Johnny Todd isn't/wasn't a shanty - it may have been a folks'l song once (subg for leisure, but the version thatt survives in Liverpool children's song, maybe once connected to a street game

The Critics, ans other singing workshops adopted it as a singing exercise, particularly useful for getting new singers used to singing tunes accurately
It is an excelent exercise for 'unfoursquaring' (many new singers tend to break up words into syllables and not rune lines together, when the sense of the narrative suggests otherwise
A 'simple' song like Johnny Todd is ideal for experimenting on
I't's simplicity and child origins makes it unlikely to be 'spoiled' for serious performance
Z-Cars (filmed in my home town of Kirkby) made it hackneyed enough to have been killed off as a serious song long before The Critics Group was a twinkle in Ewan's eye
Jim Carroll