Show 20

"Captain Pureheart builds the Crystal Palace"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 02 Episode: 03
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	The Stargazers: Belle Secombe: Vesti la giubba from Pagliacci Geldray: Undecided Ellington: Sonny Boy'
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 2519
First broadcast	5 February 1952 (1952-02-05)
Running time	27:45

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

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

Show 20 (aka Captain Pureheart builds the Crystal Palace) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the third show in the second series. The show was recorded at 7.45pm on Sunday 3 February 1952 The recording was done at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday 22 January 1952 at 9.30pm (except Scotland, Wales and the West). It reached a peak listenership of 1.8m.

Sketches

• Captain Pureheart builds the Crystal Palace: finds the inventor busy in Hyde Park but not insuring his creation against fire.
• Handsome Harry hunts for lost drummer: has Harry hired to find a drummer for an orchestra while in Venice in The Adventures of Handsome Harry Secombe.
• Major Bloodnok protects the women from Senapatti and his tribesmen: features the show’s historian recalling a dangerous mission from his days in India when he was sent to Manicure Hill.
• Queue Vadit: relates the story of the World’s Greatest Film, a Roman epic about Nero.

Music

• The Stargazers sing Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle (Bob Merrill).
• Harry Secombe sings Vesti la giubba from Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo).
• Max Geldray plays Undecided (Charlie Shavers).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet pays tribute to Al Jolson with Sonny Boy (Ray Henderson/BG De Sylva/Lew Brown).

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 2519 (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).

This is the second show borrowed from Spike Milligan, and is less distorted, but marred throughout by low-level breakthrough of another programme. This may be due to poor reception conditions, but could also be due to the imperfect erasure of a previous recording — the erase head on a Soundmirror tape recorder was simply a permanent magnet swung into contact with the tape.