Well I Never Knew That!

Another snippet from Barry Cryer's book I am reading at the moment as it is something about The Lad Himself I have NEVER come across in all the books I have read about Tony.

(just to digress for a mo. as it is in the same breath/page and some may not have heard of when Willie Rushton was in Australia {where he had a house apparently and was often over there} he was asked to pick up Tony's ashes and bring them back to the UK, which he did in a separate hold-all, and left the customs officer bemused when after he challenged Willie as to what was in the bag and he replied "Tony Hancock")

So, I relate that as there is a tenuous link to the other previously unknown (to me) info. Now Barry had written with many partners (the most permanent being Ray Cameron [Michael McIntyre's dad] for Kenny Everett), but THIS partner Eric Idle was the last person I would have connected with Barry, and I quote :-

"Although I knew Tony Hancock through his brother Roger, who is my agent, I never wrote for him. As it happens, Eric Idle and I were going to write series for Tony when he got back from Australia, but sadly he didn't come back from Australia"

Well I Never!!

That Rushton quote is elsewhere isn't it?

Quote: Chappers @ 29th June 2019, 5:23 PM

That Rushton quote is elsewhere isn't it?

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Quite possibly or as you seem doubtful you might have read it elsewhere, and that's why I said "and some may not have heard of when Willie Rushton"................

I've forgotten whether it turns up in Caroline and David Stafford's radio play Hancock's Ashes about Willie's attempt to transport Tony's ashes back to England. It's an entertaining (essentially) two-hander. Well worth a listen when it pops up on R4 Extra as it already has a couple of times.

I wonder what Barry and Mr Idle had planned for Tony on his return. Tony was already a long way down the slippery slope even before he went to Australia.

Not 'alf. I was wondering if it might be worth getting in touch with the famously approachable Mr Cryer but then discovered this piece in 'The Oldie', which presumably , along with that paragraph from his book represents all he has to say on the subject:

https://tinyurl.com/yy6n5yqr

I think I've got three or four Hancock biography / first-hand memoir-type books and a couple of them - John Fisher's 'Magisterial'* "Tony Hancock, and Edward Joffe's** "Hancock's Last Stand: The Series That Never Was" - both mention Barry Cryer in connection with The Windmill as a contemporary of TH's and with Roger Hancock in his role as agent, but neither gives any hint of post-Australia writing plans and Eric Idle isn't mentioned at all.

Now I've learned something else new, which is that Roger also represented David Renwick and John Sullivan!

Both these books mention the Rushton ashes incident, and Fisher brings up the Private Eye cartoon by Willie which lampooned Tony's recent career choices and upset him so much that he apparently considered suing the magazine!

Googling 'Hancock Rushton Cartoon' will find it before you can say Chickity Snitch (to state the bleedin' obvious).

* According to The Times, no less.

** Eddie Joffe, as Herc will probably know was producer of the unfinished Aussie series. He described Roger as 'a tall slim charming and charismatic young man'.

Has anyone read Eric Idle's bio to see if he mentions it?

https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/eric_idle/shop/5825/autobiography/

Thanks for the googling tip, Text! What a brilliant strip it is, too.

Quote: Aaron @ 16th July 2019, 6:01 PM

Has anyone read Eric Idle's bio to see if he mentions it?

https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/eric_idle/shop/5825/autobiography/

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Kenneth has, as I recall:

Quote: Kenneth @ 10th January 2019, 12:44 PM

Eric Idle's Sortabiography was a sorta disappointment. Constantly dropping the names of celeb chums into this shallow stream of vain self-reflection. "And then Mick Jagger and Keith Richards flew me in their private jet to Spain, where Michael Caine was teaching Steve Martin and Steve Coogan how to do Eddie Izzard impressions. Things really got interesting when Robin Williams came to see me and brought along Carrie Fisher and Paul Simon. And then who should rock up but my best mates George Harrison and the Pope, doing lines of coke with Robin Williams, so I made a joke and everyone laughed uproariously. Then for an encore, I sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. And I've been raking it in, recycling this old Python stuff, and by the way, here's a photo of my wife's arse on the cover of Playboy. And f**k Michael Palin and Gilliam, lor' bless 'em though. Did I mention my chum George Harrison yet? And Art Garfunkel rode his bike past my house once. And I think Trump is an ass for stealing Pink Floyd's the Wall, ho-ho. That joke of mine was so funny that David Bowie and Brian Cox nearly fell off their chairs and the yacht,"

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Quite unlike most other showbiz autohagiographies then ?

I'd still like to read it.

Watching Reina James interview on TPTV about her father Sid, she pointed out that he was born on Hancock Street in Jobo, SA.

fade out Twilight Zone music....................

Reading Louis Barfe's biog. of Ken Dodd "Happiness and Tears", and very good it is too; but would you have put John Laurie with Ken as a sort of comedy duo? But they had a regular sort of "Smith and Jones" chat, written by Eddie Braben, who was Ken's permanent writer then of course on The Ken Dodd Show back in the mid-60s, on the then Light Programme.

Apparently they had a running gag about Richard Dimbleby, which was fine until until the autumn repeat went out much, much later on the Home Service when Dimbleby was dying of cancer. Obviously, producers and editors were expected to rigorously check that this sort of thing was avoided at all costs, but someone slipped up.

An apologetic letter was sent to Dimbleby's wife Dilys, who accepted it with grace saying that her husband was not concerned about the gaffe, but the fear was that the newspapers would pick the story up and make much gain out of it, which they would have done if it had not been for it being the night that Kenneth Tynan made the famous, then faux pax of blurting out the word "F**k" on the BBC2 live programme BBC3, which went out on the same night as the offending Ken Dodd repeat, and so was missed.

One Ken unwittingly helping another Ken out it seems.

That was beyond my Ken.