Tony Hancock: was he actually any good?

As he looks eagerly at his newly developed photos in the episode about the camera, the way his face goes from excited expectation, to shock and disbelief, to desolation and horror, to weary and disgusted resignation has me on the floor in tears of laughter every time. I can't think of anyone else who can touch him at this game.

I've never really been able to pin down his charm in words though: the characters he played were pretentious and pompous but also acutely sensitive and easily wounded. His characters smudged the lines between middle class gone to seed and the pretentiously aspirant working class (cf Harold Steptoe).

He was magnificent.

Strange thing about the clips of "The Blood Donor" that are always wheeled out was his obvious reliance (possibly only for that show - wasn't he ill around that time?) on cue cards - his eyeline is all wrong.

Wonderful though. I think he, Rod Laver, Aneurin Bevan and Alex Young are my Dad's all-time heroes.

Perhaps this thread is an appropriate place to complain about the Tony Hancock monument in Birmingham - it's hardly noticeable if you don't already know it's there. So if anyone from Birmingham City Council is reading this, how about a big neon Hancock on top of the Rotunda Building?

Peter Sellers was a uniquely one-off talent, who frankly cannot be replicated (neither can TH be though). His best work for me are his early British films, "Dr Strangelove", "Being There", "The Optimists of Nine Elms" (good London film this...) and perhaps above all, "Lolita" (that bizarre, cold, slippery performance deserves far more acclaim than it gets). His style was suited to very complex, edgy material, yet so rarely did he get that sort of project. As a biographer said, how great would it have been to see him do a film "Godot" or "Ulysses" (as Bloom of course)?
Milligan; very hit and miss and more of a creator of comedy than Sellers the consummate performer. Massively influential, and at his best, sublime. "Puckoon" is a smashing read.
Hancock was never the same (from all I read of him) without Galton and Simpson's judgement behind him, so he must be classed to a certain degree with Sellers: being dependant on good material, yet having an intrinsic brilliance about him. Though, having a central comedic character as he did makes it tough to compare with Sellers' boundless versatility. You cannot picture Sellers as easily as you can Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, or indeed Hancock, who is far more *grounded*. What a reduction it is in the public view, to view Sellers = Inspector Clouseau. In the first 3 films of that series, it works, yet it's really just slightly broader Jacques Tati. He worked far better in more ambiguous films, that often had an undercurrent of seriousness to them.

Were the Goons actually closer than many say they were, to music hall? Music hall with a more surreal edge? The gags there seem to me far more of a construct than Galton and Simpson's greater 'naturalism'. More of an emphasis perhaps on jokes than on character nuance, with the Goon Show.

Which is this 'camera episode' that Pulpo refers to? One really wishes that the BBC would go beyond the same old 'best of' way of releasing Hancock stuff, and release them in series sets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/documentaries/tonyhancock/index.shtml?rhppromo

The pilot episode was a bit disjointed; some good individual bits but Sid James still trying to sound American, Moira Lister doing nothing beyond saying "Yes Tony" or "Over there Tony?" The opening typing gag with Bill Kerr which stretched out for over two minutes was pretty avant-garde for 1954 sitoom, though.

"Wild Man In The Woods" was, however, awesome; everyone at their peak, hysterically funny. Kenneth Williams (with his "snide" voice) as "Jungle Jim" trying to chat Hancock up was priceless.

The BBC website has a competition to win the entire Hancock radio archives on about ten million CDs, if you're interested.

I'm much more of a Galton & Simpson fan than a Hancock fan: 7.20 this evening on Talking Pictures (Freeview Channel 81), "The Rebel" is always worth a watch.

Old episode rediscovered, featuring Peter Sellers

BREAKING NEWS! 1/3 We're absolutely thrilled that a lost episode of Hancock's Half Hour has been found, restored, & will be broadcast on Radio 4 on 18 October. The The Marriage Bureau was never repeated and has not been heard since 1955. Only episode to feature Peter Sellers. pic.twitter.com/iR8OjLYYkZ

— Tony Hancock (@East_Cheam_Lad) September 29, 2022

As befits an English man in his mid 40s*, I have recently become sort of obsessed with Tony Hancock. The radio series (esp series 3/4) is an absolute work of genius, and I've just bought an set of 8 dvds of the TV series, pray for me.

*Just found out that I've actually outlived him by a whole two months now.

The Punch & Judy Man v underrated imo.

Never seen Punch & Judy Man, though I must have seen The Rebel at least ten times.

I kinda dislike The Rebel because I have a knee jerk aversion to anti-intellectual oh-those-highbrows-are-all-pseuds stuff. I've known some annoying types like that sure but frankly performative Regular Blokedom is much worse. Am aware this is unfair to place on the film tho, it hails from a different world.

Punch & Judy Man is v funny but also quite moving.

I wouldn't say The Rebel is making that point, the art critics can clearly see Paul's work is much better than Tony's, because it is. Tony is only ever interested in the art world as a pose to escape from his dull life, and he never transcends that, but he's also on the fringes of a better world, which Galton & Simpson gently mock but also show clear respect to.

I agree with that - and of course the art world seems like a much more fun place to be than the office. And the film does a great job of humanising the sitcom Hancock without sanding down the edges.

I think it falls apart a bit in the last third, when Hancock steals Paul's work - Hancock as the fêted naïf is more interesting than Hancock the fêted art thief.

I want to relisten to Round the Horne - a staple of car journeys with my parents, but I haven't heard it in some time.

Also, God, I'm a year older than Hancock now, that's a depressingly Hancockish state of affairs.