Tony Hancock was one of the most successful comedians of his generation, but a combination of personal problems and increasingly erratic professional decisions turned his 1966 'comeback' at the Royal Festival Hall into an unfortunate night to forget...
Censorship can seem to be ever-growing in modern times: new "woke" sensibilities clashing with long-established political correctness, and both in turn with classical liberalism - but it is nothing new, as Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Dave Allen found out 50 years ago this month on Australian television.
In an age that sees television celebrated when chaotic and rough-around-the-edges, we look back to 1971 and Peter Cook's chat show, Where Do I Sit? - deemed such a disaster it was cancelled after just three episodes.
The cross-over between sport and comedy is more often than not one destined to failure; but one game more than any other seems to lend itself very well. Dust down your whites and dive into the realm where cricket and comedy mix.
Graham McCann says: "There used to be few things more frightening for television viewers than the sight of a comedian in a Pringle sweater. It meant that he was almost certainly about to talk about golf..."
A profile of "the funniest man on Earth", Scottish comedian Chic Murray. Graham McCann says "That he isn't better known these days is nothing short of shameful."
Difference is good. Experimentation is to be lauded. But in a handful of cases, television sitcoms have made difference itself their raison d'être, rather than a factor in their storytelling.
You don't really see them these days: those odd, idiosyncratic, seldom-speaking comic characters whose entire raison d'être is to be the recurring butt of a well-known comedian's jokes. Go back forty years or more, however, and they were a common sight. Graham McCann looks at the careers of Jackie Wright, Johnny Vyvyan, Arthur Tolcher and Johnny Hutch.
