Tony Hancock (Hancock Tony)

In 1942, during World War II, Hancock joined the RAF Regiment. Following a failed audition for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), he ended up on The Ralph Reader Gang Show. After the war, he returned to the stage and eventually worked as resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre, home to many comedians and actors of the period and worked on radio shows such as Workers' Playtime and Variety Bandbox.

In 1954, he was given his own BBC radio show, Hancock's Half Hour.

Working with scripts from Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, Hancock's Half Hour lasted for five years and over a hundred episodes in its radio form, and from 1956 ran concurrently with an equally successful BBC television series with the same name . The show starred Hancock as Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a more expansive version of Hancock himself, living in the shabby "Railway Cuttings" in East Cheam. Most episodes portrayed his everyday life as a struggling comedian with aspirations toward straight acting. Some episodes, however, changed this to show him as being a successful actor and/or comedian, or occasionally as having a different career completely (notably episodes where he is portrayed as a struggling barrister). Radio episodes were also prone to more surreal storylines, which would have been impractical on television, such as portraying Hancock buying a puppy that grows to be as tall as himself.

During the run of his BBC radio and television series, Hancock became an enormous star in Britain. Like few others, he was able to clear the streets while families gathered together to listen to the eagerly awaited episodes. His character changed slightly over the series, but even in the earliest episodes the key facets of 'the lad himself' were evident. Later episodes were regarded as classics, even in their time. "Sunday Afternoon at Home" and "Wild Man of the Woods" were top-rating shows and were later released as an LP.

Hancock became anxious that his work with James was turning them into a double act and the last BBC series in 1961, retitled simply Hancock, was without James. Two episodes are among his best-remembered: The Blood Donor, in which he goes to a clinic to give blood, contains famous lines such as, "A pint? Why, that's very nearly an armful!" (The doctor's response: "You won't have an empty arm... or an empty anything!") Another well-known instalment is The Radio Ham, in which Hancock plays an amateur radio enthusiast who receives a mayday call from a yachtsman in distress, but his incompetence prevents him from taking its position. Both of these programmes were later re-recorded for a commercial 1961 LP in the style of radio episodes, and these versions have been continuously available ever since.

[ see less ]