Hancock's Half Hour
- TV sitcom
- BBC One
- 1956 - 1961
- 63 episodes (7 series)
Tony Hancock stars in Galton & Simpson's comic masterpiece, with his delusions of grandeur and acquaintances at the root of his every downfall. Also features Sid James, Kenneth Williams, James Bulloch, Johnny Vyvyan, Alec Bregonzi and more.
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Hancock's Half Hour trivia
In the episode There's An Airfield At The Bottom Of My Garden, parts of the set - due to collapse in a later scene - self-destruct too early, leaving Tony Hancock holding up a table and unable to move from the spot. He ad libs manfully and after persistent knocking on the door that he is supposed to open, he shouts: "Come in, it's open". The experience convinced the star that the show should never again be broadcast live.
As Hancock and the series grew ever more popular, studio audiences proved so riotous that producers had to take steps to tone down the volume, a first in British television.
Hancock's Half Hour launched on the radio in 1954, with this TV version starting two years later. The radio and TV versions ran concurrently - sharing some scripts - until the radio version stopped in 1959.
The final series, which saw Hancock alone in an Earl's Court bedsit, was broadcast under the shortened title Hancock.
Following these seven series, in 1963 Hancock moved to ITV to star in a sitcom with a similar premise called Hancock. The star returned to ITV in 1967 for Hancock's, a series in which his character was the manager of a nightclub. This turned out to be his final British TV series, as he committed suicide the following year.