The Radio Ham
The bittersweet comic genius of Tony Hancock made him one of Britain’s biggest stars during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Scripted by the prolific Galton and Simpson, his hugely influential radio show Hancock's Half Hour lasted for five years and over a hundred episodes, spawning a successful television series. The show pioneered the development of situation comedy, deriving its humour from the characters responses to everyday life rather than the variety format then dominant in broadcasting. Each week the streets were reported to empty as families gathered together to catch the latest episode. Several shows were instant classics, including ‘The Radio Ham’. As ever, Hancock plays a spectacularly exaggerated version of his own character, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. ‘Tiring, this radio lark’. #