Christmas Crackers

"Christmas Crackers"
The Goon Show episode
Issue 1571 of the Radio Times for 20-26 Dec 1953
Episode: no.	Series: 4 Episode: Special
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Wallace Greenslade
Produced by	Peter Eton
Music	No Goons Music
Recording Number	TLO 40660
First broadcast	25 December 1953 (1953-12-25)
Running time	A short insert

Christmas Crackers was a Christmas special (aired between episodes 12 and 13 of the fourth series) which was recorded on 20 December 1953, at 9.45pm. The recording was made at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.

The first public broadcast was on the Home Service on Friday 25 December 1953 at 1.15pm. The show achieved a peak listenership of 3.4m.

Unfortunately, although the show was recorded on TLO 40660, the tape no longer exists and there are no known-of publically accessible recordings of this show.

The show featured short sketches from several popular radio shows of the time, including…

Show Name	Featuring	Writer	Producer	Story
The Goon Show	Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe Spike Milligan	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens	Peter Eton	The International Christmas Pudding tells of the attempts of Major Bloodnok and Lieutenant Seagoon to recover the International Christmas pudding from Tibet whilst under attack from The Red Bladder.
Bedtime with Braden	Bernard Braden Benny Lee Pearl Carr Nat Temple Ronald Fletcher	Frank Muir Denis Norden	Pat Dixon
Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh	Richard Murdoch Kenneth Horne Sam Costa Maurice Denham	Richard Murdoch Kenneth Horne	Leslie Bridgmont
A Life of Bliss	George Cole Gladys Henson Percy Edwards	Godfrey Harrison	Leslie Bridgmont
Variety Playhouse	Vic Oliver	Carey Edwards	Tom Ronald
Ray's a Laugh	Ted Ray Kitty Bluett Peter Sellers	Eddie Maguire Ted Ray	George Inns	The Keynotes The Augmented BBC Revue Orchestra Conductor, Harry Rabinowitz Special music and lyrics written by Johnny Johnston and Bunny Lewis Production supervised by Vernon Harris