Episode three of the first series was broadcast on 11 June 1951 on the Home Service. If you’ll turn to page 16 of your Radio Times, you’ll see I’m not lying.
Speaking of the RT, it has proven to be a veritable treasure trove of tidbits about the Goons and other shows the main players appeared in.
I recommend – for those who are interested in broadcasting history – spending some time browsing the BBC’s Genome Project. It’s a digital record of every issue of the Radio Times from 1923 to 1959, including all the weird and wonderful articles about all sorts of current affairs and historical events documented by the BBC’s programming.
The magazine was launched in September 1923 as a journal of the BBC as well as broadcast listings. It wasn’t until 1991 that it began listing anything outside of the Beeb’s output, despite the creation of the Independent Television Authority (later ITV) in 1954.
In February 1956, towards the end of the sixth series, a printing dispute led to several issues being printed in broadsheet style in France. One example can be seen here.
I’ll link to as many articles and listings as I can find as I track the history of the show in (broadly) chronological order.
The cover of the Radio Times from 22 November 1957, sourced from The Goon Show Preservation Society. A higher quality version of the image - and indeed the entire issue - is available here.