Baby Jumbo : Playout Music from The Clitheroe Kid

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Baby Jumbo is a piece of library music recorded in 1958 by the Crawford Light Orchestra. The BBC used this piece as the playout music that followed each broadcast of the radio comedy The Clitheroe Kid, starring comedian Jimmy Clitheroe, on the old BBC Light Programme.

In the 1950s and 1960s, if a half-hour radio show ran slightly short, the BBC would fill the remaining airtime with what was known as 'playout' music. Although its title, Baby Jumbo, derives from its original association with a suite of Circus themed music, it has no direct connection to Jimmy Clitheroe.

The piece was likely chosen for The Clitheroe Kid due to its association with another famous comedy act, Laurel and Hardy. It features in one of their short films, The Finishing Touch (1928), which is included in the 1965 compilation movie Laurel and Hardy's Laughing Twenties.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.