TheMISSING PAGE THE NEWSLETTER OF THE TONY HANCOCK APPRECIATION SOCIETY Special Edition 1 - January 2016 - The ATV Series Tony Hancock's ATV Series

Compiled by Tom Dommett

1 Contents Page 2 - Contents, introduction and acknowledgements Page 3 - Background and production Page 8 - Extract ATV Television Show Book Page 15 - Extract ATV Television Star Book Page 19 - Interview with Tony Hancock from Time and Tide Page 20 - Episode Guide Page 43 - Cast List Page 44 - Key People Page 48 - Reflections on the series Page 52 - Critical reaction in 1963 Page 53 - Press Cuttings Page 56 - Bibliography and Selected Tony Hancock Appreciation Society Contacts Page 57 - Tony Hancock Poster Introduction and Acknowledgements This special edition of The Missing Page is devoted to the ATV series made by Tony Hancock in 1962/63. My greatest thanks must go to Christopher Burgess of Lymm for sending me copies of the ATV Star Book and the ATV Television Show Book features on Tony Hancock that sparked the idea for this project. Too lengthy to fit into a standard issue of The Missing Page they nevertheless were a fascinating contemporary insight into the programme. Seeking to share them with a wider audience, the idea grew of a special issue devoted to the ATV series. That issue grew from 12 pages to its current size. My grateful thanks also go to Tristan Brittain-Dissont, archivist of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society (THAS) who found the interview with Tony in Time and Tide reproduced on page 18 and for his input to the drafting process. A special mention also to Mick Dawson, THAS librarian, for the photo of Tony on page 6.

There are fascinating and tantalising snippets of the ATV series contained in many of the books on Tony Hancock. Hopefully I have collected together the most comprehensive collection of information about the series in one place. If you have anything to add, please get in touch.

The ATV series has never been repeated on TV or made commercially available on DVD/Video. For this reason, it has been overlooked and acquired a reputation of being not very good. It is evident that people have very different senses of humour. One person will describe a section of a programme as funny while another will find it unamusing. In fact, it has many extremely funny moments and whilst it is not as good as Tony’s work with Galton and Simpson at his peak, few TV programmes are, even now, 60 years later. Judged against a less exacting standard, the ATV series can be enjoyed and appreciated as part of Tony’s life work that thankfully wasn’t wiped or never recorded.

You may have to zoom in to read some of the newspaper clippings or perhaps print them off to get a clearer view.

I am also indebted to Martin Gibbons, Tristan Brittain-Dissont and Andrew Clayden of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society for their encouragement in this project and Gary Lingham for his DVDs. My praise to everyone who has ever been a member of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society - we owe them so much in preserving Tony’s legacy, some of which would otherwise have been lost. An impulse purchase in Brighton of a second hand copy of the David Nathan/Freddie Hancock book mentioned in the bibliography sparked my keen interest in all things Tony Hancock. Funny how things happen and where they lead.

Thanks to to Nicola (Niki) Dolman for her encouragement and support. Last but not least, my thanks to Tony Hancock and Ray Galton and Alan Simpson for providing me with hours of laughter.

This booklet is dedicated to Rowan Merry and Blake Fortune.

This booklet is intended solely as a tribute to Tony Hancock and is not commercial in anyway. It should not be offered for sale. Its purpose is to facilitate research study, education and criticism of the work of Tony Hancock

2 Background and Production In 1962 Tony Hancock was at the pinnacle of his success. He had been a radio star in both Educating Archie and Hancock's Half Hour. He had successfully transferred Hancock's Half Hour from Radio to TV. He had made a feature film, the Rebel which was both profitable and well received by the UK critics. Recently he been seen by many people as part of a double act with Sid James. He felt he had exhausted the setting of Railway Cuttings and East Cheam. He said he had done everything in that room (23 Railway Cuttings) apart from be obscene. He dropped Sid James and the Hancock character moved to Earls Court. A a result he produced TV comedy of outstanding brilliance. The Blood Donor, The Radio Ham, The Bedsitter became part of British culture - quoted in pubs, homes and work places. Tony appeared on Face to Face, a top interview programme usually for people like Bertrand Russell and Carl Jung. Tony Hancock was truly a national icon. People related to the man portrayed in Hancock's Half Hour, he was seen as representing the ordinary man in the street. You only need to say “Hancock” and people knew who you were talking about. His TV shows were at the top of the ratings. Tony was not content with his success. Throughout his career he had always sought to do better. Like most of his generation of performers he longed to be a film star. Being a film star - meant many things, glamour, fame, fortune and Hollywood. It meant being international. The British Film Industry couldn’t compete in terms of production budgets, pay for stars, fame or distribution with Hollywood. Being a film star meant making it in America. Striving for International Stardom The BBC had tried to sell Hancock’s Half Hour TV shows to TV networks in the USA but this was largely unsuccessful. The Americans found it difficult to understand what Tony was saying. Even the more English sounding East Coast Americans struggled. They said if people couldn’t understand him in New York what would they make of him in the Mid West or Southern States? It was just about accent, more on that later. Tellingly the first UK comedian to make it massive in the USA was Benny Hill - who broke though after he had become a very visual, slapstick performer with signposted jokes and a slower pace people could follow easily.

Tony came to dislike his film, the Rebel, which had been savaged by the critics in the USA. Probably the one followed the other. Parallel with his desire to be international, Tony had also a desire to make comedy based on realism. For him realism meant real life. Tony had pushed for years for his scripts to be more realistic and it had paid dividends. Situations became more lifelike. Instead of of running a train based on a bath and beds the humour came from ordinary situations such as an army pals reunion or a trip to become a blood donor. Laughs didn’t come from jokes and funny voices but from funny situations and dialogue.

So by 1962 Tony was looking to move into films and have a TV show that could be shown around the world. There were two main elements to achieving his aims. One with the technical. Either to make films or to make TV shows which could be shown easily round the world. The other was to give his comedy international appeal. Tony came to believe that to be international his comedy had to be set ‘no where’ that could be anywhere. He failed to appreciate that the reason films from the USA were international was because their culture was understood internationally.

The break with his long term script writers Tony was unable to agree a film script with his writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. He first agreed to the story ideas but he then rejected the scripts, two before they were finished and one after it was complete. Galton and Simpson had spent six months working without pay, so Tony suggested they go and write some TV while he would sort the film out by himself.

Ironically, Tony then made a film, the Punch and Judy Man which was about as parochial as possible - about a Punch and Judy Man, his failing marriage and petty local bigwigs, set in a run down out of season , English seaside resort. A film with less international appeal would be hard to imagine. Hardly anywhere outside England even had Punch and Judy man. It was however closer to fulfilling Tony’s other view that comedy should be based on realism. Overall it is a very melancholy film.

3 In 1962, Tony had left the BBC and was keen to make an international TV series. Indeed the overwhelming reason for him leaving the BBC was his search for international recognition and greater artistic control.

As Tom Sloan, Head of Light Entertainment, wrote in an internal BBC memo, “Hancock was primarily interested in making television films in which he could retain full control of domestic and overseas rights. I took his brother agent to see the General Manager Television Enterprises who explained the problems and expense of such film making and who pointed out that the BBC did not do such deals. Quite clearly he has found an organisation that does and he had gone there for that reason. Unless we were prepared to resign our production control and underwrite the project with something like £150,000 for 13 programmes and film them rather than telescreen them we could do no business.”

ITV had been keen to poach Tony Hancock from the BBC for years, offering him more money. This had induced the BBC to guarantee Tony an income from repeats and overseas fees. Tony pitched his idea to Bernard Delfont who then sold the package to Lew Grade at ATV. ATV was one of the regional TV companies set up to compete with the BBC.

The announcement of the new ATV series was made in April 1962. It was stipulated in the contract that each show was to be recorded simultaneously on Ampex videotape and 16 mm telerecording. MacConkeys Productions (Tony’s production company) was to receive £4,000 per episode, to pay for the services of Tony and for providing the scripts. ATV was to pay for the supporting cast and all the cost of the production facilities. Any profits down the line would be split 50-50 between MacConkeys and Delfont. ATV also agreed to Tony being executive producer. This meant he would have close control over the casting and production of the series. While filming the Punch and Judy Man, Tony had confessed to his mentor George Fairweather that he did indeed want to “do a Chaplin”; write, produce, direct and act in a film.

Unfortunate consequences The initial arrangement was for 6 shows, but this was increased to 13 as the year progressed, a decision that came to have unfortunate consequences ITV boasted that the budget for the series was £300,000 (a very substantial sum for the time, over £6 million at 2015 prices.)

Tony approached Ray Galton and Alan Simpson to write for him. They were too busy with Steptoe and Son. In any case, they would probably not have agreed to write for him, they were still hurt by his rejection of three film scripts, all unread. They were also enjoying the freedom of writing for actors and having their own names top of the bill.

Tony started preparation on the ATV series with Philip Oakes, with whom Tony had written the Punch and Judy Man, working as script consultant. However, the two fell out when Tony started unilaterally commissioning scripts that Oakes felt weren’t good enough. No doubt wondering what was the point of being a script consultant if he wasn’t consulted, Oakes protested to Hancock. He was told, “What the bloody hell do you know about it, I’m paying the money.” They fell out, too, over ideas for film scripts. By August, Oakes had resigned as script consultant but remained friends with Tony.

With filming due to start in November, Tony invited the writer Ray Alan round to his house to discuss script ideas. (The meeting is discussed more fully in the later section on the writers). Ray was alarmed by Tony's drinking and worried by Tony’s insistence on a ‘new Hancock’. Convinced the series was heading for disaster he declined to take part. Tony had also turned to Godfrey Harrison who had previously written for some of Tony’s earliest TV appearances in the early 1950s.

A trip to the USA As part of his preparation for the series in August, Tony visited the USA to look at the ECAM system in operation on The Lucy Show, starring Lucille Ball. With him went his brother Roger Hancock (who was also at that time his agent) and script writer Godfrey Harrison. ECAM was a way of recording TV shows that meant everything was recorded by multiple cameras and then edited together afterwards. No hoping for the best shots or cuts at the right time; everything was there to be edited in. Fewer reshots for close ups or different angles meaning quicker rehearsals and filming.

4 Best of all for Tony the recorded show was in a format that TV stations found more compatible, and could, therefore, be sold around the world. However, objections by the UK film and television unions meant there was no chance of the ECAM system being used in Britain for the ATV series.

While in the USA Tony also visited Stan Laurel, who advised him to ‘cut out the slang’ and. no doubt, reinforced his desire to have greater financial and artistic control over his work. Laurel received not a penny from the endless repeats of Laurel and Hardy films on TV in the USA and around the world. What hurt Stan more was the way the films were hacked about, with adverts inserted at inappropriate moments. Also the editing hadn’t been updated to take account of the quicker pace audiences could cope with. Stan offered to re-edit them for free, but no one took him up on his offer.

Stone me, cut out the slang or I’ll fetch you a punch up the bracket Tony insisted that all the slang (Stone Me, You looking for a punch up the bracket, etc) was excluded from the scripts. He also had a strong preference for the shows being taped without an audience then shown to an audience to get a laughter track. This was the method used to record some of the ATV shows, with recording being spread over 2 days. The problem with this approach is that actors used to performing in front of live audiences lost their timing; one can leave pauses for laughter, but they might be too long or too short. Several times in the ATV series jokes and lines can’t be heard because the audience is still laughing at a previous line. Had it been recorded in front of an audience, the performer would have waited for the audience to quiet down before delivering the next line.

Despite the series being announced in April and filming not starting until November, the series was very rushed. In between April and November Tony made his film the Punch and Judy Man and undertook a month long stage tour. The original intention to have 30 days preparation on the series became just 10. Alan Tarrant, the director, was a rising star at ATV and had had a number of hits, including The Larkins (a mainly forgotten show now but a huge success in its time, starring Peggy Mount). A great deal of care was devoted to getting a strong supporting cast. Similarly with the sets, the production values were high, for example the street on which Tony started the episodes was lain with real paving stones to get an accurate sound.

