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He was born in Birmingham, England, but raised in Bournemouth where his mother and step-father ran a small hotel. He was educated at a boarding school in Swanage and Bradfield College, Berkshire. He left school aged 15. In 1942 he joined the RAF Regiment and following a failed audition for ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association) ended up with The Ralph Reader Gang Show. Following the war he gained regular radio work in shows like Workers' Playtime and Variety Bandbox, and in 1951 he gained a part in Educating Archie, where he played the tutor and foil to the real star, a ventriloquist's dummy. Here he developed a catchphrase - "flippin' kids" - that was to earn him real recognition. In 1954 he was granted his own BBC radio show: Hancock's Half Hour.
Working with scripts from Ray Galton and Alan SimpsonRay Galton OBE (born 1930) and Alan Simpson OBE (born 1929) are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a Tuberculosis sanatorium in London. They are best known for writing Hancock's Half Hour for Tony Hancock on radio between 1954 and 1959, and on telev the show lasted for five years and over a hundred episodes, featuring Sid JamesSid James ( May 8, 1913 April 26, 1976) was a film and television actor. Sid James (Sidney Joel Cohen) was born in Natal in South Africa. During World War II, he was enlisted in an entertainment unit, and subsequently took up acting as a career. He came t, Bill KerrBill Kerr (born 1922) is an actor. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Australia. During the 1940s he was regularly featured in the BBC variety series Variety Bandbox''. His catch phrase was "I'm only here for 4 minutes. He is perhaps b, Kenneth WilliamsKenneth Charles Williams ( February 22, 1926 April 15, 1988) was a British comic actor, star of over twenty Carry On. films and notable radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as a witty raconteur on a wide range of subjects. Life and and over the years Moira Lister and Hattie JacquesJosephine Edwina Jacques ( February 7, 1922 October 6, 1980), better known by the stage name Hattie Jacques was a comedy actress. Hattie Jacques is best remembered for her numerous appearances in Hancock's Half Hour and the Carry On films, and for her lon. Examples of the radio programmes may be heard on the digital radio stationA radio station is a site configured for broadcasting sound. Traditionally, radio stations have broadcast through the air via radio waves (a form of electromagnetic radiation), sent through a transmitter and antenna. Today, many if not most stations broad BBC 7Radio stations 7 BBC 7 is a digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's vast archive of spoken-word entertainment. Programmes qualify for broadcast on B each Tuesday, for instance on-line at 19:30 London time (=GMT during the winter months) at the official BBC7 site.
Hancock's television career as star began in 1956, innitially on ITV, but it was the BBC-TV version of Hancock's Half Hour (later Hancock) that established him in the medium.
The classic Hancock characterisation referred to himself as "Anthony Aloysius StJohn Hancock" - being a larger-than-life version of Hancock's real self. In rhe TV series the regular cast was reduced to Hancock and James, allowing the humour to come from the interaction of the two men. James was the realist of the two, but also more of a Jack the lad type who would puncture Hancock's pretensions. Hancock was to become anxious that his work with James was turning them in to a double act, and the last BBC series in 1961 was without James. Despite the contemporary criticism of Hancock, many consider this to contain the best of Hancock's BBC work.
Two of the episodes of Hancock's last BBC television series are probably his best remembered work. The Blood Donor , in which he goes to a clinic to give bloodDefinition Blood transfusion is the taking of blood or blood-based products from one individual and inserting them into the circulatory system of another. It can be considered a form of organ transplant. Blood transfusions may treat medical conditions, su. This contains classic lines such as, "A pint? Why, that's very nearly an armful!" (The doctor's response: "You won't have an empty arm...or an empty anything!") Another well-known episode is The Radio Ham, in which Hancock plays a ham radio enthusiast who receives a mayday call from a ship in distress, but his incompetence prevents him from taking its position. Both of these episodes were later re-recorded for a commercial 1961 LP in the style of radio episodes, and these versions have been continuously available ever since. The original TV versions have since been released as part of VHS and DVD compilations, and the soundtracks have also (a little confusingly) been released on CD.
Shortly before recording the original version of "The Blood Donor" Hancock was involved in a minor car accident. He was not badly hurt, but his confidence was shaken and he was unable to learn his lines, with the result that the recording was made with Hancock using teleprompters (TV monitors displaying the relevant sections of script) so that he could read the lines instead. Hancock came to rely on teleprompters instead of learning scripts whenever he had career difficulties.