Tony Hancock

[VladtheImpaleHer]

I'm just paying tribute to my favourite comedian, Tony Hancock who would have been 99 today.

He was a comic genius who starred in the popular radio and tv series of the 1950s and early 60s, 'Hancock's Half Hour'.

His comedy timing was impeccable. And his relationship with Sid James and writers Galton and Simpson was brilliant! Although, later on he got rid of James as he didn't want to be seen as a double act.

Some of his finest work was the series in 1961, without James. With such great episodes as 'the blood donor' and 'radio ham'.

After this, Hancock got rid of his writers. His career declined as he was never able to reach the heights of his heyday. His alcoholism got worse and his demise ended with him taking his own life, alone in a Sydney hotel on a cocktail of alcohol and barbiturates in 1968 at the age of 44.

He inspired later sitcom characters such as Alan Partridge and David Brent and possibly even Basil Fawlty. They all had something in common with the character Hancock. They were deluded. They thought they were better than they actually were. Slightly pompous. All great British sitcom characters.

I first starting watching Hancock when i found some of his episodes on one of my grandmother's videos over twenty years ago when i was in my 20s. I was hooked!

Like most comic geniuses, Hancock was a complex man. He found it difficult to live with the pressure of reaching the heights and staying at the top. He ostracized his friends and drank more. He once said he felt like tigers clawing at his back and that he didn't really like dinking alcohol, but it kept away the tigers.

I still watch Hancock's half hour on dvd. And i still smile and laugh at this great British comedy genius and the great onscreen chemistry he had with Sid James.

Hancock died with a note saying too many things had gone wrong. But when you watch his television series you remember the things he did brilliantly!

So thank you Tony Hancock for all the laughs and smiles you've given me!

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[Spunky34]

I hadn’t realised it would have been his 99th birthday today.  I’m in my early 40s and I love Hancock’s Half Hour - something my grandad introduced me to when I was a really little kid.  He also tried getting me into the Goon Show and ITMA but neither of those is a patch on Hancock for me. 

In my 20s I sometimes had to go through Cheam on the way to work and (apart from the fact that 23 Railway Cuttings is totally fictional) that always brought Hancock to mind. 

There are loads of episodes of Hancock’s Half hour available on BBC Sounds at the moment.  You can also find lots on Spotify.  Some of the episodes I had not heard before so may be worth a look for anyone who has generally heard the classics like The Radio Ham and The Blood Donor.  I know the humour is a bit (!) dated now but I also just like to hear the back and forth between the regulars on the show (and occasionally the little asides to the audience when they have to pick up the script again afterwards).  You can see why it was so popular.

Of course it’s bittersweet to think about how much joy and laughter he brought people while his own life was often the opposite.  I suppose back then there wasn’t quite as much visibility into the private lives of the famous, and there was certainly a different attitude to mental health and trauma.  “Things just seemed to go wrong too many times” is a tragic epitaph. 

[Corus Boy]

Hancock arrives at his local hospital to give blood. "It was either that or join the Young Conservatives", he tells the Blood Donor Department's reception nurse (Whitfield), before getting into an argument with her about whether British blood is superior to other types. After managing to offend two other waiting donors, Hancock amuses himself by reading the waiting room's wall posters out loud, finally singing "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases" to the tune of the Deutschlandlied before being shown in to see Dr MacTaggart (Cargill), greeting him in a broad Scottish accent and taken aback when the doctor responds in an educated English accent – saying "We're not all Rob Roys."

After Dr. MacTaggart has taken a blood sample Hancock blithely assumes that that is all that is needed and prepares to depart. When the doctor tells him it was just a smear ("It may be just a smear to you mate, but that’s life and death to some poor wretch!") and that he must donate a pint of blood, he protests, "I don't mind giving a reasonable amount, but a pint! That's very nearly an armful!" Dr. MacTaggart finally persuades Hancock to donate the full pint by telling him he has a rare blood type, which appeals to Hancock's snobbery. Having boasted of his lack of squeamishness, he faints while giving blood.

[puntingking]

This may be the show for you then -
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[WASA38]

One of my favourite radio episodes was The Bowmans - a hilarious spoof of The Archers. Hancock plays the role of Joshua Merriweather, an infuriating and irascible  old villager based on the Walter Gabriel character in the original - a character adored by the listening public. He insists on ad-libbing and upstaging the other characters so much that they persuade the producer to write him out. Unfortunately this causes such a public outcry that he is asked  to return but he only agrees if he is allowed to write the script. The producer reluctantly agrees and in the first episode Joshua manages to drown the whole cast in a muddy quagmire.

Even the introductory score was a subtle spoof on the so-familiar Archers theme.

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[Mr Rollison]

I've got a great book that is a biography of the show Hancock's Half Hour.
50 Years of Hancock's Half Hour.
Well worth the read. It even includes information on wages.


I like the later episodes without Sid the least.