Actors - Tony Hancock

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	Actors - Tony Hancock

Anthony John Hancock, best known as Tony Hancock (May 12, 1924 – June 24, 1968) was a major figure in British television and radio comedy in the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life and career

He was born in Birmingham, England, but brought up in Bournemouth where his mother and stepfather ran a small hotel then known as The Durlston Court (now renamed The Quality Hotel). He was educated at a boarding school in Swanage and Bradfield College, Berkshire. He left school at the age of fifteen. In 1942 he joined the RAF Regiment and following a failed audition for ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association) ended up with The Ralph Reader Gang Show. Following the war he received regular radio work in shows such as Workers' Playtime and Variety Bandbox. In 1951 he gained a part in Educating Archie, where he played the tutor and foil to the nominal star, a ventriloquist's dummy. This brought him wider recognition and a catchphrase used frequently in the show; 'flippin' kids'. The same year, he made regular appearances on the BBC's popular light entertainment show Kaleidoscope. In 1954 he was given his own BBC radio show: Hancock's Half Hour.

Hancock's peak years

Working with scripts from Ray Galton and Alan Simpson the show lasted for five years and over a hundred episodes, featuring Sid James, Bill Kerr, Kenneth Williams and over the years Moira Lister and Hattie Jacques. In the radio series, the James character would often be dishonest and exploit Hancock's apparent gullibility, while there appeared to be a more genuine friendship between the two in the television series.

During the run of his BBC radio and television series, Hancock was an enormous star in Britain. Like few others, he was able to clear the streets while families gathered together to listen to the eagerly awaited episodes. His character changed slightly over the series but even in the earliest episodes the key facets of 'the lad himself' were evident. Later episodes were regarded as classics, even in their time. "A Sunday Afternoon At Home" and "Wild Man Of The Woods" were top rating shows and were later released as an LP. The former is not only considered to be among the very best of the Hancock ensemble pieces, but it is also a near perfect evocation of a dreary 1950s afternoon.

Hancock's experiences were based in reality and on observation. From the playlet "Look Back In Hunger" in The East Cheam Drama Festival episode, Galton and Simpson showed they were in touch with developments in the British theatre, the use of sighs and silent pauses predating the works of Harold Pinter by several years. The measured pacing of these episodes must have been groundbreaking in the days of fast-talking Ted Ray and the anarchic Goon Show, where every second of airtime had to be filled, and 'dead air' was a cardinal sin.

With Galton and Simpson cranking out scripts at the rate they did, it is little wonder that continuity was not given top priority. Life in Railway Cuttings seems to vary as much as the house itself. Not only is Hancock either unemployed or a hopeless actor/comedian - here he is a popular radio star on a par with Ted Ray - but the dimensions of the actual house seem to change to accommodate the cast. In later episodes, Railway Cuttings appears to be a two-bedroomed terrace; here it seems to have at least three bedrooms and Miss Pugh is also resident. In other episodes she 'comes round' presumably from her own domicile. (Incidentally it was Railway Cuttings that was mythical, not East Cheam itself; it is next to Carshalton.)

Listeners at the time either did not notice or did not care. The ephemeral and non-commercial nature of the radio in those days meant that recordings were not available and the audience had to rely solely on their memory of who lived where or who did what in each episode. There were not numerous repeats and re-runs on other channels, cassette tapes were unknown and records were issued irregularly. Certainly the domestic situation could only be described as strange. Hancock had the none/comedian job situation; Sid, we assume, was on the fiddle in some way. Bill is virtually unemployable, his relationship to the others and origins unexplained. Miss Pugh is Hancock's secretary (who apparently has such a loose job description that she cooks Sunday lunch) although how she got paid, or what she did for the unemployed Hancock, is another of life's mysteries.

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Actors - Tony Hancock

Early life and career

Hancock's peak years

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