Show 34

"Handsome Harry Secombe Compiles a Dictionary"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 2 Episode: 17
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Andrew Timothy
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	Stanley Black and The BBC Dance Orchestra Max Geldray: Pennies from Heaven Ellington Quartet: The Continental The Goons Goon Welsh Number Operatic Sequence Incidental music: Wally Stott
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 8202
First broadcast	20 May 1952 (1952-05-20)

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 34 (aka Handsome Harry Secombe Compiles a Dictionary) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the seventeenth show in the second series.

The show recording session was on Sunday, 18 May 1952 at 9pm and was recorded at The Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, Central London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday, 20 May 1952 at 9.30pm (except Midlands and Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 0.7m.

The show's repeat was broadcast the following Thursday at 7.30pm, 22 May 1952 on the Light Programme to an audience of 3.6 million listeners.

Sketches

• Handsome Harry Secombe’ finds Harry compiling a dictionary and a new version of The Goon Show made in Japan for foreign audiences.
• Sinking of the Goonmark A recounting of Captain Pureheart attacking the German ship in the Venerable on 6 May 1944.
• Home, Light and Third Programme Gimmick: Sees the Goons shaking up the channel styles with critical analysis of jokes in Ray is Hilarious and Shakespeare performed with popular music.
• Welsh Spot tells the story of how King Ug Elfrida Athelsta Hainult Eglata (better known as King Fred) attacked King Ecgbert in the year 803.

Music

• Max Geldray played Pennies from Heaven (Arthur Johnston).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet (pays tribute to Ginger Rogers with) The Continental (Con Conrad/Herb Magidson).
• The Goons sing Goon Welsh Number Operatic Sequence (Jimmy Grafton/Wally Stott).

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 8202. (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).