The scripts though, were put together in a very rushed manner. Of course, Hancock had insisted that his company supply the scripts so it was his responsibility. Tony knew of Harrison's erratic script writing methods. Probably that appealed to Tony’s sense of humour. It was, however, an unfortunate decision. Godfrey Harrison not only supplied scripts late, but also overlong. Not just a few minutes over but 20 to 30 minutes too long. It is immensely difficult to cut 30 minutes from an hour long script and keep plots and jokes coherent - that is what you pay the writer to do. Tony and Tarrant would be up till midnight editing.

Learning Lines Tony did initially try to learn the scripts properly, a task that can’t have been helped by them being hacked about to make them the right length or that Tony also had to devote time to his duties as producer. As the series progressed, Tony came to rely more and more on the teleprompter and so-called ‘idiot boards’ (basically lines written on large bits of card for the actor to read.)

Whether Tony felt he no longer needed to know his lines as he could use teleprompters (or because he was unable to remember them even when he tried), using them had a number of unfortunate effects. Firstly, it meant Tony’s movement was restricted, unable to stray far from where he could read the lines. Secondly, it meant he seemed to put less life in the script. Lastly, some people would notice he was reading or that his eye line was wrong and find it off putting.

Alan Tarrant obviously struggled to cope with Tony’s drinking. In 1963 alcoholism was not well understood either by the medical profession or the public. Even with the best advice and support there would have been nothing Tarrant could have done to control or influence Tony’s drinking. According to one biographer, Cliff Goodwin, Alan Tarrant was faced with a director’s nightmare, his comedy star was more relaxed and funnier off screen than on. Tony would entertain Tarrant with a potted cockney version of various philosophies. “It was spontaneous and superbly hilarious,” recalled Tarrant. One can only wish he had recorded it.

5 New Writers Godfrey Harrison was sidelined. By some accounts he didn’t like his work being altered; others suggest he was not popular by this stage with Tarrant and Hancock. The episode The Eyewitness was half an hour over at the read through and, even after cuts, was 20 minutes too long after filming and had to be edited down. Although Harrison had got the first two or three scripts in on time, he was soon handing in the last few pages of scripts on the morning of recordings.

New writers Terry Nation and the team of Denis Spooner and Richard Harris were drafted in to quickly write episodes. All three were good writers, but struggled to match the situation they found themselves in. Over Christmas filming stopped, but Tony’s personal problems worsened and, as a consequence, his drinking increased.

Defending the series in the TV Times, Tony explained that he saw the new series as a progression from his previous television work. “A development which can take you to a stage in which you can be in almost any situation at anytime. Where the background is entirely negative and unidentifiable. Where you can become international in your humour. Like Chaplin. That’s the ambition anyway.”

The series, by a quirk of fate, went out on the same night as the second series of Steptoe and Son. Unsurprisingly, any TV comedy was bound to suffer if compared to Steptoe. Tony himself never resented the success of Steptoe and Son and would often point out that his taking a break from Galton and Simpson had freed them to do the Show. Unlike many others, Tony didn’t see Albert and Harold's relationship as a development of the Hancock and James relationship.

The show started off being watched in 7,755,000 homes, placing it third in the top 20 programmes, beaten only by Coronation Street on Monday and Wednesday. The next week, the number of households watching fell to 5,544,000 and it plummeted to 18th in the ratings. By the third week, it was out of the top twenty altogether. Despite Tony’s hopes and plans it wasn’t taken up in the USA.

The number of TV sets can be judged as almost 10 million TV licenses were issued in 1960 at a cost of £4 each, even though there were just two channels (BBC2 arrived in 1964). TVs could cost £130 when the average wage was little more than £1000 a year. More people where buying them on hire purchase or renting them than any other item. The number of cinemas in the UK fell from 4500 in 1950 to 1,800 in 1967.

Today The entire series exists on 16mm telerecordings and these films are held by the British Film Institute (BFI). Although no video or DVD release of this series has been made available, recordings of episodes 1, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 12 are in the public domain. In addition, audio only recording of four other episodes (2, 10, 11 and 13) circulate amongst collectors.

Tony’s (late) brother Roger Hancock opposed their release and his son (and successor as owner) Tim Hancock has taken a similar view. In many ways it is easy to sympathise with this. The series does not represent Tony at his best. On the other hand, these recordings are historic documents, the people who wish to see them are Tony Hancock's fans. The time when their release might have been a cynical cash in have long gone. These days they could be properly released as a collector’s item by the British Film Institute.

ATV used to produce a Television Show Book and a Television Star Book each year to promote the channel and its stars. In 1963 these obviously featured Tony Hancock, and the front covers and relevant extracts are reproduced here to give an insight into how the series was promoted by ATV at the time. Noticeably, the photos used to illustrate them are from the first batch of episodes to be recorded.

The episode guide is necessarily curtailed because for a few only a soundtrack is in the public domain and, for three episodes, there is not even that. All we have are a few photos and a brief summary from biographers.

6 Tony as pictured in the Woman’s Mirror at the time of the ATV series January 1963 The series was recorded in two batches with a Christmas holiday break in-between. The first batch was recorded on 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th, 30th November and 6/7th & 13/14th December 1962 They were, in order: The Eyewitness, Shooting Star, The Girl, The Memory Test, The Man on the Corner, The Politician, The Assistant.

The second batch was recorded on 10th, 17/18th, 24/25th, 31st January/1st Feb, 7th Feb and 14/15th Feb 1963. They were in order: The Craftsman, The Early Call, The Night Out, The Writer, The Escort, The Reporter Recorded Transmission Recorded Order Transmission Order The Assistant 13/14.12.62 3.1.63 7th 1st The Eye Witness 4.11.62 10.1.63 1st 2nd Shooting Star 11.11.62 17.1.63 2nd 3rd The Girl 18.11.62 24.1.63 3rd 4th The Man on the Corner 30.11.62 31.1.63 5th 5th The Memory Test 25.11.62 7.2.63 4th 6th The Early Call 17/18.1.63 14.2.63 9th 7th The Craftsman 10.1.63 21.2.63 8th 8th The Night Out 24/25.1.63 28.2.63 10th 9th The Politician 6/7.12.63 7.3.63 6th 10th The Reporter 14/15.2.63 14.3.63 13th 11th The Writer 31.1 & 1.2.63 21.3.63 11th 12th The Escort 7.2.63 28.3.63 12th 13th

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Interview - With Tony Hancock

This interview with Tony Hancock appeared in Time and Tide Magazine 24th January 1963. Time and Tide was a literary and political review magazine that had an illustrious list of feminist and left wing contributors but a small circulation (peaking at 14,000 copies) and was always run at a loss.

19 Episode 1 - The Assistant by Terry Nation

A department store has had a window broken, so an assistant is told to move out stock in case people try to make off with it. Hancock, passing by, is shocked to see the undergarments on a mannequin being removed. His sense of decency outraged, Tony goes to cover it with his jacket and, not realising there is no glass there, falls through. He takes the dummy into the shop to complain. He complains to Miss Banks who fetches the manager (Patrick Cargill).

Hancock complains about the poor service and waxes lyrical about customer service in the old days. “When I was a lad, me and mummy, mummy and me, used to come here when they knew how to treat a customer. It was always good morning me lady, good morning you sir. I say ‘aint the young master looking elegant in his Eton Jacket. I suppose he’ll be off to Oxford soon. Can I be of service to you, a quarter of tea, I’ll send it out on the electric pantechnicon, too late then I’ll bring it myself on foot. After all you only live about 7 miles out.” Manager: “Well all that’s in the past.”

Hancock threatens to close his account. The manager remembers the bookkeeper mentioned this morning that it was overdrawn. Hancock says it’s no excuse for bad service. The manager says “Its not the service, its the customers, they deserve what they get.” The manager challenges Tony to work in the store for a week without losing his temper. Hancock gets Patrick Cargill as the Manager agreement that if he is successful the store will pay off his account. Hancock turns up for work dressed as if for a wedding and mimes fawning service to a mirror. The manager gives him a pair of overalls and sends him to work in the packing department.

His co-worker is a bitter Welshman played by Kenneth Griffith, who introduces himself “Owen, Owen, Owen Bowen.” Hancock “How do you do Owen, I suppose most people call you Paddy?”

Owen tells Hancock about the bad old days in Wales, Owen: “You'd be bitter too if you were down there in the bad times. You don't know what the bad times were like”. Hancock: “What were they like?” Owen: “Bad.” As Owen tells Hancock about how they went on strike for a living wage and the English sent armed troops against women and children, Hancock gets to use his Welsh accent as he get carried away in a sudden sympathy with and enthusiasm the oppressed Welsh. “Don’t shoot there are women and children here.” “Don’t cry Blodwyn, courage, woman, courage!”

Hancock is desperate to find out how the confrontation ended, Owen tells him “Oh well, the five o’clock whistle blew so we all went home for our tea.”

20 Owen spends most of his time carefully wrapping fragile items before throwing the box on the floor or against a wall.

The manager pops in to ask Hancock to pack an inflatable dinghy into a box. Inevitably it starts to inflate. Tony responds by stabbing it with scissors to let the air out. He chucks a life belt on top of the box. “Compliments of the management - they’re going to need that.”

Next, Tony is Uncle Bunny, the childrens’ friend dressed in a rabbit costume. “I look like Nanook of the North.”

He takes over the role from Hancock's Half Hour regular Mario Fabrizi (in his last appearance before his untimely death in April 1963, aged just 38), who is overjoyed to stop being Uncle Bunny and return to his old department in the store, the funeral parlour.

Hancock expresses a hope the children catch myxomatosis. A girl finds a dolly she likes and shows it to Uncle Bunny. “Push off.” Girl “Uncle Bunny.” Hancock “Get out of it.” The girl decides he can’t be Uncle Bunny who is “good and kind and gentle.” Tony insists “And I am good and kind and gentle, and if you don’t give me the doll I shall fetch you one around the ear!" The girls doll goes “mama”. Hancock responds “And you can belt up as well.”

(The girl is played by Adrienne Poster, later to change the spelling of her surname to 'Posta' and appear in films such as 'To Sir With Love' and 'The Alf Garnett Saga'.)

21 Hancock is switched to the Games department to cover the lunch break. Out of the bunny costume, he ends up playing a tabletop football game with customer Mrs Hart (played by Martita Hunt). They have a great time and a crowd gathers to watch them play. Mrs Hart had promised to buy 12 sets for her grandchildren but after drawing 23 all with Hancock, declares that playing the game has made her too tired to buy anything.

Lunch over, Hancock returns to being Uncle Bunny. The show ends with the viewer never finding out whether or not Hancock won his bet.

The episode was thought to be so successful, particularly by Roger Hancock it was decided to broadcast it first (it was recorded 7th). It certainly has very funny bits and Tony comes across quite well.

Episode 2 - The Eyewitness by Godfrey Harrison This was the first episode to be recorded. Hancock is standing on a street corner. A boy who has seen him there for the last three days asks the pertinent question. “Mind if I ask you something ?” Hancock:”No, No of course not.” “Why do you stand on the street corners?” Hancock “Go away.” “I saw you doing it yesterday.” Hancock “Did you?” “And the day before and the day before that.” Hancock “I commend your powers of observation, now go away.” “You didn’t do it the day before that.” Hancock “I know, I gave myself a day off.”

A woman is looking for Bramley Street. Hancock waffles that he knows where it is without actually saying where that might be. After a while the boy interjects, “6th on the right.” Hancock is again quite rude. “Have you got any brothers and sisters at home?” Boy: “One sister”. Hancock; “Well you better run along or she’s going to be an only child, now push off.”

A robbery takes place. There is a gunshot, a scream and the noise of a car pulling away. Far too late, Hancock yells “Stop” The manager comes rushing out, Hancock tells him not to worry because he’s very observant. He starts to describe the “Big, big, men” but is repeatedly asked did he get the number of the car? Hancock replies “Heavily built” ... “Broad shoulders”... “It was a saloon” .... “fairly new” before eventually admitting “No, I didn’t get the number!”

