Show 40

"Harry Goes for Chief Announcer"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 2 Episode: 23
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Announcer	Andrew Timothy
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	Stanley Black and The BBC Dance Orchestra Max Geldray: Old Man River Ellington Quartet: My Old Man (Said Follow the Van) Incidental music: Wally Stott
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 10474
First broadcast	1 July 1952 (1952-07-01)

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 40 (aka Harry Goes for Chief Announcer) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the twenty-third show in the second series.

The show recording session was on Sunday, 29 June 1952 at 9pm and was recorded at The Paris Cinema, 12 Lower Regent Street, Central London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday, 1 July 1952 at 9.30pm (except Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 1.5m.

The show's repeat was broadcast the following Thursday at 7.30pm, 3 July 1952 on the Light Programme to an audience of 3.6 million listeners.

Sketches

• Harry tells Andrew that he is going up against John Snagge as chief announcer… as the sound effects engineers go on strike.
• A stirring survey of the Glorious History of Britain tries to raise the nation’s spirits.
• A look at The Whaling Industry since the ninth century sees Major Cosmo Bloodnok recall the obsession of Captain Pureheart with the scourge of the Indian Ocean, Dhobi Mick.
• The Goons made a recording of recent trials for the forthcoming Olympics at White City.

Music

• Max Geldray played Old Man River (Jerome Kern).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet (pays tribute to Marie Lloyd with) My Old Man (Said Follow the Van) (Fred W. Leigh/Charles Collins).

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 9955. (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).