Tony Hancock - 1954

To this day, Birmingham-born Tony Hancock is remembered for his contribution to entertainment and to distinctive, brilliantly-timed, deadpan radio comedy. The show to which he lent his name: Hancock's Half Hour, was written by the famous Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. Here was a show which moved on gently from the time-honoured variety genre, inherited from the stage, into sitcom.

Hancock was already known to listeners from 'Educating Archie' and 'Star Bill'. His 'Star Bill' character was developed in Hancock's Half Hour to a more reactive style of comedy that helped to popularise the 'sitcom' format.

Tony starred alongside: Sid James; Hattie Jacques; and Kenneth Williams, amongst others. Tony played a character with similarities to his inner self: a down-at-heel comedian living, as the series went on, at 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam.

The first series launched on the BBC Light Programme on the 2nd of November 1954, from which episode this clip is taken. Six series of Hancock’s Half Hour ran on radio, with over a hundred episodes, ending in 1959. On TV it ran from 1956 to 1961.

Hancock took his own life, aged 44, in June 1968. A note read: 'Things just seemed to go too wrong too many times'.