Beyond Our Ken (1958-1964) was a radio programme, the predecessor to Round the Horne (1965-1968). Both programmes starred Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee, with announcer Douglas Smith. The name is a pun on Kenneth Horne's name and the (now mainly Scots/Scottish English) word ken, meaning 'knowledge or perception'.

Eric Merriman had previously written material for Kenneth Horne on Henry Hall's Guest Night and Variety Playhouse and written some stand up comedy material for Barry Took. In June 1957 the BBC Radio Variety department asked Merriman to come up with an idea radio series starring Horne. Merriman devised a format for the show with the working title Don't Look Now. The original memo on the subject still exists in the BBC archives

Beyond Our Ken featured characters similar to those later featured in Round the Horne, for instance Betty Marsden's Fanny Haddock (parodying Fanny Cradock). It was also notable for Pertwee's Frankie Howerd impersonation, Hankie Flowered, and Hugh Paddick's working-class pop singer Ricky Livid. Another favourite was Kenneth Williams' country character, Arthur Fallowfield, who was based on Dorset farmer Ralph Wightman, a regular contributor to the BBC radio programme "Any Questions?" Fallowfield's lines were full of innuendo and double entendre - on one occasion Horne introduced him as the man who put the sex in Sussex. Fallowfield's reply to any question began: "Well, I think the answer lies in the soil!" Also, on one occasion, Paddick's character Stanley Birkenshaw, aka "Dentures" who would re-appear in Round the Horne, gave a noble and rather damp version of Hamlet's soliloquy: 'To be - or not to be - that issssssssss the quesssssssssstion ....'

Williams and Paddick also played a couple of camp men-about-town Rodney and Charles, in many ways (although not as extreme) a precursor of Julian and Sandy in Round The Horne.