|
Comedy king Tony Hancock produced three British sitcoms during
his career, all of which featured his name. There was Hancock's
Half-Hour, Hancock and finally Hancock's.
"Hancock's Half Hour" was the first of his sitcoms,
it transferred from radio in 1956 and ran on the BBC for 6
series. In this sitcom Tony Hancock played Anthony Aloysius
St John Hancock, a loser who's plans and aspirations were
continually ruined by bad luck, Sidney Balmoral James (played
by Sid James) or, more often than not, by his own pomposity
and ambition.
|
 |
Unlike a traditional sitcom the characters and location changed
from week to week however the show did have a familiar feel
to it because the stories always featured the character Anthony
Hancock (with his catch-phrase 'Stone me, what a life') and
all the extra parts were played by a cast of regulars (most
notably Sid James of "Carry-On..." fame).
In 1961 Tony Hancock, wishing to stretch his television character,
decided to work without his sidekick Sid James and continue
the show as solo lead. The title of the sitcom was therefore
shortened to just "Hancock". The six episodes in
the 1961 series are regarded by most as the very best of Hancock
and have become the yardstick against which all subsequent
sitcoms were measured. Many millions tuned in every week to
watch Hancock's comedy skills fuse with Galton and Simpson's
fabulously rich scripts to produce such sketches as the now
legendary 'The Blood Donor'.
|
 |
Unfortunately though success didn't follow Tony Hancock when
he moved his show across to ITV in 1963 for a new 13 part
series of "Hancock". The cause of his well-documented
decline was almost certainly due to the fact he arrogantly
disposed of the services of writers Galton and Simpson. Without
the support of these great script writers the new series was
doomed from day one. The second series of "Hancock"
was not only lacking comedy material though, unfortunately
it was also seriously under-rehersed; the star had discovered
prompt boards and auto-cue resulting in him not bothering
to learn his lines before going on air. The result was some
very woodern acting and obvious "reading what was written
behind the camera" moments.
|
|
Things didn't get any better three years later in 1967 when
Hancock returned to British television via his new ITV sitcom
/ variety show Hancock's. The setup was that Tony was
the manager of a swinging London night-club, his comedy routines
were interspersed with live guest acts. Unfortunately the
comedian's off-screen decline into depression and alcohol
didn't allow him to return to the same level of excellence
as his first seven TV series. A year later he sadly committed
suicide.
Tony Hancock shouldn't be remembered for his last two series
of British sitcom but rather proving himself as Britain's
leading comic of the day in the excellent Hancock's Half
Hour and for the mighty, almost perfect first series of
Hancock which pushed British sitcom into a new era.
|
