Hancock's Half Hour/Hancock
 At 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam, Anthony Aloysius Hancock
pondered and dreamed of rising above his humble origins with his sceptical
sparring partner Sid.
Tony Hancock made his stage debut in the RAF and touring gang
shows. He moved into pantomimes, cabaret and radio, appearing in Educating
Archie in 1951. The radio series Hancock's Half Hour
began in 1954.
Hancock's Half Hour then transferred from radio where
Hancock's inimitable performance and inspired scripts had combined
to produce absolutely classic comedy.
The bitter-sweet humour lay in acute observations of life's petty
frustrations and in Hancock's bitter, paranoid rantings and pompous
attempts to impress which always fell flat as he unintentionally
revealed his ignorance.
Sadly, all of the first series are now missing and no longer
exist, as well as all but one episode of the second series and
approximately half of each of the third and fourth series.
Classics such as The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham
("yes, I know it's raining in Tokyo") are amongst the most
famous of Hancock's comedy creations - both of them in fact dating
from after 1960 when Hancock and Sid James parted company and the
series was renamed simply Hancock (with Sid James moving on
to his own series, Citizen James).
 Hancock's
down-at-heel appearance and hang-dog features made him a lovable
loser and over ten million viewers tuned in.
Fish and chip shops across Britain complained to the BBC that
they had absolutely no customers for 30 minutes every Friday night
when the show aired.
After seven series' with the BBC, Hancock followed a growing
trend and went over to the ITV. The fact that he now read his words
from cue cards rather than learning all his lines, meant that the
shows deteriorated badly.
Famous as much for his real-life alcoholism and depression as for
his comedy, Hancock finally committed suicide on 25 June 1968 at the
age of 44 in a hotel in Sydney, Australia.
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