The other witnesses ask Hancock why he didn’t try to stop the robbers. A man protests if he’d had the chance he’d have had a crack. “Yes right across the skull about a inch deep,” says Hancock. He invents the explanation that he didn’t stop the robbers because they pulled a gun on him. The boy suggests Hancock is part of the gang. The others agree he could be the lookout man. Hancock is outraged, “If I am a member of the gang why did I yell out at them to stop? Alright I know, because they left me behind.” Trying another tack: “I ask you, do I look like a crook ?” Clearly they think he does. Hancock “Alright forget about that.”

Hancock goes to give his statement to the Detective Sergeant. Another witness describes what happened. A man came into the bank and said “This is a stick up, don’t try anything or you’ll be sent to the morgue.” Hancock presses the police radio and sends out the message “Calling all cars, bring in James Cagney.”

22 Hancock starts to give his version of events: a man came out of the bank with a bag in each hand. Now the police ask Hancock why he didn’t try to stop the robbers. Again he uses the gun excuse. He starts to act out the robbery, playing the part of the criminal. He struggles to explain how a criminal with a bag in each hand managed to hold the gun and, at the same time, whipped off the handkerchief around his face undoing the knot at the back. Even Hancock concedes the robber must have been lucky not to have blown his brains out.

While the other witness insists the criminals were of medium build, Hancock says the robber was about 6ft 3 inches. The detective says, “The same height as me.” Hancock agrees before the detective says, “I’m 5ft 11”. Hancock has a ready response: “Yes, well, I was allowing for the stoop.”

Hancock is approached by a reporter from The Evening Graphic (bank employees can’t talk to the press) and proceeds to give them a description of the robbery. Again he describes the robber as 6ft 3 inches.

The police tell Hancock that having his name and address (10 Batsworthy Crescent) published in the paper has put him in danger.

Hancock is not impressed with the glee the police seem to be expressing at him being targeted by the robbers. Hancock:”What do you mean with any luck they will try and get you!” The police explain they don’t expect the gang to kill him, just ‘do him over’.

Hancock suggests they record in their note book, “Victim duly informed he is to be beaten up to a jelly”

Hancock demands police protection and he is informed one of their lads is in the room across the landing.

An old man knocks at the door looking for a stamp. Hancock mistakes him for the police protection. Luckily the real protection arrives. Detective Constable Tom Flag assures Hancock he will protect him. Hancock reasons; “You blokes are taught to protect yourselves.” Flag agrees, then volunteers he’s spent 15 years at a station job pushing a pen. Hancock:“You should have brought the pen along, you could have stabbed them with that.”

Hancock tries to calm his fears, repeating to himself “I am not afraid and there is nothing to fear” before changing to “I am scared stiff and I am a liar.”

He arms himself with the leg of the chair. He then proceeds to keep those around him awake before complaining about them keeping him awake.

The police hear on the car radio that they have picked up three men and the money at the airport - now they have to inform Hancock.

Hancock is asleep, as they wake him, he thinks he recognises the face. “I’ve got one of them in there.” He has, of course, caught one of the police.

Crime and comedy is a tricky mix. There is never any suggestion that the robbery is anything other than real and the criminals real.

23 Episode 3 - Shooting Star by Godfrey Harrison

Hancock is standing outside a cinema when he is spotted by a stranger, played by Denholm Elliott, who spends several minutes gazing at him and sizing him up. The stranger turns out to be a film director from the ‘Kitchen Sink’ school of realism. The director’s previous films include “Town of Passion” and “Street without Shame” (Hancock has seen them, they are quite racy). He is looking for someone to play the lead male role in his new film “Sins of the Father”, featuring a man described by the director as "a complete waster" and "a moronic bully" who hangs around street corners and bars. He's decided that Hancock has the perfect look to bring realism to the part. A film director wonders if Hancock would be ideal for his next film. Hancock gets over this insult and agrees to take the role.

Hancock is given a screen test in the studio. He struggles to remember his lines. Cast as Hancock’s wife is ‘25 years in the business’ Diana Pride (Frances Rowe). She's deeply unimpressed and exasperated with Hancock's level of talent and doesn’t hold back from showing it. She has to continually prompt him with his lines and he repeatedly says hers as well. Hancock concludes "I think you'd be better as the husband." There's a running joke with the clapperboard getting on Hancock's nerves.

Hancock’s co-star is unimpressed with his performance

24 When props are introduced, it becomes one of the funniest scenes. Whether it’s the glass, the bottle, the newspaper, the cap, the handbag, the cigarette or the knife he never has the right prop in the right place at the right time. This takes enormous skill as an actor and at one point, Hancock really loses his place and has to find it by reading the teleprompter. The scene ends with him being hit on the head with a vase. Despite the screen test the director persists with Hancock in the role and filming begins.

Instead of being shot on a studio set, the film is being made in a real house. Hancock, playing the bullying husband, repeatedly says “Stop staring at me or you’ll get what’s coming to you.” An old lady (Hilda Barry, it is not explained who she is or why she is in the house, is she a resident? a cleaning lady?) doesn’t understand its a film and regularly walks on the set to criticise Hancock for his character's treatment of his family. Hancock tries to explain its only acting. "I am not her real father!" "Oh I see, it's like that, is it?" The director decides the old lady will add realism and tells the cast to improvise their lines in response.

His ‘wife’ and the blonde starlet playing his daughter both slap Hancock as part of the action. Hancock rows with the interrupting old lady, eventually calling her a “Crone!" She too slaps him. Some more slaps and Hancock has had enough and quits the film. Outside he cinema he meet his co-star and again ends up being slapped. He quips she may not be a good actress but she has the best right hand in the business.

He gets his own back by defacing a film poster, drawing a beard and moustache on his onetime co-star. One wonders if Harrison is making some comment on Hancock's search for realism in comedy?

25 Episode 4 - The Girl by Godfrey Harrison

Given a glowing review by Roger Wilmut in his book Tony Hancock; Artiste, and by Tony’s biographer John Fisher, it is the nearest thing to a ‘Holy Grail’ for fans. Tony is standing on the street corner, pointedly ignoring a flower seller. She’s not impressed “It’s no good you ignoring me, I’ve been ignored by the crown heads of Europe.”

An attractive nurse walking by breaks the heel of her shoe and stumbles into him. He tries to fix the shoe, but fails. She is grateful but rushes off to catch a bus, leaving him infatuated, a starry expression on his face. The flower seller says “You know what you ought to do if you want to see her again? Buy some of my lucky heather.” Hancock replies “Oh shut up.” At home he tries to forget her, but the radio insists on playing love songs and there is a hospital drama on the TV.“I don’t know what’s got into me. Is she any different from other girls? Yes, she’s different all together. Hair the colour of corn, soft brown eyes.... there is definitely something wrong with me, I’m sick!”

Hancock heads for the hospital to track down the nurse. He approaches a doctor (Dennis Price). “Good evening, I am looking for a nurse.” “Don’t you think you should find out what’s wrong with you first?” “I just want to speak to her for a moment.” “This is a hospital not a social club.” “I said speak, not the next dance.”

Hancock claims to know the nurse, but when asked her name, can only reply “fair hair, brown eyes.”

The unconvinced doctor responds “There are more than a hundred nurses here, at least 25% have fair hair either by accident or design. Would you like them to parade past you in single file ?” “No, just an informal group.”

After further altercations, the doctor orders Hancock to leave. He sneaks back later, but runs into trouble with a nursing sister. Hiding from her and having put on a doctor’s white coat, he meets a hypochondriac out-patient (Norman Chappell) and is forced to make an impromptu examination in order to preserve his disguise. He taps the stomach, takes the pulse, pokes the ribs.

“Does that hurt?” “Yes just a bit” “Just as I thought.” “What?” “I am pressing too hard.”

The patient demands to have his temperature taken, because the hospital take it every time he visits. “How long have you been coming here?” “Three years.” “Well, they are bound to know it by now.”

Hancock gets away from the man but bumps into the first doctor and once again is made to leave the hospital.

26 Wandering past a restaurant, Hancock sees the nurse alone at a table. He joins her and strikes up a shy conversation. She remembers his kindness over the shoe. They are just beginning to get friendly when the waitress shows a middle aged couple to their table, much to Hancock's annoyance. Hancock's attempts to continue his conversation are continually interrupted because neither of the couple have brought their spectacles and Hancock finds himself unwillingly reading the menu to them. They argue between themselves over what to order and Hancock is unable to get any further with his attempts to explain his feelings to the nurse. Then the waitress dumps his pot of tea in front of him and the nurse gets up to go. She has to meet some friends. He asks when they can meet again and she agrees to give him a ring at 6.30. As she leaves, the middle aged couple want to know whether there are any cakes on the menu. With mounting annoyance, Hancock looks at the menu and reads “cakes, assorted.” “That’s not much help!” “You’re right, it’s not” he agrees. Hancock goes over to the cake trolley and gives a brief and ironic description of the available range. Sarcasm in full flow he says “Anything else you want to know, don’t hesitate to give me a ring.” He slams down his money and storms out. The wife looks after him, “There’s something funny about him.” Husband “What ?” “He didn’t drink his tea.”

Hancock waits with mounting anxiety for the phone call and at a quarter past 8 decides to go back to the hospital. As soon as he has gone out, the phone rings. At the hospital, Hancock has a further heated argument with the doctor until the nurse comes by and promises to see that Hancock leaves the hospital quietly. She and Hancock go outside. The doctor turns to the commissionaire, “You must admit he’s got taste. He’s certainly livened things up - I can’t remember anything like this since my last student rag.”

Outside the hospital, the nurse explains that she couldn’t get to a phone before eight o’clock. Hancock is relieved. “Well, that’s all right, then.” “Well, no, it’s not alright, because you see, I'm engaged.” Hancock manfully hides his feelings. “Oh, congratulations!” The nurse says “I know how you felt..... But you’ve just been so marvellous ..... I’ll think of you every time I put my shoes on,” she says as she goes.

“Thank you very much indeed” says Hancock, more to himself than to her. He looks up at a large sign saying Casualty. “That’s me alright,” he muses.

We see him next on the street corner, boasting to the flower seller that he will be seeing the girl again, in his own good time. A girl passing by breaks the heel of her shoe and falls against Hancock. He rapidly buttonholes a young man and passes the girl and the shoe into his care. “We usually sit on the steps there while you fix it.” The young man and the girl start to become friendly as they look at the damaged shoe. Hancock points at the flower seller. “If I was you, I’d buy some of her lucky heather, you’re probably going to need it.”

27 Episode 5 - The Man on the Corner by Godfrey Harrison Hancock is standing idly on a street corner when a policeman strolls up. Tony chats about the inclement British weather (he blames atom bomb testing). The policeman has observed Hancock on the same street corner every day for weeks, and wonders what he is up to. Hancock claims to be merely following his hobby, “Like train-spotting, only with people.”

An elderly news vendor (Wilfrid Lawson) comes and asks for a light. Hancock spots a man with pulled down hat and dark glasses furtively passing an envelope to a woman. Convinced he has just witnessed spies at work ferrying stolen secrets, he tries to convince the newspaper seller and policeman who are unimpressed. Hancock makes such a fuss at the police station they send him to the secret service.

He meets Colonel Beresford (Geoffrey Keen) who fobs him off, allowing Hancock to think he's been engaged as a secret agent. Tony gets Beresford’s assistant, Mainwaring, to dress up and act like the spy. Tony is given the code number (13), a phone number to ring and told his codename is ‘canteen’. Hancock asks “Incidentally, what did happen to 13?" “I’m afraid I can't tell you it’s top secret," says the Colonel "And it will be no use asking his widow either.” The contact number given to Hancock is, in fact, that of the staff canteen. Hancock shadows the spy, following him into a chemist, copying his actions. Hancock tracks the man down to his flat. When Hancock calls in to report, the canteen staff think he is a joker, they tell Tony to arrest the suspect immediately. Hancock goes to the flat, picks up a gun and arrests the man. He phones the canteen and asks "What orders do you have?" they reply "Plaice and chips twice, steak and kidney pud twice, one spaghetti on toast." Hancock decides they are speaking in code. While Hancock is questioning him, the spy receives a phone call from his controller. The controller tells him to meet him by a Telephone Box in 10 minutes and approach him and say "I’m a stranger round here looking for a bus stop,” and bring the microfilm. The man confesses to being a spy. Hancock locks the man in the wardrobe and heads to the bus stop. He tells three people "I’m stranger round here looking for a bus stop.” before eventually getting to talk to the spy. Hancock gets the gun out and arrests the spy and gets a passer-by to phone the police.

