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Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [DVD] [1961]
 
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Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [DVD] [1961]

DVD ~ Tony Hancock
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.98 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [DVD] [1961] + Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 2 [DVD] + Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 4 [DVD] [1960]
Total RRP: £41.97
Price For All Three: £14.94

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [DVD] [1961]
51% buy the item featured on this page:
Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [DVD] [1961] 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
£4.98
The Tony Hancock BBC Collection (8 Disc Box Set) [DVD]
23% buy
The Tony Hancock BBC Collection (8 Disc Box Set) [DVD] 4.1 out of 5 stars (27)
£24.98
Hancock: The Best Of Hancock [DVD]
13% buy
Hancock: The Best Of Hancock [DVD] 4.1 out of 5 stars (9)
£4.98
Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 4 [DVD] [1960]
8% buy
Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 4 [DVD] [1960] 5.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£4.98
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Product details

  • Actors: Tony Hancock, Sid James, Johnny Vyvyan, Alec Bregonzi, John Vere
  • Directors: Alan Tarrant
  • Producers: Alan Tarrant
  • Format: Black & White, PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: 2 Entertain Video
  • DVD Release Date: 13 Sep 2004
  • Run Time: 193 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0002CH8YW
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 25,207 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Synopsis
Thirty-five years after his premature death in 1968 Tony Hancock was voted Britain's best-ever comedy performer. Here's a chance to see what made him so special - the surviving episodes from Series 2 and Series 3 of Hancock's Half Hour, plus a Christmas special. Episodes include: "The Alpine Holiday", "Air Steward Hancock", "The Last Of The Many", "The Lawyer: The Crown vs Sidney James", "Competitions: How To Win Money And Influence People" and "There's An Airfield At The Bottom Of My Garden". The Christmas special is "Hancock's Forty-Three Minutes: The East Cheam Repertory Company".

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars HA HA HANCOCK'S LONG AWAITED HALF HOUR'S on dvd, 14 Sep 2004
The impact that tony hancock has had on british comedy can never be understated , his bbc radio shows alone , attracting some of the largest listening figures during the mid to late fifties before hancock made the transition to televison in 1956 .
Here at last on dvd , are some of the first HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR television programms originally transmitted in 1957 including a
' hancock's forty-three minutes 1957 christmas special ' this vol.1 captures hancock's genius right at the very beginning of his telivison career , his comic acting complimenting Ray galton and alan simpson's superb scripts , the dvd highlights tony hancock's unique comic talent for which he should be best rememberd ( his personal turmoil late in his career already well documented ) and the bbc should hold there head in shame that it has taken them so long to release this follow up dvd to ' the best of hancock ' released a few years previously.
Fantastic archive comedy from the east cheam maestro ... roll on vol.2
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb survivals from Hancock's early Half-Hours, 2 Jun 2005
By James Hayes "JM Hayes" (Herts., UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
At last! After the complete radio 'Hancock's Half-Hour's on CD, the DVD equivalent of the television series was a logical progression. These shows are important, not only because they provide the earliest extant examples of Hancock's genius gracing the small screen (and in those days it *was* a small screen), but also as a record of the kind of presentation TV viewers experienced in the late 1950s. Given the technical limitations of the times, and the BBC's habit of junking old material, it's something of a miracle that so many telly 'Half-Hour's exist.

'Hancock's Half-Hour Volume One' from BBC Worldwide contains the earliest surviving shows: one from the 2nd Series, five from the 3rd Series - all transmitted in 1957. The high quality of the Galton and Simpson scripts, and the lead performances, goes without saying. Hancock and sidekick Sid James already have the partnership basics established, although at this stage James' character is framed as genial crook-cum-con man, and the more matey tempo of later shows has yet to evolve.

Superb support comes from Hancock's 'repertory company' - Dick Emery, John Le Mesurier, Johnny Vyvyan, and the wonderfully indignant John Vere. Hancock's radio co-star Kenneth Williams also appears in one show - the only surviving TV incarnation of his famous 'Snide' character.

The quality of the recordings is, unsurprisingly, iffy by modern standards, but we are lucky to see anything at all. All these shows were originally performed as broadcast live; there are a few fluffs, but these only add to the charm of the proceedings.

Included on this DVD is a 'Special' - 'Hancock's Forty-Three Minutes' - a Christmas variety programme hosted by Hancock and Sid James, and guest-starring John Gregson. This is sneakily billed as a DVD extra, but it is actually the last outing of the 3rd Series. Indeed, the main carp about this DVD is the dearth of genuine extras. For instance, BBC-TV produced a profile of Hancock in 1985 that would have served as a perfect introduction here.

The episode 'There's An Airfield at the Bottom of My Garden' is notorious because of prop failures that left Hancock struggling to hold the plot and action together. This is explained in Roger Wilmut's 'Hancock Companion' book, so many Hancock fans will know about it; but to anyone unaware of what's happening, it just looks like rather erratic acting. So background information to this episode would have been welcomed by Hancock anoraks - or should that be 'astrakhans'? Nonetheless, this DVD is a must for students of classic British comedy - buy, buy, buy!

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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars At last the REAL best of Hancock..., 10 Sep 2004
Rather like the way in which "The Deadly Attachment" episode of DAD'S ARMY is elevated to classic status purely for the "don't tell him, Pike" line (when it is in fact one of the lesser episodes of that great series), so too is Hancock's "The Blood Donar" lauded for it's "armful" gag. The fact is that "The Blood Donar", like a lot of the episodes from Hancock's final BBC series, show him offering a stilted performance and suffering from the absence of Sid James (a hero of mine!). To see what made Hancock so good it's far better to look at these earlier shows and see honest-to-goodness GENIUS at work. The timing, the everyman resignation, the sad/indignant impression, all receive far better showings in the earlier episodes presented here.
Although stars of the radio show, Bill Kerr and Hattie Jacques never crossed over to the television medium, but Hancock still has the perfect foil with the presence of Sid. Although early on Sid was still the "shady twister" of the early radio shows, he later develops into a genuinely warm and credible friend for Tony. Hancock's desire to go it alone saw Sid (amicably) leave before the final series and in my opinion, Hancock lost far more than he knew.
It's sad that the BBC destoyed so many of these gems (as they did with a lot of black and white DOCTOR WHO episodes) but it's nice to see them attempting to release all the material they have left (even if the first season is represented by a single episode!)
THE ALPINE HOLIDAY features the only (I think) appearance of Kenneth Williams in the tv series (adopting his "Snide" persona of course!) and also look out for the scenes in THERE'S AN AIRFIELD AT THE BOTTOM OF MY GARDEN when the set begins to fall apart (earlier than planned) and Hancock & guest star Dick Emery have to improvise their way through the chaos. Time to wheel out the tired old cliche "They don't make 'em like this anymore", but use it with absolute and utter conviction. At his peak, Hancock was THE greatest comedian/comedy actor that this country produced - Partnered with Sid James he was unstopable and with episodes like THE MISSING PAGE and THE POISON PEN LETTERS (two of my favourites) still to be released, the best is yet to come.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pioneering sitcom
At last we can see the surviving Hancock's Half Hour TV episodes in the original broadcast order.

Galton & Simpson along with Hancock and the rest of the cast produced the... Read more

Published on 24 Jun 2005 by justthebook

5.0 out of 5 stars What more can be said?
Back in 1985, here in Australia, 6 video cassettes each with 3 episodes of Hancock's Half Hour were released. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2004 by Robert Morris

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