The Building of Britain's First Atomic Cannon

"The Building of Britain's First Atomic Cannon"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 4 Episode: 4
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Andrew Timothy
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	Orchestra: Wally Stott Geldray: Side by Side Ellington: Bim Bam Baby
Recording Number	TLO 36235
First broadcast	23 October 1953 (1953-10-23)

The Building of Britain's First Atomic Cannon is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the third show in the fourth series. The show was recorded at 9pm on Sunday 18 October 1953 The recording took place at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Friday 23 October 1953 at 9.30pm (except Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 1.9m. Its first repeat on the Light Programme at 1.45pm on Sunday 24 October 1953 had a peak listenership of 1.5m.

There are no publically available recordings of this show as of 10 November 2024.

Story

Following an account of the development of British weaponry, in 1953 the English physicist, Mr Crun, is summoned to Whitehall from his home in Scotland by Mr Evan Evans of the War Ministry. Britain needs to match America with its longe-range cannon to fire atomic shells, but Crun is concerned about missing his piano practice and adapts his invention to fire his instrument down to London…

Music

• The BBC Radio Orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott
• Max Geldray plays Side by Side (Harry Woods)
• The Ray Ellington Quartet plays Bim Bam Baby (Sammy Mysels)

Technical

Originally recorded on TLO 36235 (Agfa FR tape stock at 15 ips ¼" tape recorded at Broadcasting House).