Show 36

"Harry Delays His Story"
The Goon Show episode
Episode: no.	Series: 2 Episode: 19
Written by	Spike Milligan Larry Stephens
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson
Music	Robert Busby’s Revue Orchestra Max Geldray: Blue Tango Ellington Quartet: Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day) Pennies from Heaven The Goons Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl Oh No, John! Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?
Editing by	Jimmy Grafton
Recording Number	SLO 9302
First broadcast	3 June 1952 (1952-06-03)

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 36 (aka Harry Delays His Story) is an episode from The Goon Show. It is the nineteenth show in the second series.

The show recording session was on Sunday, 1 June 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, 3 June 1952 at 9.30pm (except Northern Ireland). It reached a peak listenership of 2.2m.

The show's repeat was broadcast the following Thursday at 7.30pm, 5 June 1952 on the Light Programme to an audience of 4.7 million listeners.

Sketches:

• Harry tells Andrew that he will leave his story until later in the show because Max is waiting to play.
• Emergency measures at Scotland Yard mean that Captain Osric Pureheart is sworn in as a Special Branch Superintendent assisted by Bloodnok, Eccles and Secombe.
• Harry recalls investigating the burglary of the Opera House in Milan when he was a private detective.
• The Personal Diary of Dr Henry Crun recounts the Royal Geographical Society expedition up the Amazon in June 1881.

Sketches

• Handsome Harry Secombe hunted by Gang: In which Harry tells Tim how he called upon Inspector Thud for help when he was hunted by a group of sound effects men on a radio play.
• Captain Pureheart photographs Ghosts: Features Pureheart leaving a conference of photographic experts to get a shot of the family ghost at Henry Crun’s castle.
• Manoeuvres': Includes commentary from Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine about the annual exercises of Great Britain’s armed forces on Goonsbury Plain.
• Napoleon’s hours before Waterloo’ focuses on when Napoleon and Marshall Le Bloodnok received news of Nelson destroying the French fleet.

Music

• Max Geldray played Blue Tango (Leroy Anderson).
• The Ray Ellington Quartet (pays tribute to Bing Crosby with) Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day) (Bing Crosby/Roy Turk/Fred E Ahlert) and Pennies from Heaven (Arthur Johnston (music)/Johnny Burke (lyrics)).
• The Goons sang Jimmy Grafton's parodies of Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl (trad) Oh No, John! (trad) Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be? (trad).

Show Trivia

• Since the Dance Orchestra was on leave on Sunday 1 June, Main Wilson had arranged for the music to be provided by Robert Busby’s Revue Orchestra instead,
• Jack Jordan was now contributing incidental music for the shows.
• This script mixed the format a little with the opening cross-talk between Harry and Andrew setting up a sketch for later in the programme. The robbery of a mail van in London’s Eastcastle Street on Wednesday 21 May had inspired a Pureheart adventure involving Special Branch, and Dr Henry Crun now graduated to the lead character of the show’s closing sketch – the first of a two-part trip up the Amazon.
• The Ray Ellington Quartet embarked upon a three-month tour of the UK for Mecca starting on Monday 2 June which meant that they would have to fly back for some recordings from venues such as Glasgow and Belfast.

Technical

Originally recorded on SLO 9302. (33⅓ rpm, coarse-groove 16" disk recorded at Broadcasting House).