Hancock meets up again with the policeman and newspaper seller. Spies he says, “you can always recognise them, eccentrically dressed, beard, hat pulled down, usually with a peak.” Thus implicating the newspaper seller. The policeman asks for a word with the paper seller. Hancock walks off laughing. The plot of Hancock working for the secret service is odd for someone on a quest to create comedy based on realism. The plot twist that the spies are real results in the very uncomic picture of Hancock with a gun in his hand.

28 Episode 6 - The Memory Test by Godfrey Harrison Tony has been invited to appear on a ‘This is Your Life’ style show called “Case” about his old Wing Commander, but Tony can’t remember a thing about him. Tony is shown looking in reference books and old diaries but nothing helps to jog his memory. No further details of the plot are available. The part of the TV host was played by Shaw Taylor who, at the time, was best known for hosting game shows/quizzes such as Pencil and Paper, Dotto and Tell the Truth. Later, Taylor became famous for presenting Police 5, a TV show that appealed to the public to help solve crimes. As Cliff Goodwin explains in his biography of Hancock, on November 25th the team gathered for the recording on The Memory Test. Not only had director Alan Tarrant have to cope with Tony’s drinking but also two other well known drinkers were in that weeks cast: Wilfred Lawson and Edward Chapman. He feared that if the three of them spent lunchtime in the studio bar, the afternoon’s filming would be in big trouble.

To try to keep the trio away from the booze, the director told them he knew a smashing little pub a short drive away. His real plan was to drive them around for most of the lunch break and then get one drink in a nearby local pub before starting recording again. Hancock readily accepted the suggestion of a few drinks in a rural pub and piled into the back of Tarrant’s car with Lawson and Chapman. Tarrant drove and Shaw Taylor was in the front passenger seat. After about half an hour of bouncing through country lanes the rumblings started. “Where’s this bloody pub, you said it was only five minute’s drive away.” With a riot looming, Tarrant whispered to Shaw “Ask them what they’re drinking, as soon as I stop, nip in and order the drinks and make sure they’re singles.”

Taylor’s gaze met three glaring faces as he asked “What's your poison?” Hancock ordered a double gin and tonic, Chapman a double scotch, Lawson a triple brandy. Lawson insisted he would pay for his because “I never allow a fellow thespian to be out of pocket because of my dedication to the grape.”

Above - Wilfrid Lawson, the newspaper seller

29 Taylor was first out of the car and explained the situation to the barman who got small singles lined up on the bar by the time Tarrant and the three actors walked in. All three sat down and stared at their glasses. Tony looked puzzled as only he could, recalled Taylor. Chapman vaguely inspected his glass like a urinologist with an interesting specimen.

Lawson however began to rumble and shake like a volcano about to erupt. With his shaggy hair and great beard he was an impressive sight. A frightened hush settled on the bar. In a booming crescendo Lawson cried “What ? What do I see before me?” The barman grabbed the brandy bottle and started frantically filling Lawson's glass to the brim. So much for the director’s plan.

Episode 7 - The Early Call by Richard Harris and Dennis Spooner

Hancock books an alarm call for the next morning as he is unable to rely on his alarm clock, and it is essential that he gets up on time. But he then spends the night worrying that he won't hear the alarm call. No further details of the plot are available. The premise for the early call seems sound enough. Perhaps inspired by The Sleepless Night from the radio series, perhaps by The Bedsitter from the TV series where Hancock is alone in his flat.

The writers had Tony explore a fantasy side - with sword fights and a colander on his head ! This is quite understandable in that many of the Hancock Half Hours, particularly on the radio, relied on fantasy (The Test Pilot sketch, for example). Unfortunately the writers (according to Roger Wilmut) seem to have misjudged the flights of fancy and the show suffers as a result.

It is widely accepted that Tony was in no state to attempt The Early Call in that it required him to carry almost all of the show by himself. There are just three other cast members listed: John Bluthal as the voice on the radio, and Rex Ashley and Alf Mangan in unnamed parts.

I expect the writers had about a week to write the script. Writing for someone they had never written for before, in a rush and probably picking up feedback about the problems with the series so far, it is not surprising if they didn’t match Galton and Simpson. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson had written not just over 100 Hancock's Half Hours but dozens of radio scripts for Tony before that.

30 Episode 8 - The Craftsman by Richard Harris and Dennis Spooner

Hancock is admiring the handiwork of an old lamplighter, who claims “This is a dying art.” before starting to cough. Hancock “Yes, it sounds like it.”

Further on he joins a woman standing outside a shop window full of televisions. The TVs are showing a DIY programme and Hancock, lost in reverie about the dying crafts, begins boasting to the other onlookers about his own skills with a saw and screwdriver. One of the onlookers is Stan Lovegrove (Brian Wilde), who is always attempting DIY to please his wife, but alway getting it wrong. Hancock suggests Stan ought to do an evening class, but Stan says he hasn’t got the time. Hancock is indignant “Time, time, did Christop- her Wren think about time when he built St Pancras?” Stan hates the DIY show “You see whatever I do he’s always one week behind. You see, I build a new fireplace and he comes on next week and tells me everything I’ve done is wrong and you should have heard what he said about my bathroom ceiling.” His wife wants him to put up a new wardrobe and he flatters Hancock into coming round the next day to help him.

Hancock goes to a hardware shop, dressed in his workman's overall and flat cap . The shop keeper rudely ignores ignores him. There is a funny bit where Hancock plays a tune on the doorbells on display. Eventually the shopkeeper serves him. “You may furnish me with the necessities of my calling.” “You wants tools?” “No I’ll have half a pound of cooking apples and a bag of grapes.” “Black or white?” “Black or white? Of course I want tools!”

Instead of naming all the tools he wants, Hancock mimes some of them in action.

Once round at Lovegrove’s house, the show descends into slapstick. It looks far more like a sketch from a village pantomime. Trying to cut wood to fit an alcove, first Hancock cuts it too short, then, measuring it with Stan’s elasticated belt it is too long. Having made a frame which doesn’t fit, he starts altering the walls with his hammer. Standing in the chaos and destruction Lovegrove wonders what he going to do. Hancock leaves him in the lurch and heads for the exit with the advice “Do it yourself.”

Hancock reappears outside the TV shop, where this time, there is a gardening show. Instantly Hancock is boasting to the woman next to him about his gardening skills.

31 Above: Hancock with Brian Wilde (later to find fame in Porridge and Last of the Summer Wine) Right: Hancock with the frame he has made.

Episode 9 - The Night Out by Terry Nation

Unlike most other episodes, this one begins not with Hancock hanging out in the street, but with him waking up, wearing a party hat and a womans' high heel shoe, in bafflingly lavish surroundings, after some kind of party.

Unable to remember anything from the night before, and wrapped in bedding, Hancock explores the posh place he's somehow found himself in.

32 The arrival of a member of staff provides the opportunity for Hancock to ask where he is. “Is it your house?” In response the man laughs. “I presume from your merriment this is not your house. Where am I then?” “Don’t you remember Sir, Mr Hancock Sir?”

Hancock starts to recall “Tom, yes, that’s right, it was Tom’s birthday, Tom’s my tobacconist you know ... me and Tom were going to have a little drink, he said he knew this little boozer, Gilbert his name was.” It turns out Hancock is in the bridal suite at the Metropole Hotel.

Hancock reasons that if he's in the bridal suite there must be a bride. He looks towards the bedroom door, asking out loud “Whatever can be in there?” Opening the bedroom door he finds a sleeping beauty whom he takes to be his forgotten new wife. Pleasantly surprised he muses “She’s not bad at all, she must be a model or something ..... why did she marry me?” Hancock trys to wake her. "Oi, Missus, wake up! Dearest? Mrs Hancock? It's hubby! What's your first name dear?"

Before she wakes, the real groom enters the bedroom, the goofy young Gavin, played by Derek Nimmo, who met Hancock in a nightclub and suggested they all go back to the hotel together. Hancock begs Gavin to assure him that he didn't offend anybody. Hancock confessed "I can be a bit of a wag when I'm on the milk stout." Hancock questions the groom; did he punch anyone? No. Did he sing ‘I’ll take you home Kathleen?’ Yes he did, repeatedly!

Derek Nimmo - just one of the high quality supporting cast who appeared in the ATV series.

33 Getting dressed, he dons a shirt with frilly sleeves. “Hang on a minute this isn’t mine.” Gavin assures him it is. He's brought it from one of the band at the Parakeet Club. With his maracas Hancock performs the "I'll Take You Home Kathleen” Cha-Cha-Cha. Hancock also seems to have got himself romantically involved with one of the hotel maids (Patsy Smart). She appears to have been chatted up the previous night by Hancock. The maid clings to him, "The things I said and the promises I made you, they can’t be, Anton... I can never go with you to your father's castle in Russia." Mystified Hancock asks: "Have we met, Madam?" Another revelation, he brought the Parakeet Club's entire cabaret troupe back to the hotel too.

Hancock starts to enjoy the high life with his new acquaintances... thinking he is the guest of the groom who it is revealed is a Viscount. It emerges however that Hancock is the one who has agreed to pay for everything. A worried Hancock goes to reception to try to convince the manager (Donald Hewlett, later to play an officer in ‘It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum’) that there's been a mistake. The manager greets Tony. “Ah, Squadron Leader Hancock, Good morning .... Shooting down those 14 Messerschmitts.” The Manager tells Hancock he owes £143 for 13 people staying overnight. Hancock returns upstairs and suggests a whip round to his guests, who promptly all decide to leave. Hancock gets his hat and coat and decides to leave too, only to find staff blocking the doors. Tony decides to climb out the window to escape. Eventually, after he’s been round the building three times, a drunken man lets him in at the window, they start to chat, and drink ... Next we see Hancock signing in a large group of people to a hotel, promising to pay for it all.

In this episode as one can see from the photos, Hancock sports an very short and unflattering haircut. Apparently he went to a barbers and asked for a ‘short back and sides’.

34 Rather notoriously this script makes reference to a phrase uttered by Tony following an incident in his personal life on a sleeper train journey between venues on his 1962 stage tour. Tony woke up naked and unable to remember the events of the night before. Tony spent the next day repeatedly asking “Did I offend anyone last night?” Nation used the phrase in the script. When he saw the script Tony turned to writer and said “You bastard.” but nevertheless, despite the embarrassment, he kept it in the script. Terry had, after all, done what Tony had asked for basing his script on real anecdotes from Hancock’s life.

Episode 10 - The Politician by Godfrey Harrison

One has to wonder, was writer Terry Nation having a dig at Tony waxing lyrical setting the world to rights? Galton and Simpson had often had Tony involved in politics as an independent (and once a Liberal), but never as Labour or Conservative and never discussing serious political issues. Some (like Roger Wilmut) have regarded this as one of the more effective shows, partly because the plot is fairly straightforward. In reality, Tony was a Labour party supporter who admired Michael Foot more than any other politician.

Tony strikes up a conversation with a street-corner speaker (played by John Le Mesurier), the sort of person renowned in England for standing around Hyde Park Corner.

The speaker encourages Tony to heckle him as a means of drawing a crowd. Sadly for Hancock, the speaker is well prepared to cope with Tony’s interruptions and rather than turn on the speaker, it’s Tony who arouses the wrath of the crowd. A woman attacks Tony for insulting an older man. “You ought to be horsewhipped!” Hancock - “Well that dates you for a start!”

The next day Hancock tries his luck as a public speaker. Adopting the same tactics, he attempts to get an uninterested man to heckle him. Although Hancock uses the same ripostes as the original speaker yesterday, the passer by will not co-operate and Hancock once again finds himself under attack from the woman for insulting an older man.

