Hancock

[UncleEbenezer]

Radio 4 are once again presenting The Missing Hancocks. Episodes of Hancock's Half Hour that they have lost and reconstructed.

These are now oft-repeated. Whereas it must be many years since they broadcast any of the non-lost episodes. Why the one, yet not t'other?

Moderator Message:
Moved from DAK to Music, Theatre & TV as the general discussion is off-topic for DAK (chas49)

[SalvorHardin]

Radio 4 are once again presenting The Missing Hancocks. Episodes of Hancock's Half Hour that they have lost and reconstructed.

These are now oft-repeated. Whereas it must be many years since they broadcast any of the non-lost episodes. Why the one, yet not t'other?

I haven't a clue about the BBC's broadcasting policy, but there are loads of Hancock's Half Hour episodes on the BBC Sounds app. Plus The Missing Hancocks.

[Mike4]

Is it just me or does anyone else here find them 'Just not funny'?

I want to be amused by them but I'm not, and I've given up trying now.

I'm sure I used to find Hancock funny back in the day, so its prolly me just getting grumpier...

Edit to add:
Oops forgot to make my actual point, which is maybe the 'lost' episodes weren't lost at all, but disposed of deliberately for being not up to scratch.

[Grumpsimus]

Well I still find them funny, some of the best comedy ever written. It is really a matter of personal taste, clearly yours has changed.

It is unlikely that the lost episodes were deliberately disposed because they were not up to scratch. There is considerable evidence that the BBC was careless with old tapes, with quite a few programmes, both radio and TV being 'lost'. Sometimes it was to save storage space, sometimes the tapes were reused to save money.

Coming back to the OP, as well as BBC Sounds the original Hancocks are regularly broadcast on Radio 4 Extra which is on digital radio.

[didds]

Its like much comedy, drama et al series that last a considerable length of time. Most episodes were "OK", some were just rubbish, and a few were brilliant. "Sunday Afternoon" is - for me - an all time classic. For those maybe that lived before the times of 24 x 7 TV, 10-4pm shops, 12-22 pubs, and just about everything being open on a Sunday, it summed up a winter's Sunday perfectly. FA to do and limited entertainment.

The ability to churn out 107 radio episodes and 63 TV episodes over 7 years, even with the talents of Galton and Simpson, was always going to stretch credibility.

[kempiejon]

Peter White of R4s In Touch was on Desert Island discs and he chose Hancock's Sunday Afternoon at home as one of his discs. As the clip played I was reminded of listening to the tapes as a kid and could still recite the bit about the gravy.

[Mike4]

Its like much comedy, drama et al series that last a considerable length of time. Most episodes were "OK", some were just rubbish, and a few were brilliant. "Sunday Afternoon" is - for me - an all time classic. For those maybe that lived before the times of 24 x 7 TV, 10-4pm shops, 12-22 pubs, and just about everything being open on a Sunday, it summed up a winter's Sunday perfectly. FA to do and limited entertainment.

The ability to churn out 107 radio episodes and 63 TV episodes over 7 years, even with the talents of Galton and Simpson, was always going to stretch credibility.

Monty Python being an excellent example. Most of Monty Python was dull and pointless but the moments o sheer brilliance made up for all the boredom.

I too remember Sundays with everything closed, including petrol stations. Until I remember discovering the petrol station in Byfleet had started opening on a Sunday morning and news went around like wildfire!

[chas49]

Moderator Message:
Moved from DAK to Music, Theatre & TV as the general discussion is off-topic for DAK (chas49)

[bungeejumper]

I was reminded of listening to the tapes as a kid and could still recite the bit about the gravy.

Indeed. At least it used to move about a bit.

There were plenty of other radio comics at the time who haven't survived the shift in modern tastes nearly so well as Hancock. Take the Goons, for example. (Please, please, somebody take the Goons...) But Hancock's inner darkness, which eventually killed him, was only one part of the recipe, I think. He also expressed the genuine bewilderment of people who'd seen the war but couldn't quite bring themselves to trust the peace, or to adapt to it even though they knew it was better and more hopeful. I've worked with someone who had the same depressive syndrome, in more recent times, and it was just awful for him because he just couldn't trust himself and so he always felt he'd failed, even when he hadn't.

And then there was Sid James, of course. Ye gods, how tough that collaboration must have been....

BJ

[Nimrod103]

I was reminded of listening to the tapes as a kid and could still recite the bit about the gravy.

Indeed. At least it used to move about a bit.

There were plenty of other radio comics at the time who haven't survived the shift in modern tastes nearly so well as Hancock. Take the Goons, for example. (Please, please, somebody take the Goons...) But Hancock's inner darkness, which eventually killed him, was only one part of the recipe, I think. He also expressed the genuine bewilderment of people who'd seen the war but couldn't quite bring themselves to trust the peace, or to adapt to it even though they knew it was better and more hopeful. I've worked with someone who had the same depressive syndrome, in more recent times, and it was just awful for him because he just couldn't trust himself and so he always felt he'd failed, even when he hadn't.

And then there was Sid James, of course. Ye gods, how tough that collaboration must have been....

BJ

Much as I enjoyed Hancock's Half Hour (I only remember the last few being broadcast on TV, but have seen and heard many since), I can't help feeling that it's success was due in equal measure to Galton & Simpson's scripts, and the supporting cast of Sid James, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams, Bill Kerr and others. Without them, Hancock I suspect was dull, uninteresting, and unfunny. His fame is partly due to the fact that he died young. He never amounted to much after he split from Galton & Simpson. I don't know why Hancock is more remembered today than his contemporaries - eg somebody like Eric Sykes who did so much in his life.