Hancocks Half Hour: The Very Best Episodes, Volume 2 (BBC Radio Collections)

Tony Hancocks premature death in 1968 at the age of forty-four deprived the entertainment world of perhaps the greatest post-war comedian to have emerged from this country. It makes his eighty hours of material originally broadcast by the BBC on radio and television between 1954 and 1961 seem all the more priceless and rare. With his impeccable timing and brilliantly subtle shifts in intonation, he could create sound picture that bore the unmistakable hallmark of a genius.Supported by Galton and Simpsons marvelous scripts and by Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr, and the rest of the studio cast, the work of Tony Hancock lives on in this special collection. Hancocks Half Hour was one of the most successful series ever made and created an international star.This volume includes the following episodes: The ConjurerHancock takes up magic and is hired by Sid to put on a show at Dartmoor Prison. Little does he know that its only a front for an escape plan. Cyrano de HancockSid is besotted with Miss Pugh, and asks for Hancocks help in expressing his love The DiaryHancock looks back at 1956, and falls into a reverie where he imagines himself as a surgeon, a lion tamer, and a test pilot. The ImpersonatorHancock hears an actor in a cornflake commercial imitating his voice, and promptly takes the impersonator to court. Once again, the master of misery is supported by a star cast including Sid James, Bill Kerr, Kenneth Williams, and Hattie Jacques, and four sparkling scripts by the masters of mirth, Galton and Simpson.