the Mulberry Harbour;
• The Goons interview Olympic possibles in training such as Sid Flange, Ernie Splutmuscle and Jasper Bass;
• In 1789, Lord Nugent Gascoine travels to France in order to rescue the King from being executed by revolutionaries.

Music

• Max Geldray performed The Trolley Song (Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet played Boum! (Charles Trenet).
• The Goons sing Jimmy Grafton’s parodies of the String Quartet in E (Luigi Boccherini), Vive La Compagnie (traditional).

Show Trivia

The fifteenth show saw Bloodnok appearing in the Pureheart sketch while the final narrative was a French revolutionary item. Harry was now also playing an idiotic northern character called Bass, Peter's ‘Sanders’ character was featuring more prominently, and the opening sketch saw fun poked at the BBC Head of Variety and the department’s reliance on Listener Research Reports

Technical

Originally recorded on SBU 83555. (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Bush House).