Show 25

"Her"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 2 Episode: 8
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Andrew Timothy
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	Harry Secombe: You Are Love Max Geldray: Unforgettable Ellington Quartet: Aba Daba Honeymoon
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 5112
First broadcast	18 March 1952 (1952-03-18)

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 25 (aka Her) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the eighth show in the second series.

Harry Secombe's musical section was recorded separately from the main show session at 6pm on Sunday, 16 March 1952 (SLO 5112a). The main show recording session commenced later that Sunday, 16 March 1952 at 9pm. Both recording sessions were recorded at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday, 18 March 1952 at 9.45pm (except Scotland and Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 1.1m.

The show's repeat was broadcast at 12.15pm on Saturday, 22 March 1952 on the Light Programme to an audience of 0.4 million listeners.

BBC Audio Synopsis

In 1882, the Earl of Secombe receives a visit at his country mansion from Major Bloodnok. Bloodnok had found an old map of Africa telling where they can find an African Queen who is over two thousand years old but who still only looks eighteen because of an eternal flame in a cave… a flame which is threatened by the gas man!

Music

• Harry Secombe sang You Are Love (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II).
• Max Geldray performed Unforgettable (Irving Gordon).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet played Aba Daba Honeymoon (Arthur Fields/Walter Donovan).

Show Trivia

The script for this show carried only a single sketch: ‘The Goons’ version of Rider Haggard’s She, entitled Her which was presented ‘in four dramatic scenes’. This script was far closer to the structure of the later editions of the series, following the quest conducted by the Earl of Secombe, Major Bloodnok and Captain Pureheart accompanied by characters such as Carstairs, Malfeasance, Eccles, Flowerdew, Abdul and Ellinga (Ray Ellington’s ‘native’); there were also interludes to poke fun at the British politicians of the day. When this edition was scheduled in the later 9.45pm slot on Tuesday 18th (to allow for a special broadcast on Britain in Europe), Scotland failed to carry it.

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 5112 (Secombe's pre-recording session on SLO 5112a). (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).