Le Mesurier turns up again and helps Tony get started, but a crowd of roughs try to pick a fight. Tony won’t admit to being scared “I could sort you out with one hand tied behind my back.” Hancock agrees to fight them once the meeting is over. He keeps the meeting going for two hours until a policeman walks by, allowing him to escape.

The following day, Le Mesurier again attempts to get Tony to heckle him, but after the past two days, Tony is having none of it. Director Alan Tarrant didn’t like the script and tried to persuade Tony to drop it, Tony said “I’ll make in funny.” Tarrant wasn’t happy with the result.

35 Episode 11 - The Reporter by Terry Nation

John Fisher, in his biography of Hancock, notes that Hancock is at a boxing match - shouting out the reviewer of the Birmingham Evening dispatch wrote bloodthirsty comments. “Hit him, hit him, “Last night I did something I never thought I’d do, I come on you great fool, put the boot in.” switched off a Hancock programme halfway through.... Next to him is the reporter for the local Tonight's chapter is called The Reporter, oh dear.” paper, “Ringside Ron.”

Later, Hancock complains to the editor that the reporter was inaccurate. The person he said won was, in fact, the referee. Hancock offers his own review of the fight which impresses the editor. He offers Hancock a job. “Have you ever worked on a paper ?” “Well no, not on the actual staff, I have toyed with the idea though.”

The editor insists the main thing is accuracy, before calling Tony “Mr Hitchcock.” Hoping for a unsolved murder to report, Hancock is instead sent to a society wedding. He heads off talking about winning a Pulitzer Prize.

Mistaken for a waiter, Hancock explains he is “Scoop Hancock, the man they cannot gag.” By bringing up the groom’s past courting, Hancock gets the bride and groom to fall out. Told that the break-up of their marriage is all his fault he responds. “I’m sorry, but it makes a great story, married at 11, divorced at 3.”

Next he goes to the House of Commons to have a crack at the politicians. Instead he starts offering them advice on catch phrases. Out with Harold Macmillan’s “you've never had it so good” and “the winds of change” in with “We’ll fight them on the beaches” and “Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job” (Winston Churchill 20+ years previously.)

Next he's off to the theatre. The writer mentions Hancock's description of his last play. “Banal, conventional, routine, stereotyped, hackneyed, dull, insipid, weary, flat, stale, humdrum and monotonous.” Hancock - “Yes, well, I didn’t want to be too hard on it.” Asked how he will review the new play Hancock says “I’ll kick it to death with hobnailed boots.” The paper ends up being sued for libel. Hancock offers, “Take it out of my salary.” The Editor points out “You haven’t got a salary!” Hancock is sacked. Back on the street, Hancock is put out by a man playing the violin. He starts to give an uncomplimentary review of the violinist’s musical talent.

36 A violinist and Hancock - from the episode The Reporter. Needless to say, Hancock is unimpressed by the man’s musical talent.

ITV gave strong support to the series. Below is the cover of the TV Times promoting the episode “The Writer”.

Note the use of Tony’s real middle name.

Also included below is a poor quality copy of the listing inside.

37 Episode 12 - The Writer by Terry Nation

Tony walks into a pub carrying a bag. No-one is about. For a while he just stands there, whistling and looking around. He tries to get service by ringing the bell on the counter. It doesn’t work, and he hurts his hand hitting the bell. The next person to try the bell does so with no difficulty whatever and get served. The landlord ignores Hancock and goes back into the other bar. While trying to get attract the landlord’s attention Tony accidentally knocks his bag onto the floor, breaking all but one of the beer bottles he has brought back for a refund. The stony-faced landlord (Stuart Saunders) finally serves him. Hancock peruses the wine list and considers a bottle of Chateau Latour. "Some of us imbibers consider it to be the finest claret in the world. Yes, you've got to hand it to these Italians, they do know how to turn out a little bit of plonk. It's something to do with the feet, I suppose," before handing the menu back and ordering a small brown ale. Hancock goes into raptures over the delights of the Traditional English pub, interspersed with shots showing the contradictory reality. e.g. "To sit beside the beckoning warmth of a log fire,” (cut to shot of single bar electric fire.) “To head a measure in a country dance,” (cut to a sign saying no dancing.) Tony retires to the lounge to watch TV.

In the snug, two men are laughing at a television programme. On the telly is “Britain's leading funnyman” Jerry Spring, played by John Junkin. Hancock grumbles incessantly about Spring's corny jokes. "Bob Hope, 1945, word for word!" (this from the man whose stage shows included an impression of George Arliss, who made his last film in 1936!) As luck would have it, sitting next to Hancock is none other than Spring himself and his manager Elmo Dent (Francis Matthews.)

With their identities revealed, Hancock backtracks and claims to be a fan of Jerry's; the problem is the writers. Tony tells Jerry Spring "they're not writing for you properly." Oh, the irony. Jerry is interested to hear Hancock's new ideas for his act. These are even worse than his current material, with Hancock especially insistent on the importance of a funny walk, like Groucho Marx and Stan Laurel. For Jerry, he suggests something like a penguin. "It's only the beginning, of course - you'll need funny hats, new jokes, dramatic recitations..."

38 Jerry asks Hancock to be his new writer. Hancock: "Well, I was going to write a novel on Monday. I could leave that to the evening, though." Hancock's first day on the job sees him wearing a checked suit, glasses and adopting the same mock American accent as Jerry and bringing in a reel to reel tape recorder. The tape recording contains an embarrassing conversation which he accidentally plays to everyone in the room.

For no apparent reason, Hancock launches into singing the song “Buddy, can you spare a dime?" Presumably, this was because it was a song he sometimes used as part of his stage act.

Hancock starts to outline some of his new ideas for Jerry. His comedy suggestions include “These 31 elephants come running onto the stage.”

Elmo challenges how they will get 31 elephants in a television studio? Hancock responds “I just write the stuff, I can’t bother myself with the technical details.” Elmo persists “But I can’t get 31 elephants in a studio.” Hancock protests “Alright make it 30 elephants but I warn you it will ruin the joke.”

Later, at home, Hancock, doing his full Noel Coward impression (dressing gown, cigarette holder, clipped voice) attempts to write a script. Sitting at the typewriter he's unable to think of a single joke. Piles of scrunched up paper litter the room. In the end, Tony recalls that he has stored a box of Christmas crackers in the cupboard and in each one is a joke.

Two photos above are possibly publicity stills or from scenes cut before the broadcast.

39 The next day Jerry comes to read the script. The only thing he thinks is funny is the way ‘trousers’ is spelt. Hancock attempts to convince him it is full of laughs if it is read properly and starts to perform the script. Jerry decides to sneak out without saying a word.

Hancock, disappointed, heads back to the pub, where once again he starts heckling the telly. This time, it’s a wrestler (played by the wonderfully named Frikki Alberti). Well, who would have believed the coincidence, guess who is with him in the pub? Only the wrestler himself. Before you know it, Tony is flung across the room, and crashes into a table.

Another case of realism, the difficulty of being a writer.

Episode 13 - The Escort by Richard Harris and Dennis Spooner

Hancock is in a jewellery shop trying to get a watch repaired. He claims it is a family heirloom he brought in Egypt in 1943. The jeweller tells him their minimum charge for repairs is 35 shillings. Hancock, outraged, lets slip that the watch only cost him 35 shillings.

A professional male escort comes in to the shop. He often brings clients to the jewellers. It is suggested Hancock try for a job as an escort. “What, me, soil my hands with money for doing what I’ve been doing all me natural?”

However, he applies for a job with the escort agency, claiming to be an ex-Guardsman with injuries from Heidelburg University who speaks 6 languages ‘fluidly’.

40 The agency owner probes Hancock's knowledge of manners, asking how he would address an Archbishop, getting the reply “Your brochure never said anything about going out with Archbishops.” Hancock is told “If we ever have a fencing mistress who speaks six languages ‘fluidly’ and is partial to small guardsmen, we’ll call you. Now, get out.” Hancock replies - “Bonjour.”

Hancock hangs around the office, insisting he is doing them a favour. The agency can find no one willing to go out with a noisy, rough tongued, but rich Australian woman. Anyone who has been on one date with her won’t go out with her again.

Killing two birds with one stone, the agency enlist Hancock to take her out.

Hancock and the Australian go for meal, Hancock in his top hat, tails and cane to a workman’s cafe (the woman wants to see her dad’s old haunts.)

Asking to peruse the menu and wine list results in a blackboard being brought to the table.

The owner slams down a plate of beans on toast. Hancock looks at him wearily “And what am I supposed to eat it with ?” “I thought you were a magician.”

According to John Fisher, “Hancock's look of derision as he takes the knife and fork offered him is worth the price of admission for the entire 13 shows.” Hancock asks an Irish navvy to pass the condiments. “I would, if I knew what they was.” Eventually the Irishman passes over the salt and pepper, salad cream, HP sauce, vinegar and other things. Hancock “I want to eat it not suffocate it.” The plot twist is the Irish navvy and the Australian woman hit it off and depart together, leaving Hancock on his own.

In the final scenes, Hancock discovers that men who model suits get free clothes. Inevitably this has him pondering a new career as a male model.

41 Wilfrid Lawson

Wilfrid Lawson appeared in two shows - The Man on the Corner and The Memory Test - playing the part of a newspaper seller. He was the only cast member, apart from Hancock and extras, to appear in more than one show.

It is often commented that Hancock’s encounters with him are funny, probably because the belligerent nature of the newspaper seller gives Hancock something to spark off of.

Lawson appeared in almost 50 films as well as making appearances on stage and TV.

As a result of bouts of alcoholism, Lawson became difficult to work with, and more famous for his heavy drinking than his acting. Throughout the 1950s his roles became increasingly small, even uncredited in some cases, but he had a bit of a career resurgence in the 1960s.

Tony often spoke about a wish to perform on stage in King Lear with Lawson as the King and Hancock as the Fool. Sometimes they were to swap parts with each other every night, sometimes the actors (and heavy drinkers) Nicol Williamson or Richard Burton were to join the production and swap parts in rotation.

The chances of anyone financing such a venture with such drinkers was zero.

Tony remained friends with Lawson, turning up with him to a meeting with Galton and Simpson to discuss the proposed musical Noah.

Lawson died of a heart attack in 1966, not long after working with Tony on the film The Wrong Box.

Michael Caine recalls working with Lawson (and Tony Hancock) on the film The Wrong Box (filmed in 1965, released in 1966). The director Brian Forbes had been unable to get insurance for Lawson for the film because he was an aging alcoholic who was “bombed out of his mind 24 hours a day.” However Caine generously adds that Lawson was still a great actor.

42 Main Cast List (not including extras) 1 The Assistant Martita Hunt- Mrs Hart, Kenneth Griffith - Owen Bowen, Adrienne Poster - little girl, Patrick Cargill - Mr Stone, Mario Fabrizi -Uncle Bunny, Annie Leake - Edna, Jennifer Tippet - Window- Dresser, Rory McDermot and Alex Farell - workmen and 15 others [extras] 2 The Eye Witness - Joan Benham - Lady Passer-by, John Cater - Detective Constable Tom Flag, Robin Chapman - Detective Constable Bane, Allan Cuthbertson - Ian Fairblow, Geoffrey Denton - City Gent Lane Meddick - Reporter, Maitland Moss - Theodore Read, Keith Pyott - Frank Hope, Gareth Robinson - Small boy, Peter Vaughan - Detective Sergeant Hubbard, Pauline Yates - Dulcie Main and 9 others.

3 Shooting Star Denholm Elliott - Peter Dartford, Frances Rowe - Diana Pride, Hilda Barry - Old Lady, Sally Anne Shaw - Lucille Frame, Robin Hunter - Billy Watts, Stuart Guidotti - Clapper boy, Alf Mangan- Prop man, Tracy Vernon - Lady passer-by, Irena Rodzianko - Continuity girl, Donald Groves - Electrician, Bud Strait - Film Camerman.

4 The Girl Judith Stott - Nurse April Rawlings, Dennis Price - Doctor Grayne, Edna Petrie -Sister Titch, Norman Chappell - Outpatient, Robin Wentworth - Husband, Patsy Smart - Wife, Dany Clare - Waitress, Fred MacNaughton -Porter, Nancy Nevinson - Poppy, and 8 others.

