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The Missing Hancocks
Topic Started: Oct 30 2014, 01:34 PM (2,227 Views)
AmosBurke
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The first of five new recordings of Galton & Simpson's scripts for Hancocks Half Hour, go out on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow, Fri 31/10/14 GMT 11:30 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04ly3xv

Details of five episodes http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/radio/the_missing_hancocks/episodes/1/ This site says "Series 1", so perhaps there will be others to follow? I hope so,

I'm looking forward to this. I have just about everything available featuring the lad himself, audios, videos, copies of private Super8 film, from many different sources. In the pre-internet age, I recorded HHH off the radio and swapped programs with fans around the world. I still listen to my cassettes, rather than the mp3 recordings. It's all far too easy now to obtain all that is available on your favourite artiste.

Radio 4 also is transmitting a play Hancock's Ashes by Caroline and David Stafford "Based on a real event. In 1968 Willie Rushton brought Tony Hancock's ashes back to Britain from Australia. This play imagines what might have happened behind the scenes..." http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mgxtg Quite a treat for us Hancock fans.
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rumbaba
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Thanks for the heads up Amos <ok>
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Mobson
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...and this...although it sounds like it might be a mite depressing!

Heathcote Williams - Hancock's Last Half Hour

"An imagining of the comedy legend alone in a Sydney hotel room on the day he died, with a book of newspaper cuttings, a telephone and a bottle of vodka for company. In a tour de force performance Richard Briers plays his great comedy hero, Tony Hancock, looking back over the highs and lows of his career. Heathcote Williams's play reveals a comedy genius, tormented by his own desire to improve himself. A desire which overwhelmed him, when he tragically took his own life in June 1968."

Produced by Ned Chaillet for BBC Radio 3 in 1988....

available on i-player - 4 weeks to left to listen ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01glrp3
Edited by Mobson, Oct 31 2014, 12:51 PM.
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Mobson
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The Missing Hancocks: The Matador ....listening live to this right now on R4...started at 11.30am

The Matador. Tony uses Sid's travel agency to book a holiday in Spain, little knowing that Sid also runs a bullfighting business. Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and with the classic score newly recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show stars Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian and Susy Kane.

The Matador was last broadcast in October 1955.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04ly3xv
Edited by Mobson, Oct 31 2014, 11:43 AM.
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AmosBurke
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As expected, The Matador is brill. The cast did a pretty good job of portraying the original cast. Parts of it sounded familiar, but I don't think I've ever heard it, as it went to air 18 months before I was born. Checking, I can confirm some of the jokes re-appeared in The Spanish Interlude from 20/11/59. "The only work Sid can find Hancock is standing in national dress outside various foreign restaurants. Deciding to try fresh fields, they go to Spain, where after an unsuccessful attempt as a night-club comic, Hancock becomes a reluctant bullfighter".

Thanks for the heads-up on Hancock's Last Half Hour. I have a recording of it on cassette from 1988. It's nice to get a CD copy. I didn't find it depressing.

There was a morning of Hancock on BBC Radio 4 Extra this morning (9:00-12:00), with repeat at (19:00):

Fan Steve Punt presents oddities and rarities featuring Tony Hancock:
BBC TV's Face To Face interview with John Freeman (1964)
'Ancock's Anthology - a miscellany of his favourite music, readings and an interview with Stirling Moss, not heard since its original Christmas Day transmission (25/12/1964)
The Missing Page - the Pye Records re-recording, heard for the first time in full on radio (1965)
Educating Archie - starring Archie Andrews and Tony Hancock (19/10/1951)
The first ever episode of Hancock's Half Hour - 'The First Night Party' (02/11/1954)

There is nothing here that I haven't already got, but it was still nice to hear them live. The missing page is one of the best HHHs.
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Mobson
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AmosBurke
Nov 1 2014, 12:00 PM
Thanks for the heads-up on Hancock's Last Half Hour. I have a recording of it on cassette from 1988. It's nice to get a CD copy. I didn't find it depressing.
It's available via the Drama of the Week podcast to keep for posterity Amos...I, or rather my i-tunes, automatically download a selected play weekly - other feeds are available ...Hancock's Half Hour is this week's choice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ptw

Edited by Mobson, Nov 2 2014, 01:12 PM.
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Mobson
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AmosBurke
Nov 1 2014, 12:00 PM
There was a morning of Hancock on BBC Radio 4 Extra this morning (9:00-12:00), with repeat at (19:00):

Fan Steve Punt presents oddities and rarities featuring Tony Hancock:
BBC TV's Face To Face interview with John Freeman (1964)
'Ancock's Anthology - a miscellany of his favourite music, readings and an interview with Stirling Moss, not heard since its original Christmas Day transmission (25/12/1964)
The Missing Page - the Pye Records re-recording, heard for the first time in full on radio (1965)
Educating Archie - starring Archie Andrews and Tony Hancock (19/10/1951)
The first ever episode of Hancock's Half Hour - 'The First Night Party' (02/11/1954)

There is nothing here that I haven't already got, but it was still nice to hear them live. The missing page is one of the best HHHs.
Yep, Steve's a big fan - did a celebrity Mastermind on the subject of Hancock.... anyway I started to listen at 9am but it's three hours long and had to go out!

here's the link, with availability to dip in and out, for the next 4 weeks...

Steve Punt's Hancock Cuttings: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n61gw
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Mobson
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AmosBurke
Oct 30 2014, 01:34 PM
Radio 4 also is transmitting a play Hancock's Ashes by Caroline and David Stafford "Based on a real event. In 1968 Willie Rushton brought Tony Hancock's ashes back to Britain from Australia. This play imagines what might have happened behind the scenes..." http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mgxtg Quite a treat for us Hancock fans.
I enjoyed this imagined play...the dialogue between Willie Rushton and the BOAC airport cargo attendant is classic Hancock ...

Mona the manhater...Lesbian? asks Willy...."No, no we don't have them in Australia" replies Brian Foster, the BOAC attendant
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AmosBurke
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I'm very pleased the the Steve Punt program is on iplayer. I listen to most of it live, but I couldn't record it on my PC and had to resort to the PVR. I reinstalled the PC about 6 months ago and this is was the first time that I'd tried to record live radio and it didn't work. I can move stuff off the PVR to the PC but it is very tedious. I'll can just pull the whole lot of iplayer and chop it up.

The 'Ancocks Anthology was interesting from a technical viewpoint. Rather than just playing the recording, which is held in the BBC archives, they reconstructed the program using this recording and the original LPs. This meant the music was much clearer than on the original tape recording. I'm looking forward to Friday for the next ep of The Missing Hancocks.
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