Show 26

"Handsome Harry the Toreador"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 2 Episode: 9
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	Harry Secombe: Granada Max Geldray: Oh, You Beautiful Doll Ellington Quartet: Minnie the Moocher
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 5277
First broadcast	25 March 1952 (1952-03-25)

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 26 (aka Handsome Harry the Toreador) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the ninth show in the second series.

Harry Secombe's musical section was recorded separately from the main show session at 6pm on Sunday, 23 March 1952 (SLO 5277a). The main show recording session commenced later that Sunday, 23 March 1952 at 9pm. The recording session was recorded at Aeolian I, 135–137 New Bond Street, London.

The first British public broadcast was on the Home Service on Tuesday, 25 March 1952 at 9.30pm (except Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 1.8m.

The show's repeat was broadcast the following Saturday at 12.15pm, 29 March 1952 on the Light Programme to an audience of 0.7 million listeners.

Sketches

• Handsome Harry the Toreador: Harry tells Andrew Timothy how last summer he was short of money to pay his Spanish hotel bill.
• Pureheart builds a Jet Fighter, X9: Where the Captain recounts how the previous year the Air Ministry asked him to build a new fighter plane.
• Survey of Britain: The crew take a look at film studios, the workforce and politics.
• Major Bloodnok (2nd/7th Bombay Biddis at Goonistan) attacks the Mad Mullah: The Major is ordered to march across the Azi river to the relief of Pondicherry.

Music

• Harry Secombe sang Granada (Agustin Lara).
• Max Geldray performed Oh, You Beautiful Doll (Nat D Ayer).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet (pays tribute to Danny Kaye with) Minnie the Moocher (Cab Calloway/Irving Mills).

Show Trivia

The script for this show carried only a single sketch: ‘The Goons’ version of Rider Haggard’s She, entitled Her which was presented ‘in four dramatic scenes’. This script was far closer to the structure of the later editions of the series, following the quest conducted by the Earl of Secombe, Major Bloodnok and Captain Pureheart accompanied by characters such as Carstairs, Malfeasance, Eccles, Flowerdew, Abdul and Ellinga (Ray Ellington’s ‘native’); there were also interludes to poke fun at the British politicians of the day. When this edition was scheduled in the later 9.45pm slot on Tuesday 18th (to allow for a special broadcast on Britain in Europe), Scotland failed to carry it.

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 5277 (Secombe's pre-recording session on SLO 5277a). (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).