5 The Man On The Corner Geoffrey Keen - Colonel Beresford, James Villiers - Captian Mainwaring, Wilfrid Lawson - Paper Man, Tenniel Evans - Eric Matthews, Peter Welch - PC Glover, John Bluthal -Boris, Moyra Fraser - Maggie, Sheila Bernette - Vi, Pamela Greer - Mary, Geraldine Sherman - Joan, John Evitts - 1st Stranger, Basil Beale - 2nd Stranger, Jack Howlett - 3rd Stranger, and 4 others.

6 The Memory Test Edward Chapman - Wing Cdr Bartlett, Wilfrid Lawson -The Paper Man, Gerald Harper - Peter Penrose, Shaw Taylor - Brian Lawrence, Anthony Sagar - Reg Arnold, John Rutland - Porter, Maureen Pryor - Mrs Gregory, Reginald Green - Framer Brown and 14 others

7 The Early Call John Bluthal as the 'voice on the radio' and Rex Rashley and Alf Mangan.

8 The Craftsman Thomas Heathcote - Shop Assistant, Glyn Dale - Tradesman, Harry Brunning - 2nd Lamplighter, Brian Wilde - Stan Lovegrove and 12 others.

9 The Night Out Derek Nimmo - Gavin, Donald Hewlett - Hotel Receptionist, Billy Milton - Waiter, Patsy Smart - Norma, Marina Martin - Sarah, Donald Tandy- Mason, Ian Anderson - Assistant Receptionist, Pedro Navarro -Spanish Dancer, John Pugh -Tumbler, Leslie Taussig - Page Boy, Eva May Wong - Plate Spinner, Karen Carina - Spanish Dancer and 13 others.

10 The Politician John Le Mesurier - Ambrose Butterfield, Nora Nicholson - Maud Crispin, John Ronane - Vic, Diane Clare - Fiona, Hazel Hughes - Jessica Pinchard, Richard Waring - Malcolm, Gareth Robinson - School boy, Ronnie Brody- Postman, Sheila Raynor - Ursula, Thomas Kyffin - Nick, John Herrington - Jonah, George Curtis - Police Constable.

11 The Reporter Olaf Pooley - Ron Roberts, David Lander - MC, Michael Aldridge - Editor, Clare Owen - Mavis the Bride, Wilfred Carter - MP, John Kidd - Wilson the critic, Kendrick Owen - Irishman and 29 others.

12 The Writer Francis Matthews - Elmo Dent, John Junkin - Jerry Spring, Jean Burgess - Barmaid, Pete Murray -Compere, Stuart Saunders - Landlord, Frikki Alberti - Wrestler.

13 The Escort Reginald Beckwith - Jeweller, Maggie Fitzgibbon - Fiona, Harry Towb - Irishman, Arthur Lovegrove - Cafe Owner, Anthony Dawes - Mr Latache, Joy Stewart - Receptionist, April Wilding - Lavinia, Robert Mill - Keith, Michael Oxley - Ronnie, Valerie Cooney - Secretary A full list of extras can be found in Tony Hancock; Artiste: A Tony Hancock Companion by Roger Wilmut.

43 Key people Ray Alan Ray Alan, as well as being a ventriloquist, also worked as a writer, usually under the pen name Ray Whyberd.

Alan performed in cabaret all over the world and in 1954 performed on the same bill as Laurel and Hardy on one of their UK tours. The look of Alan's most famous dummy, Lord Charles, was based on Stan Laurel.

Ray had written for the TV show Bootsie and Snudge (a spin off from the very popular 1950’s National Service TV comedy The Army Game). This brought him to Tony’s attention. Later, Ray wrote for Dave Allen, Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies as well as continuing with his successful stage act. Lord Charles and Ray Alan He appeared in many TV shows as well as on radio. Ray Alan died suddenly aged 79 on 24 May 2010.

Cliff Goodwin describes Ray’s involvement in the ATV Series.

Roger Hancock approached Alan who agreed to spend a weekend at MacConkeys (Hancock’s home). He arrived at Redhill Station the next Saturday morning to be met by Cicely (Tony's wife). On the 8 mile drive to Blindley Heath she warned him that Hancock had started drinking early and he should not be surprised if he was ‘under the weather.’ “Sadly, Tony was very much ‘under the weather’ recalled Alan, and “despite my attempts to interest him in two ideas I had been working on, it was not until after lunch and a long sleep that he was at all responsive.”

Before his Sunday night departure, Alan agreed to produce a sample script of a plot which, on first hearing, had received Hancock's approval. In it, the normally belligerent Hancock becomes a department store assistant and is challenged to work for a week without offending anyone. When the completed script arrived at MacConkeys, Hancock became even more convinced he had discovered the person to write the entire series and invited Alan back for another weekend meeting.

“By the time I arrived at the house a few days later Tony had decided to change his image. Rather than talk over story lines, he wanted me to do a rewrite on the first script and cut out all the old Hancockisms that had made him the character we loved. He wanted to change his appearance, too, and become smart and more ‘with it’.”

When the ventriloquist-cum-writer suggested Laurel and Hardy had only remained popular because they had retained their established image, Hancock turned thoughtful and reached for another bottle of wine. “I knew then that I could never work with Tony,” said Alan “I simply did not want to be involved with what I believed to be a disaster.”

Ray did allow his script to be adapted by Terry Nation and it was filmed as The Assistant - story by Ray Whyberd, script by Terry Nation.

In their last series for Tony at the BBC, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson were guaranteed a total fee of £1,100 per programme. For the ATV series, Godfrey Harrison was paid £500 an episode, Terry Nation £400 and Denis Spooner and Richard Harris just £375 between them.

44 Derek Scott - Musical Director, also wrote the theme tune. A version of the theme was released as a single, complete with interjections from Hancock ("You cannot whack a bit of the old harpsichord! Ooh beautiful, listen!") Scott was noted for his poise and deadpan humour and in July 1948 he formed a double act with Tony Hancock. Billed as Hank and Scott they appeared at the Windmill Theatre doing an imitation of a scruffy concert party. Hank and Scott made their only TV appearance the same year in New To You, a talent show, in which Hancock was spotted by BBC producer Dennis Main Wilson, who later worked on Hancock's Derek Scott - once performed in a double act at own TV shows. Hancock and Scott parted the Windmill Theatre with Tony Hancock. He went company as an act but Scott wrote the music for on to a hugely successful career in light entertainment. Tony’s film The Punch and Judy Man.

Scott was Musical Director for many West End shows, and for 6 years the musical associate for ITV's The Muppet Show. He composed many of the Muppet songs and provided music for the piano-playing dog Rowlf. For much of his later career, Scott worked in television, mostly for ATV, on light entertainment specials. He worked with stars such as Barbra Streisand, Bob Hope, Rudolph Nureyev, Tom Jones, Benny Hill and Charlie Drake. Many of the shows were live and Scott was known for his musical expertise and professionalism. He was also one of the first musicians to use an electronic synthesiser. He wrote theme tunes for many TV shows and commercials including Captain Birds Eye. He died on May 27 2006, aged 84 Godfrey Harrison The principal writer of Hancock's ATV series, Godfrey Harrison had scripted the successful radio and television series A Life Of Bliss, and also Hancock's first regular television appearances on Fools Rush In (a segment of Kaleidoscope) more than a decade earlier. A Life of Bliss was a BBC radio sitcom, started in 1953 starring David Tomlinson. He left after the first series as stage commitments prevented him recording on Sunday. George Cole took over as awkward, absent-minded bachelor David Bliss and the show ran for over 100 radio episodes and then on TV in 1961 and 1962.

Harrison was notorious is having difficulty meeting deadlines. The late Barry Took told the story in his book 'Laughter In the Air' and George Cole also recalled this in his autobiography ‘The World was my Lobster.’

Harrison would regularly still be writing the script when the cast assembled to record the show on Sunday nights. They would record what was available; sometimes, his wife would slip them extra pages as they were written; sometimes, the recording would grind to a halt. The producer would then come to the microphone to apologise and say words to the effect that "We have a slight technical problem, in as much as we don't have a complete script tonight." Then Percy Edwards (the animal impressionist who played Psyche, the dog in A Life of Bliss) would do some of his bird impressions. George Cole swears he conjured up some bird sounds that were not of actual birds but created just to fill the gap. After half an hour or so Harrison, supported by his wife, would distribute another few pages of script. Sometimes the show would stop and the producer would, as a last resort, suggest to the audience that they go to the pub for half an hour, and they would! On one occasion, the recording ended at midnight (four hours after it started) with about four people left in the audience. During the following week the sound engineer had to dub in laughter and applause from ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ because what had been a 200 strong audience at 8pm had dwindled to the point where any audience reaction could hardly be heard.

Ironically, when writing for Hancock’s ATV series, the problem with Godfrey Harrison's scripts was that they were too long, often twice as long as they needed to be. Godfrey Harrison passed away sometime ago.

45 Terry Nation Terry Nation wanted to be a comedian, as he recalled:‘I wrote my own material, performed it - and died a death! I was living in London, starving. Trying to be an actor, trying to be a standup and trying to write. And somebody told me: “Hey, the jokes are terrific - it’s you that’s terrible!” It became clear to him that his strength was as a writer, rather than a performer.

Terry said “Comedy writing is the toughest, toughest writing in the world.” For the next couple of years, Terry wrote comedy for all the big names of the time: Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd, Ted Ray and many more. He worked at a furious pace and helped write over 200 radio shows, as well as films and TV shows. Shortly after writing for Tony's ATV series, Terry wrote for Dr Who and created the Daleks. This not only earned him a fortune but changed his career. He went on to create many great TV shows like Survivors and Blakes 7. In 1980, Nation moved to Los Angeles, where he developed Terry Nation - Giant of 60s and 70’s TV programme ideas and worked for various production studios. He never quite reached the same level of success as his earlier period in Britain. He penned scripts for the TV series MacGyver and A Fine Romance. Nation suffered from poor health in his final years, and died in Los Angeles on 9 March 1997.

Tony enlisted Terry Nation to write new material for a stage tour he was undertaking in October 1962.

Nation was part of Associated London scripts (along with Galton and Simpson, Eric Sykes, Spike Milligan and others).

Nation was invited to Hancock's home. Tony insisted they walk round the garden. Nation recalled “To my amazement all he wanted to do was talk about the universe and what part we played in the cosmic scheme of things.”

They agreed to meet at midnight on Friday after attending a dinner party. The pair talked and drank and swallowed stay awake pills Like Galton and Simpson, Terry Nation (supplied by Tony) for the next 48 hours. Over the following 10 started writing for Ted Ray (with pipe) days they created and wrote numerous sketches only to discard and fellow writer John Junkin,who also them the closer the tour came. Nation recalled “When Tony first appeared in the ATV series. acted out an idea we would collapse in a fit of giggles. When it went on the page in black and white, he went cold. It was as if the act of writing anything down sparked a huge and lingering doubt, Hancock turned to Terry Nation first in the material and then in himself to deliver it.” because of the problems caused by Harrison's late and overlong scripts. Rehearsing the show, Tony started discarding more and more pages of the new script. By the time he started performing he had Nation became script editor and basically reverted to his old act. As the tour went on Tony started produced some quickly written to use bits of the new stuff. material. The best of it, he said was a poor imitation of Galton and Simpson. During the Tour, Tony paid Nation £100 a week, basically to be In Terry's view “The series was with him, as Nation put it, “virtually to babysit him.” doomed anyway, Tony wouldn’t rehearse and for the first time he was boozing while he was working.”

46 Dennis Spooner

Dennis Spooner was like Terry Nation; a stand-up comedian turned gag writer. His big break came in writing for TV comedian and comic actor Harry Worth. This eventually led him to writing several scripts for Coronation Street in 1960. He also contributed to the ITV police procedural series No Hiding Place and Ghost Squad as well as the top-rated ITV comedy series Bootsie and Snudge.

Spooner and Harris were drafted in at short notice when the problems with Godfrey Harrison's late and overlong scripts got him dropped from the series.

