Hancock's Half Hour

John Freeman interviews Tony Hancock in this intimate interview conducted at the beginning of 1960 for the BBC.

Tony Hancock live at the Royal Festival Hall 22nd September 1966. Old King Lear, weary of royal duties, decides to break up his kingdom, divide it among his three daughters, and present the largest part to the one who loves him most. His two eldest daughters profess their love extravagantly, but young Cordelia refuses to flatter him. Enraged, he banishes her to France. But the old king's rash generosity is cruelly repaid. Cast out by his daughters onto a bare heath during a pitiless storm, Lear discovers too late the false values by which he has lived and, devastatingly, the suffering common to all humanity. Tony Hancock is King Lear!

Tony was contracted to make a 13-part series called Hancock Down Under for the Seven Network of Australian television. However, after arriving in Australia in March 1968, he completed only three programmes, before his suicide in June 68, which remained unaired for four years.

In this episode of Hancock's Half Hour originally broadcast in 1956, Tony has a new neighbour whose behaviour is very, very suspicious.

Ray Galton & Alan Simpson interview (Mark Lawson, 2008)

A fascinating look at the life and work of Tony Hancock, one of the country’s leading comedians of the 50s and 60s who enjoyed a major success with his series Hancock’s Half Hour.

With exclusive access to the archives of one of Britain's greatest and most influential comedians, comedy actor and Tony Hancock fan Jack Dee opens up the archive for the first time to discover its priceless, unique contents. A treasure trove of never-before-seen personal items such as photos, ideas, scripts, scrapbooks, production files and extraordinary letters that illustrate his life in vivid detail. This documentary also has exclusive TV access to clips from Hancock's 1963 ATV series, unbroadcast for over 50 years.

Hancock decides to become a blood donor but he doesn't understand how much he has to give When the doctor explains Hancock refuses until he is told that he has a very rare group After he has given the blood he is insistent on knowing where and to whom it has been given. Colourised version by UK Gold.

Hancock is the foreman of a jury who disagree on the verdict of the defendant Hancock thinks he is innocent when all the other jurors including Sid James think he is guilty After convincing them to change their votes Hancock suddenly switches to a guilty decision. Colourised version by UK Gold.