Hancock's Half Hour

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Hancock’s Half Hour

Titlescreen of the 1957 series 2 TV episode "The Alpine Holiday", featuring a diagramatic illustration of the show's title; the "Hancock" musical motif (composed by Wally Stott), a cartoon of the tuba player, Tony Hancock reading the script and a broadcast clock showing the start and length of the episode.
Genre	Comedy
Running time	30 minutes
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
Home station	BBC
TV adaptations	Hancock's Half Hour (1956–1960) Hancock (1961)
Starring	Tony Hancock Sid James Bill Kerr Kenneth Williams Hattie Jacques Moira Lister Andrée Melly
Written by	Ray Galton and Alan Simpson
Produced by	Dennis Main Wilson Tom Ronald (radio) Duncan Wood (television)
Original release	2 November 1954 – 30 June 1961
No. of series	6 (radio) 7 (television)
No. of episodes	107 (20 missing) (radio) 63 (26 missing) (television)

Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The radio series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James, Bill Kerr and,at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, and Kenneth Williams. The television series also featured Sidney James with regular appearances from John Le Mesurier, Hugh Lloyd, Warren Mitchell, Liz Fraser and Patricia Hayes. In the final television series, renamed simply Hancock, the supporting cast included established actors such as Jack Watling and Patrick Cargill.

Hancock played an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development. The radio version was produced by Dennis Main Wilson for most of its run. After Main Wilson departed for his television career, his role was taken by Tom Ronald. The television series was produced by Duncan Wood. The distinctive tuba-based theme tune was composed by Wally Stott.

Ten scripts (nine TV, one radio) were written but never recorded for a variety of reasons. The unused radio script for The Counterfeiter was finally recorded in 2019 with Kevin R. McNally as Tony Hancock.