Following the Hancock ATV series, Dennis went onto a hugely successful and prolific career, although, rather like Terry Nation, largely in drama, scifi, spy and children's television than comedy. His writing credits include: Stingray, Thunderbirds, Doctor Who, The Avengers, The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Jason King, The New Avengers, The Professionals and Bergerac. Dennis had long-lasting professional working relationships with a number of other British screenwriters and producers, notably Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, and Richard Harris, with whom he developed several programmes. He died on 20 September 1986 aged 53.

Richard Harris Harris began writing freelance episodes for British television in his mid-twenties. Prior to writing for Hancock, he wrote for programmes including The Avengers, The Saint and The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre. He also wrote several film scripts.

His attempts at comedies in the early 1960s were largely collaborative efforts with Dennis Spooner. These joint efforts did not establish either writer in the comedy genre. As their two failed pilots for Comedy Playhouse proved, the duo were really more interested in writing dramatic works.

Like Spooner, he went on to a hugely successful and prolific career. By the end of the sixties, he had con- tributed individual episodes to no less than twenty television series.

He helped to create several standout programmes of the dramatic genre, including Adam Adamant Lives!, Man in a Suitcase and Shoestring. A substantial part of Harris's body of work is adaptation. Often, this has taken the form of adapting his own work from one medium into another. However, he has also taken a number of literary characters and adapted them into ongoing series. The most long-running of these adaptations are A Touch of Frost and The Last Detective. Despite a career which has been largely spent writing for the crime and detective genre, in 1994 he won the prize for best situation comedy from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain for Outside Edge, a programme he had originated as a stage play. Although the majority of his work has been for television, a substantial amount of his output has been for the stage. Beginning in about 1971, Harris turned his earlier comedic ambitions towards the stage. Throughout the 1970s, a new play of his would be produced almost annually. The vast majority of his comedic work, even if it later ended up film, derives from his career as a playwright. Harris is sometimes confused with the late Irish born actor and ‘hellraiser’ Richard St. John Harris of films such as A Man like Horse and Harry Potter.

47 Reflection on the Series Reflections of the series by Tom Dommett - Editor of The Missing Page I understand Tony’s desire to have a film career. After all those radio half hours, what did he have? Most of them had disappeared. Most of the live TV shows had gone into the ether. Even with the shows that were recorded, Tony had no control over them; the BBC were in charge. It is instructive to learn that there were no repeats of his BBC TV shows between October 1961 and October 1965 (then 26 out of 37 in the BBC ar- chives were shown) and it was another 4 years after that that just his last 6 BBC programmes were repeated. Annoyingly, 5 TV shows were telerecorded and repeated by the BBC in 1958 and 1959 (The Great Detective, Matrimony Almost, The Flight of the Red Shadow, The Italian Maid and The Horror Serial) and subsequently lost from the BBC archive, presumably wiped. Some radio episodes were repeated but not kept.

Tony was part of a generation that grew up without television, at a time when cinema was at its peak, not only were they talkies but often in colour. Tony loved the cinema as a child and took refuge in cinemas as an adult. The clear reason for his split with the BBC was its inability to support Tony’s career in the direction he wanted to take it. Everybody accepts that the ATV series Tony Hancock made is not as good as those he made for the BBC. The most common view is that the first half the series is OK and second half is poor. One also has to re- member that the episodes weren’t shown in the order in which they were recorded (see page 5). Even Galton and Simpson had some episodes better than others (the earlier ones tend to be weaker) and the occasional plot slip up (the Bowmans, for example, where the live interruptions go out on a recorded programme!)

Comedy is a funny business. I watched The Assistant after not having seen it for around 20 years. Keeping track, I laughed loudly 22 times, chuckled 8 times and smiled broadly 5 times. Not bad for a 25 minute show. I watched The Craftsman and the scene in the hardware store had me laughing. I think The Night Out is a funny and well written story. Some people think the ice cream parlour scene is one of the best in The Punch and Judy Man, others think it is too long. The point is, people’s reaction to comedy is rarely identical.

Personally, I think Tony was right to try to leave Hancock's Half Hour behind - after 63 TV shows and even more radio Half Hours. Fans bombarded the BBC demanding Hancock get back with Sid James, but in all fairness to Tony, he had proved he could be just as funny without Sid and spark off other actors.

The problem was that he never discovered a new identity. It is massively difficult for stars to move on once they become associated with a role. One only has to think of actors cast as Dr Who, who remain “former Dr Who” for the rest of their lives. And Tony Hancock was a massive star, perhaps the first made-by- television-star. Even more problematically, Tony Hancock ‘the character’ was increasingly seen by the public and himself to be based on Tony Hancock ‘the man’. Jon Pertwee was a huge radio star (The Navy Lark) and did masses of theatre and musicals, he sang on records, he was on TV and did a range of films from comedy to Hammer Horror. He even limited his involvement in the Carry On films, rightly fearing it would reduce his other offers of work. Even so, it took the completely different role of Worzel Gummidge to shake off the Dr Who tag. For Tony Hancock, again playing a character called Tony Hancock, he had no chance. Probably Wally Pinner in the Punch and Judy Man was the nearest he came to a new identity; and the public reacted to that at the time by staying away in droves.

TV in the 1960s was very compartmentalised - drama, light entertainment, etc. There wasn’t the freedom to be a David Jason and be Del Boy, Pa Larkin and Inspector Frost. Even switching channels was viewed as little short of treachery.

The reasons for the disappointment of the series can be seen in hindsight and were probably obvious at the time to all involved. Fundamentally, the scripts weren’t as good as they needed to be and Tony’s drinking was affecting his performance. Writing for TV was a very different experience in the 1960s than it is today. There was no watching a box set to familiarise oneself with the series. There was a rather small pool of comedy writers, all of whom seemed to work at an incredibly prolific rate.

48 One can sympathise with writers, who would have been writing for Tony at the peak of his powers as remembered from the last BBC TV series. N. Terry Nation had had the brief and odd experience writing for Tony's stage show. Dennis Spooner and Richard Harris were brought in at very short notice to write for someone they had no experience of writing for. All the writers involved were fans of Tony’s BBC work; they knew how good Hancock's Half Hour had been. They must have found it hard to write without consciously or subconsciously imitating Galton and Simpson. The trouble was they were also working under restrictions - no ‘slang’ and ‘no East Cheam’ and no regular cast. There seems to be more visual comedy, writers were told to be visual for TV (something Galton and Simpson tended to ignore) and the international comedians Hancock admired, (Laurel and Hardy, Jacques Tati, Charlie Chaplin) all relied on visual payoffs. Perhaps Tony influenced the writers to emulate their style?

By accident or design the dialogue echoes the classic scripts of Galton and Simpson. The Galton and Simpson version of the Tony Hancock character had seeped into the consciousness of everybody in Britain. Despite all the talk of a new Hancock, the stories were built around what is basically same old Tony Hancock. He had the same mannerisms and pretty much the same attitudes.

Ray Galton and Alan Simpson had been writing for Tony Hancock for a decade. They had honed their craft, they knew the character back to front, inside out and upside down. They had made it funnier and funnier. Most importantly, much as it was crafted perfectly for Tony to play. The character was based on them, just as much, if not more, than it was based on Tony.

Tony recognised that Galton and Simpson would work things that he said in all seriousness into comic scripts. They would take aspects of Tony's real life - for example his love of wine - and poke fun at wine snobs. But Ray and Alan liked wine and they grew up in working class households where drinking it would have been unusual to say the least. Tony wanted his other writers to do the same. What he didn’t seem to appreciate is how hard it is to do and how, by itself, it doesn’t create a funny comedy half hour.

The overall impression that I get from the series is of a cruder, coarser version of the Galton and Simpson character. Tony was not able to improve the dodgier lines with his previously exquisite timing. Many's the time the likes of Sid James or Kenneth Williams or Frankie Howerd could get a laugh out of the least promising material.

Unsubtle Unfortunately it is the subtlety that has gone. Where once there was gleeful enthusiasm masking incompetence, now it is hollow boosting. Where once was exasperation is rudeness. Where once there was exquisite language there is now clunky put down. Shop and bar staff ignore Hancock for no reason. Galton and Simpson have often been quoted as saying that basically the problem with the scripts was that Hancock was rude to people for no reason. Listening to The Eyewitness, one can see what they mean. The young boy asks Hancock what he is doing and is told to go away; it makes the character less likable.

Tony seems a bit like a car stuck in just first or second gear. As Kevin McNally points out about playing Tony in The Missing Hancocks, “The real challenge of doing it on the radio was, when people impersonate Hancock, they tend to do a very singular voice, but of course he actually had a lot of variation. I was in America when I got the part and had 40 of the radio shows on my computer, so I just started listening to them again. I looked at the scripts and tried to marry up what choices I thought he might have made in each bit of the script, so that the result wasn't monotonous and it wasn't that singular exasperated tone that im- pressionists do so often.” Those changes of pace and different inflections are too often missing. Kevin McNally again “I reminded myself that we remember him as this downtrodden character, but when you look at the TV shows he's such a robust and energetic and confident performer, you really need that to recreate him. You can't be apologetic about what you do.”

Did he need Sid James? I don’t think it is so much the lack of Sid as the lack of any regular characters, side kicks or associates that is the flaw. The greatest sit-coms, it is generally agreed, are based on people trapped in situations. The fool trapped with his stupid friend and we wonder which is stupider, the dim friend or the fool who thinks he is much cleverer than he is.

49 In setting his comedy ‘nowhere’ Tony committed a huge error. Each new story has to start afresh, characters don’t develop, they just appear and disappear. The 25 minute format was further reduced in that 5 minutes were lost starting on a street corner. No wonder some plots seem complicated and confused.

Tony took on the role of producer, something he was ill suited too and something that hugely added to the stress on him. It was a dreadful misjudgement by Tony. He knew how stressful he found filming. Towards the end of the recording process, Tony would have been well aware that the show was not getting the view- ing figures or the critical praise that had been desired. This can only have added to the pressure on him.

For quite a few years after he left the BBC many people felt Tony just needed a good script to be back at the top. While it is tempting to heap most blame on the scripts, Tony’s alcoholism was beginning to take a heavy toll. The once wonderfully mobile facial expressions had started to go. In later years, directors fought with Tony over close ups. He insisted they were important, so they filmed him close-up but his face was less and less mobile. They filmed the reaction shots but these contained less and less reaction.

It was only a couple of years after the ATV series that Tony remade two BBC episodes - The Reunion Party and The Missing Page - for release as a record. The recordings were disastrous, Tony was drunk and sounds it too. His voice is slurred; his timing is off; he sounds dull and lifeless.

Instead of the expected 28 minutes, the recording stretched to 38 and 42 minutes. Worse, the audience was laughing in the wrong places, Tony’s mugging and off-script antics were getting laughs rather than where they should be. The producer had to call on Galton and Simpon to help edit the shows so they could be released. After the experience Sid James vowed never to work with Tony again. So even a great script could not guarantee a great performance. I am indebted to Tristan Brittain-Dissont for the phrase; “It is never enough to simply have good scripts. Using that argument, we should be expecting Wayne Rooney's Hamlet any time soon.”

At other times, such as the (unbroadcast) pilot show of the Blackpool Show in 1966, or the read through of the first episode of his Australian series - Tony could pull a stunning performance out of the bag.

The what ifs and might have beens Had the series stopped after 6 or 7 episodes, it would probably have done everyone a favour. It is tragic to think this was the original intention. Possibly commercial consideration pushed for a longer 13 week run; probably Tony’s desire to have more shows to sell on the international market was a factor as well.

Tony had a track record of finding performing very stressful and needing long breaks to recuperate. Unfortunately, the short Christmas break between recording the two batches of episodes also coincided with Tony breaking up with his wife Cecily and Freddie Ross, his publicist, becoming his de facto wife.

The BBC might have been more paternal in protecting Tony from the stress of recording. On the other hand, ATV had a commercial investment to protect and clearly wanted Tony at his best. Had it known what to do, perhaps ATV could have postponed shooting of the rest of the series.

