Hancock's Half Hour

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	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)
Air dates	2 November 1954 to 30 June 1961
No. of series	6 (radio) 7 (television)
No. of episodes	37/63 exist (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 series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone.

Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing 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.

The radio series broke with the variety tradition which was then dominant in British radio comedy, highlighting a new genre: the sitcom or situation comedy. Instead of the traditional variety mix of sketches, guest stars and musical interludes, the show's humour derived from characters and situations developed in a half-hour storyline. This then relatively novel format, of what was in effect a single sketch each week lasting the entire half-hour (though in the radio version James and the others sometimes played different roles), was reflected in the show's title, which aptly described the series as Hancock's "half-hour".