Hancock’s Half Hour – The Lost TV Episodes

From the award-winning theatre company Hambledon Productions
(‘Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show’, ‘Steptoe and Son’) comes
the Godfather of all sitcoms, live on stage!

In 1954, comedian Tony Hancock burst onto the BBC with a comedy
show unlike anything the British public had experienced before.
Surrounded by a stellar cast including ‘Carry On’ greats Sidney James,
Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams, the series proved just as
successful when it transferred to television.

Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’
redefined comedy and continues to entertain audiences to this very
day.

Between 1956 and 1961, a total of 63 TV episodes were broadcast.
However, 26 episodes are missing believed wiped from the BBC
archives.

Hambledon Productions are delighted to be recreating three of these
’lost’ TV episodes, live on stage. The production will see the actors
John Hewer and Colin Elmer returning to play Tony Hancock and
Kenneth Williams respectively.

Commemorating 100 years of Tony Hancock, and 70 years of
‘Hancock’s Half Hour’, it’s time to take a trip to 23 Railway Cuttings,
East Cheam and join Kenneth, Hattie, Sid and ‘The Lad Himself’ for
three classic episodes of this ground-breaking, timeless comedy.
John Hewer, co-producer and performer of Tony Hancock, details
reasons of the show’s longevity: “There’s still a little piece of Anthony
Aloysius St. John Hancock in all of us (though we may not always
admit to it), and also, that his style/brand of comedy is inherent to us.
Secondly, his is the best example, in my opinion, of the perfect
marriage between a performer and their writer/s. Galton and Simpson
captured not only a resonant, comical snapshot of post-war Britain,
they also picked up on Hancock’s natural performance idiocies.”