Tony Hancock subject of BBC Four show

The troubled live of Tony Hancock is to be made the subject of a BBC Four programme, following on from the channel's success with Fabulousa, a drama based on the life of Kenneth Williams.

The show, Tony and Joan, is a dramatisation mainly focusing on Hancock's affair with Joan Le Mesurier, wife of Dad's Army star John Le Mesurier. The relationship started in 1966 and did not end till Hancock's suicide in 1968.

The script is largely based on Joan Le Mesurier's 1989 memoirs Lady Don't Fall Backwards. Tony and Joan is to be recorded in November and it is expected to be broadcast some time next year. Possible actors who may play Hancock include John Thomson (Cold Feet) and Stephen Mangan (Green Wing).

However, the programme has angered both Joan Le Mesurier and Hancock's widow and second wife Freddie Hancock.

According to The Mail on Sunday, Freddie said she felt "sorry" for Joan, telling the paper: "Why doesn't she do a book and a film about her life with John Le Mesurier? She lived with him a lot longer than with Tony. You almost have to feel sorry for her. She has nothing else in her life but this project. I assume she has got no other form of income. I don't really remember much about her, but Tony told me I met her once when she was a barmaid. He met her after we had parted so he was free to do what he wanted. But a film about his affair with Mrs Le Mesurier is hardly representative of Tony's life. The BBC are milking a cow that's got nothing left. This all happened 40 years ago and most of Tony's fans are probably dead by now."

It is not the first time Freddie Hancock has been angered with the BBC over her late husband. Last year, she attacked the BBC for making a documentary about her husband's affair (this short film can be seen on YouTube).