Hancock resurrected

[ardcarp]

I am probably a Hancock heretic, but I don't find the show funny and I didn't first time around either. I wonder if some adherent of H's Half Hour would try and explain the magic? It ends for me after that tuba solo......

[Petrushka]

Humour is a very personal thing. I watched the Blood Donor last weekend for the first time in many years and still found it hilarious. Monty Python left me cold but my brother loved it (and still does).

Trying to explain the appeal of humour is like trying to explain a Picasso painting to a blind man.

[cloughie]

Humour is a very personal thing. I watched the Blood Donor last weekend for the first time in many years and still found it hilarious. Monty Python left me cold but my brother loved it (and still does).

Trying to explain the appeal of humour is like trying to explain a Picasso painting to a blind man.

..and how much 21st Century humour - shows and sitcoms - have really been funny! Anyone else been less than amused by the constant recycling of the same 'comedians'. I still enjoy the long running R4 I'm sorry... and Just a Minute and I like 'would I lie to you' which in format is very much like 'Call my Bluff'. On the whole humour has become too crude and nasty and much of it not very funny! Yes I did like Hancock but often Bill Kerr had the best lines!

[amateur51]

It's all about the synergy between Galton & Simpson's scripts and Hancock's verbal dexterity, something that The Lad grew to realise too late, sadly.

IMHO, of course

[cloughie]

It's all about the synergy between Galton & Simpson's scripts and Hancock's verbal dexterity, something that The Lad grew to realise too late, sadly.

IMHO, of course

Spot on, ams!

[Ferretfancy]

It was a great pioneer in the development of what has become a favourite type of English humour, namely the pricking of pretension. Hancock's bombast and self importance was in a direct line to Captain Mainwaring and others. The Hancock radio shows were also miracles of comic timing. I used to watch them standing around a microphone at the Playhouse, scripts in hand, and if I shut my eyes I could be in East Cheam!

[amateur51]

It's so sad to watch him reading his lines from huge cardboard signs off-camera. He'd given up learning the lines, either because of the booze and pills or because of hubris about his 'talent', who knows? The fall was rather swift and unpleasant to watch.

[amateur51]

It was a great pioneer in the development of what has become a favourite type of English humour, namely the pricking of pretension. Hancock's bombast and self importance was in a direct line to Captain Mainwaring and others. The Hancock radio shows were also miracles of comic timing. I used to watch them standing around a microphone at the Playhouse, scripts in hand, and if I shut my eyes I could be in East Cheam!

Great memories ferret - many thanks

[LeMartinPecheur]

It's all about the synergy between Galton & Simpson's scripts and Hancock's verbal dexterity, something that The Lad grew to realise too late, sadly.

IMHO, of course

In The Blood Donor just the way he says "AB rhesus negative" is an acting master-class in itself

[gurnemanz]

I am probably a Hancock heretic, but I don't find the show funny and I didn't first time around either. I wonder if some adherent of H's Half Hour would try and explain the magic? It ends for me after that tuba solo......

The remakes were well done - not vintage scripts for me, but worth the effort. First time around (1950s), I was a child and can remember Hancock being one of the few things on the radio I really loved (along with Goons, Journey into Space). I remember enjoying the Kenneth Williams "Stop messing about" character. It is to the credit of the writers that as an adult I came to find them for the most part equally brilliant. When teaching English in Germany in the 70s, I used an LP of audio extracts + transcripts as teaching aids.

Why, that's very nearly an armful.
Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?
To waste one second of one's life is a betrayal of one's self! I wonder what's on television?
What a nice man....... He's walked of with my wine gums!
I thought my mother’s cooking was bad, but at least her gravy used to move about a bit.

[amateur51]

In The Blood Donor just the way he says "AB rhesus negative" is an acting master-class in itself

I agree but I think that like, surprisingly, Laurence Olivier, he had a tendency to look too deeply into the workings. When Olivier did his corked-up Othello (I think), people told him that he was wonderful. His response was something like "I know I was, but how do I do it?"

That way madness lies.

[johncorrigan]

I agree but I think that like, surprisingly, Laurence Olivier, he had a tendency to look too deeply into the workings. When Olivier did his corked-up Othello (I think), people told him that he was wonderful. His response was something like "I know I was, but how do I do it?"

That way madness lies.

'Where's that stiff upper lip?'
'Oooh! Just above this flabby chin'.

Reminds me of the delights of Uncle Mac and Saturday mornings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUS9htHp580

[kernelbogey]

I was a child and can remember Hancock being one of the few things on the radio I really loved (along with Goons, Journey into Space)

I'd almost forgotten about Journey Into Space. I just looked it up in Wikipedia where there is an article about it of mind-numbing detail. Wasn't there also a Dan Dare series on Radio Luxembourg?

[Don Petter]

I'd almost forgotten about Journey Into Space. I just looked it up in Wikipedia where there is an article about it of mind-numbing detail.

Tut, tut. You'll be forgetting about Horace Bachelor and his Famous Infra-Draw Method next.

[Department One, Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M, Bristol]

[kernelbogey]

Tut, tut. You'll be forgetting about Horace Bachelor and his Famous Infra-Draw Method next.

[Department One, Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M, Bristol]

I'll never forget Horace. (Wonder if his method worked, though?)