1978-1985

This release from 1978 was a two record set of which the first record was stated as being ‘free’. This first ‘free’ record featured recordings from Ron Goodwin’s early years whilst the second record featured music from films, including the montage of tracks from Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machine

Release Date: 1978 
Catalog No:   TWOSP108

Back to the BBC, this release (in 1979) included extracts from a number of shows that had featured in the Radio One Programme ‘Fun At One’. The artists featured were not the usual line up featured on BBC compilations and included Woody Allen, Shelley Berman and The Bickersons alongside The Glums, Ronnie Barker and Round The Horne. The Tony Hancock extract was a 4 ¬Ω minute segment from The Blood Donor starting from the moment Hancock goes in to see the Doctor

Release Date:  
Catalog No:   REB371 (record ZCF371 (tape)

Other than This Is Hancock in 1960, this was the first release of complete radio half hours and was the real start of the BBC’s archive release programme. Released in 1980, the shows on this release were Sid’s Mystery Tours and The Poetry Society and were the most complete versions available in the archive at the time. However, similarly to The Lift from 1976, no incidental music was included.

Release Date: 1980
Catalog No:   REB394 (record) ZCF394 (cassette)

The second LP from this new series was released in 1981 and featured The Americans Hit Town and The Unexploded Bomb. Incidental music was again missing but both shows were otherwise complete.

Release Date: 1981
Catalog No:   REB423 (Record) ZCF423 (Cassette)

Released on the Ronco label in 1981, this double LP release featured 31 extracts from a wide range of comedians, including Rowan Atkinson, Monty Python, Billy Connolly and Not The Nine O’Clock News from the then current crop of talent and Joyce Grenfell, The Goons and Benny Hill with older recordings. The Tony Hancock extract was a 3 Minute extract from the Blood Donor starting from when Hancock goes in to see the Doctor.

Release Date: 1981
Catalog No:   RTD2067 (Record) 4CRTD2067 (Cassette)

Released in 1981 on the budget ‘Music For Pleasure’ label, this double album was a re-release of the 1966 album Adventure and the 1961 album Serenade. Included are Miss Marple’s Theme, 633 Squadron Theme from The Trap. The Hancock related track is entitled Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines but this is not just the title track but a series of extracts from the various themes throughout the film

Release Date: 1981 
Catalog No:   MFP 1025 LP  MFP TCMFP1025 Cassette

Released in 1982, this album featured extracts from a number of releases available at the time and included a booklet advertising what was available. As can be seen, the Hancock releases featured were Unique Hancock, Hancock, The Poetry Society/Sid’s Mystery Tours and The Americans Hit Town/The Unexploded Bomb. The 14 extracts featured on the ‘Laughing Stock’ album included Yes Minister, The Goons and Hoffnung. There were two extracts from Hancock: a 2 minute extract from the very beginning of ‘Almost A Gentleman’ and a 4 Minute extract from ‘The Americans Hit Town’, starting from the moment when Kenneth, inspects 23 Railway Cuttings.

Release Date: 1982
Catalog No:   LAF1 (Record) ZCLAF 1 (Cassette)

The third LP from this series was released in 1982 and featured The Scandal Magazine and The Last of The McHancocks. Incidental music was again missing but both shows were otherwise complete.

Release Date: 1982
Catalog No:   REB451 (record) ZCF451 (cassette)

This LP was released in 1982 to celebrate 50 years of BBC external broadcasting and bears the strap-line ’50 years of Broadcasting To The World’. Released on the BBC label, the superb LP is narrated by Leo McKern and features extracts from news, sports and World service programmes throughout the 50-year period. It contains 66 tracks and includes everything from the wedding of Prince Charles and the 1966 World Cup final to wartime broadcasts by Churchill, the announcement of D Day and VE Day as well as extracts from Hancock’s Half Hour, ITMA and The Goon Show. These are included in this celebration of external broadcasting due to the programmes being made available to overseas radio stations through the Transcription Services issues. The Hancock extract lasts for about 1 minute and features Hancock announcing that he intends to emigrate. The extract is from the radio show ‘The Emigrant’. This LP does not bear a ‘normal’ catalogue number; rather its number is 1932-1982 being the period covered by the LP. I wonder what Hancock would have made of being included on an LP with Churchill!!

