| Genre | Sketch comedy |
|---|---|
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Light Programme |
| Starring | |
| Announcer | Douglas Smith |
| Written by | Eric Merriman Barry Took (s 1–2) |
| Produced by | Jacques Brown (s 1–5) John Simmonds (s 6–7) Charles Maxwell (s 1) |
| Original release | 1 July 1958 – 16 February 1964[1] |
| No. of series | 7 (+ 2 Christmas specials) |
| No. of episodes | 123 |
Beyond Our Ken is a BBC radio comedy programme first broadcast between 1958 and 1964. It starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden, Bill Pertwee, and, as announcer, Douglas Smith. The title is a play on the name Kenneth and the familiar expression "beyond our ken" (ken being a mainly Northern English and Scots word meaning 'knowledge or perception').
The show ran for seven series, and a total of 121 shows. The scripts were by Eric Merriman, with Barry Took as co-writer in the first two series. Musical accompaniment was provided by the BBC Revue Orchestra, with musical interludes mostly by the Fraser Hayes Four.
When the show finished it was replaced by the series Round the Horne (1965–1968), which built on, and exceeded, the success of the earlier show.