Hancock's Half Hour Page 10

Anyone remember the episode with the un-exploaded bomb?
I really love the bit when Hancock says something like "it's not a bomb, I know what it is, I've seen Quatermass"
A reference to the TV sci-fi series I think it was the Quatermass Experiment.

Quatermass and the Pit. :)

Quatermass Experiment was I think the first in line, the Pit came later. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quatermass_Experiment

Browsing a 1960 Radio Times and came across this for April 8th. No prizes for saying what the episode is..............

Image

Is it the Television Ham?

DOH! >_<

Not vintage Hancock IMO.
There's a typical Tony line which goes something like :
" We don't look like babysitters? And what do babysitters look like? Did Rembrandt look like a musician? Of course she didn't."

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th June 2017, 11:50 AM

I know I have said this many times but I will NEVER tire especially of "Sunday Afternoon at Home". Sheer classic. Sheer magic.

...which is next Wednesday's (5 July) episode on Radio 4 Extra (08:30, 12:30 & 19:30).

Thanks for that BB - personally I have a couple of tapes I have nearly worn out of it, but IF there any Hancock fans out there that have never listened to it - give it an airing!! For me I have one BIG grin on my face every time I listen to it and never fail to laugh out loud at the "classic" bits, with a perfect encapsulation of a late 1950s Sunday in the UK, by Ray & Alan.

Keywords :-

The fluidity of Gravy
Playing the Piano
Monopoly
Sunday cinema
How to carry a pair of gloves
Bird impersonations
Inking in the letters on a newspaper
Seeing faces in the wallpaper
Clocks going forward
Etc., etc...................

All culminating in utter ennui. And to think the BBC didn't think it would make a good episode........................

"If we had a dog we could take him for a walk..." Unimpressed

Seeing the Hancock thread reminds me of a job I was on just a few years ago on a posh new housing development down the road in rural Surrey. I was aware the place had been somewhere in the area but didn't know exactly where until I was chatting to the house owner who casually told me his lovely new house was built on a demolished wing of the old sanatorium where G&S wrote Hancock and other BBC radio material. It was a long chat and I was very happy in my work that day, standing in the beautiful silence of the clearing trying to hear the misty banter echoing from sixty years since. I left suggesting the private estate put up a plaque commemorating it. I must remember to saunter back down there and see if I was listened to, hmm...

That was at least the 2nd time my work had brought me to a hallowed place of comedy history. While surveying a trench on another posh development in Teddington, I didn't even know I was in Teddington, I just knew it was TW something, when a paddy suddenly diddled out a familiar old tune, da da da da da da da de de de dee... 'Is it Friday already?' I queried the jovial Mick, 'Where's the local?' 'No' chirps he, 'but do you see that big ol' tree over dare. - Yeah. - 'Preservation order, driving the developer mad it is, can't touch the thing or build near it, know why? - Er no, why? - 'Cos of some scanty clad young women being chased around it...to this tune, da da da etc.' I nearly pissed myself with excitement and got my measurements all wrong. Wow, cheers for that Paddy, life is a wonderful ting sometimes.:)Geek:)

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 7th July 2017, 11:27 PM

Seeing the Hancock thread reminds me of a job I was on just a few years ago on a posh new housing development down the road in rural Surrey. I was aware the place had been somewhere in the area but didn't know exactly where until I was chatting to the house owner who casually told me his lovely new house was built on a demolished wing of the old sanatorium where G&S wrote Hancock and other BBC radio material. It was a long chat and I was very happy in my work that day, standing in the beautiful silence of the clearing trying to hear the misty banter echoing from sixty years since. I left suggesting the private estate put up a plaque commemorating it. I must remember to saunter back down there and see if I was listened to, hmm...

The British Comedy Society erected a plaque on the hospital in 2013.

Image

Not the best of photos (not blaming you Aaron :)), so that's Ray and Alan seated with Paul Merton unveiling and here's a better view of the wording:-

Image

Well blow me down! :O And well done there indeed.

The Benny Hill site was a hospital as well, I'm pretty sure the main building was listed as was the tree. I think they were converting the old hospital into flats. So how about getting a plaque put up there, preferably on the tree? From memory I think it had a circular wooden bench around it but don't know if still there or not, I was only there for a day. But the tree certainly should be unless someone appealed the order and got it down, I do hope not! I'd be happy to pay or contribute for a plaque being made if that was an issue, lemme know, because that show and that particular scene gave me and many others so much pleasure. Might need to google that one later, hmm.

BTW great to see G&S together there and obviously taken back to those days where it all began, by complete chance, a stroke of fate, both quite ill with TB and finding a shared interest and a shared talent in comedy, helped by the clean air of Hascombe and an old valve wireless they hardly ever turned off apparently. Deserves a TV bio drama if not already been done, oh yes. That's where they developed their famous writing method, one of them, I think Galton, lying on the floor with his eyes shut, Simpson at the writing desk bouncing ideas off Galton and jotting down whatever they came up with. Glory!

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 8th July 2017, 1:17 PM

Well blow me down! :O And well done there indeed.

The Benny Hill site was a hospital as well, I'm pretty sure the main building was listed as was the tree. I think they were converting the old hospital into flats. So how about getting a plaque put up there, preferably on the tree? From memory I think it had a circular wooden bench around it but don't know if still there or not, I was only there for a day. But the tree certainly should be unless someone appealed the order and got it down, I do hope not! I'd be happy to pay or contribute for a plaque being made if that was an issue, lemme know, because that show and that particular scene gave me and many others so much pleasure. Might need to google that one later, hmm.

We do actually have one for Benny, on his former home in South Ken.

http://tinyurl.com/y87alrmw

Full list: https://www.comedy.co.uk/british_comedy_society/plaques/

Always happy to consider new subjects and locations, of course...

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 8th July 2017, 1:17 PM

Deserves a TV bio drama if not already been done, oh yes.

Get Well Soon was broadcast in 1997 and is available on DVD.