Show 24

"Handsome Harry Investigates a Murder"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 2 Episode: 7
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	Stanley Black and The BBC Dance Orchestra Harry Secombe: A Beggar in Love Max Geldray: My Yiddishe Momme Ellington Quartet: In a Shady Nook Incidental music: Wally Stott
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 4179
First broadcast	11 March 1952 (1952-03-11)

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 24 (aka Handsome Harry Investigates a Murder) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the seventhth show in the second series.

Harry Secombe's musical section was recorded separately from the main show session at 6pm on Sunday, 9 March 1952 (SLO 4179A). The main show recording session commenced later that Sunday, 9 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, 11 March 1952 at 9.30pm (except Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 0.7m.

The show's repeat was broadcast at 12.15pm on Saturday, 15 March 1952 on the Light Programme to an audience of 0.7 million listeners.

Sketches

• Handsome Harry investigates a murder: Harry recounts to Andrew Timothy one of his cases when he was the world’s greatest private detective.
• Pureheart lays the Atlantic Cable: Where the Captain recalls how the Postmaster General asked him to install telephone cables in another Great Engineering Triumph.
• Swiss Winter Sports Sketch with commentators Michael Bentine and Jack Islott talking to the likes of Ernie Splutmuscle in Switzerland.
• Major Bloodnok protects the Blarney Stone: The Major recounts how his ancestor, Rory O’Bloodnok, saved the Blarney Stone from being pinched by Oliver Cromwell in 1641.

Music

• Harry Secombe sang A Beggar in Love (Bob Merrill).
• Max Geldray performed My Yiddishe Momme (Jack Yellen/Lew Pollack).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet paid tribute to Allan Jones with In a Shady Nook) (Rudolf Friml/Herbert Stothart/Chet Forrest).

Show Trivia

Harry's musical number, Beggar in Love, had originally been planned to be included in Show 23 but was cut for some unknown reason, presumably timing or scheduling issues.

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 4179 (Secombe's pre-recording session on SLO 4179a). (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).