The Missing Hancocks

Hancock's lost Half Hours to go live at the Fringe

Missing episodes of classic BBC comedy Hancock's Half Hour are to brought back to life at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, more than half a century after their original broadcast.

I had a real treat this week, meeting Kenneth Williams, or rather Robin Sebastian the man who plays him so superbly in the new Hancock's half Hours. Can any comic actor have given his audiences so much pleasure while obtaining so little for himself? I suppose I could be talking about either Kenneth Williams or Tony Hancock. They both suffered from deep depression and both died alone, having taken overdoses. Thank heaven many of their recordings have survived, and that where they haven't many of the scripts have. You can hear my interview with Robin Sebastian and the rest of the programme here.

Most of us are here today, gone tomorrow, but not Williams and Hancock. They are truly immortal, at least on radio.

You can never recapture the genius of Hancock

The Missing Hancocks was a valiant effort but failed to capture Tony Hancock's original magic.

The Missing Hancocks review

My misgivings disappeared. I am very glad that these shows have been redone. I thought that the new actors might be off-putting, but Kevin McNally sounded astonishingly like Tony Hancock.

Radio Times review

I'm guessing I wasn't the only one who died a little at the thought of this programme. While the discovery of lost episodes is intriguing, the thought of another actor stepping into a hero's shoes usually fills fans with dread -- especially when that hero is the still very much-loved Tony Hancock.

That said, Kevin McNally is quite wonderful here as The Lad himself in this first of five episodes re-recorded to mark the 60th anniversary of Hancock's Half-Hour. Producers Ed Morrish and Neil Pearson have resisted the urge to tinker even slightly with the script and it's testament to the genius of writers Galton and Simpson that the words still sparkle.

Stone me, is it really 60 years since the first Hancock

What's more, he's been dead for 46 of those years. I don't remember him, actually. I was just a nipper at the time. But, by golly, he's influential beyond the grave.

Tony Hancock is still influencing comedy 60 years later

On the 2 November 1954, a 30-year-old comedian named Tony Hancock embarked on his first starring vehicle for BBC radio, Hancock's Half Hour, scripted by two writers aged only in their twenties, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

Bringing Hancock's Half Hour back to life

Neil Pearson explains how he came to resurrect lost episodes of Hancock's Half Hour with its celebrated writers.