Hancock s Half Hour Collectibles: Volume 1: Rarities from the BBC radio archive

Roy Galton

ISBN 10: 178529816X / ISBN 13: 9781785298165

Published by BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House, 2018

About this Item

2018. Unabridged. Audio CD. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781785298165

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Hancock s Half Hour Collectibles: Volume 1: Rarities from the BBC radio archive
• Publisher: BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178529816X
• ISBN 13: 9781785298165
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A fascinating collection of rare and remastered broadcast material starring Tony Hancock, Sid James and others. This first volume features the recently discovered soundtrack of "The Horror Serial", a television episode of Hancock's Half Hour from 1959, plus remastered versions of the following radio shows: "The Blackboard Jungle", "The Student Prince" and "The Test Match". Also included are previously unreleased editions of Variety Bandbox, Calling All Forces and Educating Archie, all featuring Tony Hancock, and a host of rare archive interviews with the lad 'imself. From 1964, 'Ancock's Anthology finds Tony Hancock interviewing Stirling Moss. This collection is a must for fans of Tony Hancock and Hancock's Half Hour. Duration: 5 hours approx.

About the Author

Ray Galton and Alan Simpson met in a sanatorium in Surrey, where they were both being treated for TB. Ray Galton remembers noticing the six-foot-four Simpson and thinking he looked surprisingly large - ‘you expect everyone in a sanatorium to be thin and weedy, and he was the biggest guy I’d ever seen’. During two years in the same ward, they listened to comedy shows together and also wrote a series of their own, creating a radio room in a linen cupboard. Having left the sanatorium within a few months of each other, they decided to get a professional opinion of their work and sent a sketch they had written called The Pirate Sketch to the BBC . They were asked to go in for an interview, and soon found themselves writing for the sketch show Happy Go Lucky. Over the next two years they continued to write sketches for a number of big names, before coming up with the idea for Hancock’s Half Hour. Although the BBC took some persuading, eventually the show was scheduled, initially for radio but later as a television series. A phenomenally successful ten years later, Galton and Simpson were themselves very well known names. After Hancock’s Half Hour they wrote Comedy Playhouse for the BBC, out of which came their second huge television and radio hit, Steptoe & Son. In 1977 they wrote The Galton & Simpson Playhouse, produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV.