BBC TV Series 7
Rebranded as Hancock, this series was broadcast between May 26 and June 30, 1961. The series comprised six episodes, all of which survive in the BBC archive. The series was broadcast weekly on Fridays at 8pm and each episode ran for 25 minutes rather than the half hour running time of episodes in the previous series. There were no repeats during the run.
Regular cast comprised Tony Hancock with the main cast members detailed under each individual episode below.
First broadcast May 26, 1961
(with Michael Aspel)
Hancock is alone in his Earl’s Court bedsit and tries to master a Bertrand Russell book, fails to get the TV to work and almost gets invited to a party.
First broadcast June 2, 1961
(with Brian Oulton, Constance Chapman, Meadows White, Peter Glaze, Alec Bregonzi, Gwenda Ewan, Ralph Wilson, Patrick Cargill, William Sherwood, Victor Platt, Hugh Lloyd, Bruno Barnabe and Dennis Chinnery)
Hancock plays the part of Old Joshua Merryweather in the radio show The Bowmans (which sounds rather similar to The Archers). But his behaviour and the number of different dialects that he uses causes him to be thrown off the show. But public opinion demands his return to the show so Hancock returns – but he demands a few changes!
First broadcast June 9, 1961
(with Bernard Peake, Annie Leake, Edwin Richfield, Bernard Hunter, Andrew Faulds, John Bluthal, Geoffrey Matthews, Honor Shepherd and Geoffrey Lewis)
Hancock has bought himself a radio transmitter and is able to converse with remote parts of the world, discussing the weather and playing games of Snakes and Ladders and chess. But when Hancock receives a Mayday call he has to contend with the landlady’s husband and uncooperative electricity meters!
First broadcast June 16, 1961
(with Charles Lloyd Pack, Diana King, Jack Watling, John Le Mesurier, Noel Howlett, Colin Gordon, Jose Reed, Hugh Lloyd, William Sherwood, Ralph Wilson and James Fitzgerald)
Hancock is the ninth passenger in a lift design to take eight. When the lift sticks he tries to raise everybody’s spirits but manages to annoy all of the other passengers.
First broadcast June 23, 1961
(with June Whitfield, Patrick Cargill, Peggy Ann Clifford, Hugh Lloyd, Anne Marryott, Jean Marlow, Frank Thornton and James Ottoway)
Hancock decides to give a pint of blood. But he is alarmed when he discovers he has to give very nearly an armful… and he is determined to find who it goes to!
First broadcast June 30, 1961
(with Myrtle Reed, June Whitfield and Gwenda Ewan)
Hancock decides that it’s time to have children to ‘carry on the line’. He selects three eligible girls and proposes to all of them but is refused. Whilst he is still arguing with the third, the other two return, having changed their minds.