Release Date:  1982
Catalog No:

The fourth LP in the series was released in 1983 and featured The Sleepless Night and Fred’s Pie Stall. Once again incidental music was missing but both shows were otherwise complete.

Release Date: 1983
Catalog No:   REB485 (record) ZCF485 (cassette)

The final release in this series came in 1984, which made 5 releases in as many years; the greatest number of different shows released up to that time. This release featured Hancock’s War and The Christmas Club Handout and, again, did not feature any incidental music.

Release Date: 1984
Catalog No:   REB526 (record) ZCF526 (cassette)

Also released in 1985 was this album on the Homburg Production / Castellon Enterprises label by James Gaskin. It is a tribute to Tony and is a pastiche of the Hancock character. Side 1 is Hancock’s Heavenly Half Hour and side 2 Hancock’s Hellish Half Hour.

Release Date: 1985
Catalog No:   HOM1

This cassette was issued in 1985 and was a promotional release for British Rail’s Red Star Parcel Service. Starring Trevor Bannister, the scene is that Hancock has set himself up in opposition to Red Star but he is having trouble with his trained carrier pigeons.  The Society has not managed to track down a copy of this cassette so no image is available.  If anyone can provide the Soicety with a copy of the artwork or an original cassette, please contact our archivist.  Please see the ‘Contact us’ section of the website.  A recording of this promotional release is available to hear on You Tube here.

Release Date: 1985
Catalog No:

Released on the Dead Bird label to commemorate Alan Freeman’s retirement from Pye Records (Alan was one of the joint founders of Pye Records), this single sided 12″ record featured specially recorded extracts from Tony Hatch, Peter Sellers and others. The Tony Hancock extracts all came from the shows released on Pye records (The Blood Donor and The Test Pilot sequence) plus extracts from the specially recorded segments from ‘Pieces of Hancock’. However, the extracts were broken up into small sections and interspersed with newly recorded additional commentary to make them relevant to Alan Freeman. So, for example, the comments in The Test Pilot saying how fast the aircraft can travel were made to relate to the speed of Alan’s driving! An unusual record, which wasn’t commercially released.

Release Date:  
Catalog No:  DBL007

Throughout the 1980s, the Saudi Arabian label Quality 747 Variety released bootleg copies of official releases of many artists, often with different artwork to the original release, although the Hancock releases all bore copies of the original artwork.  Issued on cassette only, these releases have become collectors’ items, especially among collectors keen on collecting unofficial bootlegs.

There were five Tony Hancock cassettes issued:

5178: The World of Tony Hancock. Featuring original artwork, this release comprised The Missing Page and The Reuniuon Party

5179: Hancock’s Half Hour: A straight copy of the BBC album featuring The Scandal Magazine and The Last of the McHancocks with original artwork

5180: Hancock’s Half Hour: This featured the original artwork of the BBC album but, in addition to The Americans Hit Town and The Unexploded Bomb, the cassette features a further track called ‘One Life’ attrinuted to The Goons

5181: Hancock’s Half Hour: Another straight copy of the BBC Album featuring Hancock’s War and The Christmas Club but with the latter track listed as ‘The Club’

5182: Hancock’s Half Hour: This cassette was a copy of the BBC album featuring Sid’s Mystery Tours and The Poetry Society.  The cassette had the same artwork as the BBC release but included the additional Peter Sellers’s solo track ‘Fullers Earth’, which was attributed to the Goons on the sleeve, but was actually from a Peter Sellers EP called The Two Peters, which also featured Peter Ustinov on the other side.

No Quality 747 Variety release of the other BBC Hancock’s Half Hour album (Fred’s Pie Stall and The Sleepless Night) has been discovered.  Please let us know if this exists.

Dates of Release Unknown