Many of the stresses were created by Tony’s own decisions. For example, his insistence on acting as producer was all strain and no gain. Tony found the pressures and responsibilities of being producer overbearing. To escape the stress he relied even more on alcohol. As his drinking affected his on-screen performance, he would drink more to blot it out, creating a vicious circle.

Perhaps the trouble was that Tony had become so successful that people dare not say no to him. ITV had tried for years to get Tony to work for them by offering more money. But money was never really a motivator for Tony, it was the artistic and financial control that were the attraction for him.

I think the real problem was Tony needed a new identity. Ideally another sitcom. I am not alone in thinking Tony would have made an excellent Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army. Morecambe and Wise, especially Eric Morecambe, had a desire to do a sitcom but they could never find one that suited them. It’s

50 difficult. However, Tony was seeking a non-identity. Tony sought to make his comedy universal, but he didn’t seem to grasp that what made him funny was his very ‘ununiversality’, if there were such a word. It wasn’t that the Americans couldn’t understand his accent or the meaning of ‘a punch up the bracket.’ It was that they couldn’t understand the irritations of the class system, the social mores of England and, in particular, the appeal of a frustrated loser. The USA liked its comedians to be wisecracking smart alec winners. Give Hancock a team of Bob Hope’s joke writers and he wouldn’t be funny. When writers in the 1940s tried to make Laurel and Hardy into another Abbot and Costello, it was painful to watch.

Tony’s personal problems I don’t wish to dwell on Tony’s personal problems and mention them only as they affected the series.

Tony’s drinking had already brought disruption to the filming on the Punch and Judy Man and started to affect his performance. Ray Alan, who met to discuss scripts with Tony in August 1962, decided he was unable to work with Tony because of his drinking. Writers Philip Oakes and Terry Nation both record having to go on weekend long drinking sessions with Tony which seem to be a cross between some kind of initiation ceremony/bonding session and a check that they were on the right wavelength for the job.

In their biography, David Nathan and Freddie Hancock state that when Tony undertook a 4 week theatre tour in October 1962, before the ATV series (‘The Hancock Show’ played a week each at Nottingham, Southsea, Liverpool and Brighton) “Hancock drank a little at lunchtimes but then remained dry until after the performance”.

That's not to say Tony remained sober the rest of the time, but he made a real effort while he was working. Part of that effort included refusing to sleep alone, insisting Terry Nation stay with him in twin rooms and talk to him until 5am. It was also during this tour that the incident on the train, whatever it was, (See The Night Out) occurred.

Tony started filming on the ATV series trying to learn his lines and stay sober for filming. Along with the usual anxiety of performing, he had the stress of scripts that were not ready and the burden of acting as producer. Tony was also going through the break up of his marriage. The combined effect was too much for any good intentions. It was during the recording of the The Memory Test on 25/11/1962 that the ‘trip to the pub’ described on page 27 happened.

John Fisher records that in January 1963 Tony left his wife. This was around the time Tony was recording The Craftsman, probably top of the poll for the worst episode of the series. John Fisher records that Harry Towb, who was cast as the Irishman in the episode The Escort, remembered: “We did the read-through in the morning at about 10 and, just before 11, the director said, ‘Ok you, you and you - The Red Lion.’ And we accompanied him and Hancock to the pub and Tony, God bless him, started off with large brandies and the incredible thing was it didn’t seem to have an effect on him at all.” For Tony's brother Roger, there are no happy memories and he recalled that by the end Tony was drinking virtually all the time he was awake.

A few of the shows in the ATV series stand up to comparison with the BBC programmes: The Assistant, Shooting Star and The Girl. Some of the other stories have potential. Even the poorest of the shows have some funny moments. Tony himself later (1965) acknowledged that the scripts weren’t as good as they should have been. To be fair, even with the great Galton and Simpson, some scripts are better than others, particularly in the earlier years of Hancock’s Half Hour on the radio and, of course, their earliest TV work doesn’t exist for us to make a comparison (only the scripts have survived).

Lots of comedy is perfectly funny without ever reaching or even aspiring to reach the heights of Galton and Simpson. Judged against these standards, the shows aren’t terrible. John Fisher suggests that even the old theme tune and no commercial break would have helped the show’s reception. We have come to expect the very best from Tony Hancock, we set him very high standards, we demanded a lot from him, just as he aspired to do even better. He may not have succeeded, but let us not criticise him for trying.

Tom Dommett

51 Critical Reaction in 1963 Tony kept up a confident mood in the morning papers on the day the first episode went out. Tony was quoted saying: “I don’t want to be quite so common as in East Cheam, in this series I am a little more posh. I live on a small allowance from my Aunt. But I’m am still the same mate.”

Tony had repeatedly complained about Galton and Simpson writing him down, on at least one occasion threatening to get Eric Sykes to write for him instead. He didn’t like scripts that sent him to doss houses.

The following are extracts from the papers, mostly to the first episode shown.

The Guardian - Mary Crozier I have sometimes in the past got tired quickly of Hancock, finding amusement grow less as his predicaments seem too self-centred. In the series on ATV there is more going on than I seem to remember in the last BBC series. If this is ‘situation comedy’ there is a lot of changing situation which is all to the good.

The Times It is all very funny because Mr Hancock is funny, and the material suits him to perfection. If Messrs Simpson and Galton do not need him, he does not need them.

The Observer - Maurice Richardson If we had never seen him before, we should probably hail his debut in “The Assistant,” in which he clowned about a bit behind the scenes in a big store, as distinctly promising. We should have complained of the scrappy hackneyed script and might have suggested that here was perfect material for the more intelligent scriptwriters such as Galton and Simpson.

Perhaps he will recover, and it will be wonderful if he does, but the first of this new series will have to go down in clowning history as a remarkable act of self-sabotage.

The Daily Mail - Michael Gowers The sad, unpalatable truth is that his ATV debut must have left strangers to his enormous talent, if there are any, wondering what all the past stuff has been about.

My devoutest wish is that he could find himself again, but it is probably already too late.

The Mirror - following The Night Out - Richard Seer My second look at Hancock was easier to take than the first. The script by Terry Nation, was not hilarious nor the situation original, but it let Hancock spread as he woke in a hotel room, wondering where he was, wondering if he was trapped into marriage. Lost, trapped, even haunted, Hancock pressed on raising a chuckle at regular intervals - and always interesting.

Tony responded in a stoical manner “The critics seem to resent the fact that I want to progress to something new. No matter how good the programme might be, they would have attacked me. That is something I have grown to live with and it doesn’t bother me. That is because I am satisfied with the series. It is well produced and and just as funny as anything I have done on the BBC.” Hancock also blamed problems with the public electricity supply which were causing voltage reductions. Tony told the Daily Express; “All the viewers could see on their sets was a postage-stamp-sized Hancock, and so they switched off. There is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with my series.” He still insisted it would be a success in the USA.

Ray Galton, commenting years later about the writers that followed him and Alan Simpson, said; “They were on a hiding to nothing. The greatest writer in the world would have had a job coming in and assuming someone else's character that had taken nine years to develop.”

52 An article from the Sunday Express 21st May 1961 - asking ‘Can Hancock bring it off on his own?’ They were referring to his BBC series without Sid James. As Hancock almost pleads in the article “I’ve changed direction before and it’s worked.” Quite right! What if he had stayed with Educating Archie? What if he hadn’t had Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams but stuck with his Star Bill Radio cast ? What if he had not dropped the girlfriend role in the radio series? All those Miss Pugh moments would exist. What if he had not made the move to TV? Being instead content to repeat himself on radio. What a loss that would have been. His insistence on more realism had made his comedy funnier and deeper.

Would the Blood Donor be as funny with Kenneth Williams as the Doctor, I fear not.

53 Hancock, Harry H. Corbett and Steptoe

Harry H. Corbett and Tony Hancock had tremendous professional respect for each other. The fact that the launch of the Hancock ATV series coincided with the 2nd series of Steptoe led to a lot of debate as to who would do best, the star or his writers. Both Harry and Tony were represented at the time by Freddie Ross (later Tony’s wife) who arranged a meeting between the two which was covered in the Sunday Mirror and at which the above photos were taken. Tony bumped into Galton and Simpson at their office. “Saw your show last night (Steptoe); very good.”

54 Daily Mirror Friday 8th February 1963

55 In the real world The winter of 1962/3 was the coldest in the United Kingdom since 1684. Just after Christmas, a blizzard driven by gale force winds covered much of England and Wales in snow drifts up to 20 feet (6.1 m) or more in places. The ongoing near-freezing temperatures meant that the snow cover lasted for over two months in some areas. A further blizzard and gale force winds in February again led to 20ft snow drifts. It wasn’t until March 6th that a thaw started. Bibliography David Nathan and Freddie Hancock Hancock, (1969 [1996]), William Kimber, BBC Consumer Publishing, ISBN 0-563-38761-0 Roger Wilmut Tony Hancock: 'Artiste', A Tony Hancock Companion, 1978, Eyre Methuen - with details of Hancock's stage, radio, TV and film appearances. ISBN 0-413-50820-X Roger Wilmut The Illustrated Hancock ISBN 0-356-12366-9 Edward Joffe Hancock's Last Stand: The Series That Never Was, June 1998, Book Guild Ltd Publishing, ISBN 1-85776-316-5 Cliff Goodwin When the Wind Changed: The Life and Death of Tony Hancock, 2000 ISBN 0712676155 Philip Oakes The Entertainers: Tony Hancock - Woburn/Futura ISBN 0 7130 0138 0 John Fisher Tony Hancock: The Definitive Biography, 2008, Harper, ISBN 0-00-726677-4 Alwyn W Turner The Man who invented the Daleks, 2011 Aurum Press Ltd ISBN-10: 1781310416

Selected Contacts - the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society

PRESIDENT - Andrew Clayden Roydon Road, The Maltings Business Centre Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire SG12 8HQ T: 01920 870355 E: [email protected]

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY - Steve King 76 Eversley Road, Benfleet, Essex SS7 4JH E: [email protected]

EDITOR OF THE MISSING PAGE - Tom Dommett 24 Woodlands Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 0HF E:[email protected] Anthony Aloysius St. John Hancock WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR - Martin Gibbons The Lad Himself (1924 - 1968) 9 Shelley Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 8NS “Stone Me, What A Life!” E: [email protected] The basic aim of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society are to promote the AUDIO & VIDEO LIBRARIAN - Mick Dawson works of Tony Hancock for the continued 84 Meadway, Barnet, Hertfordshire EN5 5LB awareness of and enjoyment of the general E: [email protected] public and to collect and classify the OFFICIAL RESEARCHER - Lyn Phillips recorded works of Tony Hancock for the 10 Whitley Grange, Old Road, Liskeard, Cornwall PL14 6DQ benefit of members. No active individual receives payment for services to the ARCHIVIST - Tristan Brittain-Dissont society, which is a voluntary organisation. 31 Corcreeny Road, Hillsborough, County Down, All views and reproduced in this Northern Ireland BT26 6EH E: [email protected] publication are entirely those of the individual author concerned and in no way TREASURER - Ken Clarke reflect the views of the general 24 Heenan Close, Frimley Green, Camberley, Surrey GU16 membership of the THAS. 6NQ E:[email protected] Published by The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. www.tonyhancock.org.uk

56 Has Tony Hancock made you laugh?

Help share that laughter with others The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society is dedicated to preserving and promoting the works of Tony Hancock. Tony Hancock was a comedy genius who made millions laugh and who has been hugely influential on comedy ever since.

Have you memories of seeing Tony on stage? Or meeting him in person? Perhaps you have a memento relating to one of his shows. If so, we’d like to hear from you. Above all, if Tony made you laugh, help us keep his memory alive. Stone me isn’t it time you joined the THAS Benefits of joining the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society:

Access to a huge collection of Tony’s shows including many rare & unique items

Unique Memorabilia A member’s Magazine

An invitation to the Annual Dinner with celebrity guests

Check out our website for details of how to join, contacts for passing on your memories, the latest Hancock related news and details about his life and career. www.tonyhancock.org.uk Or write to: Andrew Clayden, Roydon Road, The Maltings Business Centre Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire SG12 8HQ

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