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Fifty Years Of Hancock's Half Hour
Fifty Years Of Hancock's Half Hour
Sep 30, 2024 1:24 PM

Author:Richard Webber

Fifty Years Of Hancock's Half Hour

Many people consider Tony Hancock to be the finest comic actor of them all. November 2004 sees the 50th anniversary of his best-loved work, Hancock's Half-Hour, which began as a radio series, penned by the writers Galton and Simpson. Two years later, the first of 58 TV instalments had been screened, and Hancock's genius, coupled with Galton and Simpson's brilliant scripts, ensured that the show soon became a yardstick against which all subsequent British sitcoms have since been measured.

Amazingly, no book has ever been written about the show.

Fully authorised by Galton and Simpson, Fifty Years of Hancock's Half-Hour is a full history of the show, including how the show came about, behind-the-scenes stories from Hancock's fellow artists and members of the crew and production team, and the story of its demise. Incorporating extracts from the shows, the book will also feature photographs and a full listing of the radio and TV episodes.

Reviews

Fans of the "lad himself" will lap up the minutiae in this biography... full of gems.

—— The Independent

A timely tribute to a wonderful group of people who, for 50 years, have made a nation laugh.

—— Sunday Express

The Pistols’ story, retold refreshingly and with added rumpage … What’s special about this book is its story arc, which will make the most hardened punk well up … A poignant, honest, drily humorous rump-fest from a lost soul found.

—— Mojo

[An] absolute riot of revelation…[Jones] owns up to his failings with a colourful candour that is moving.

—— Neil McCormick , Telegraph

It can be harrowing, hilarious, and often touching, but above all, Lonely Boy is life-affirming. Thank you, Steve Jones.

—— Sex-pistols.net

[A] bloody good story … Though ghosted, Steve Jones’ own voice speaks loud and clear throughout Lonely Boy, a brutally honest … and level-headed memoir.

—— Record Collector

Raucously funny.

—— Uncut

A classic tale made fresh.

—— Ransom Note

Lonely Boy is unique amongst rock star memoirs: Jones is the real deal.

—— Esquire

Gem.

—— The Spectator

Frank and engaging.

—— The Beat

Perhaps I've been biased by a forty-year devotion to the Pistols, but having just turned its final page, Lonely Boy only seems like the best book since The Bible.

—— Classic Rock

An enthralling, engaging human story: harrowing, hilarious and often touching, but above all, life-affirming.

—— Vive Le Rock

Eminently readable.

—— TeamRock

One of the best autobiographies I have ever read

—— On: Yorkshire Magazine

This first-hand account from the band’s guitarist captures the significance of the band through his own eyes, but also delves deep into his difficult childhood. Jones is a one-off: hilarious, eccentric, painfully honest and 100% Lahndahn.

—— TeamRock

Defiantly populist ... Dominic Sandbrook zestfully charts the route that has taken Britain from 'workshop of the world' to 'cultural superpower' ... as Sandbrook rightly insists, 'we still live in the shadow of the Victorians

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

Brilliant.

—— A N Wilson , The Tablet

An engaging and very accessible history book about our modern artistic achievements that, provocatively, also debunks some of the very icons it praises.

—— Simon Copeland , The Sun

I loved this book about British culture, partly because there's so much in it, and partly because of the brilliant way the author joins the dots ... Sandbrook gets us thinking about cinema, art, country houses, Tolkein, Doctor Who, and, superbly, much more.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

An entertaining trawl through British culture ... [Sandbrook] has produced a book that is not only thoroughly enjoyable to read, but also crammed with as many serious insights as a shelf of academic studies

—— The Times

It's a great premise, and I dived into, and splashed around in, this book gleefully at first. Here were lucid and often amusing expositions on the work of Lennon and McCartney, Ian Fleming, JRR Tolkien, Christie ... in his books on Britain in the 1950s and 60s, Sandbrook has covered some of this ground before. But he doesn't repeat himself, and his scope is wider than heretofore - he notices, for instance, how ingrained Charles Dickens's influence is, still, in popular entertainment ... It would be impossible to please everyone. But when Sandbrook is pleasing, he is very pleasing indeed.

—— Nick Lezard , Guardian
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