Michelangelo Hancock (Aired November 18, 1956)
Hancock's Half-Hour is the yardstick against which all subsequent British sitcoms have been measured, the vast majority failing to size up to its extremely high standards. Based on his famous radio show of the same name, the TV run consolidated Tony Hancock's standing as Britain's leading comic of the day, the entertainer providing ample proof that his wonderfully flexible face could be as expressive as his dextrous radio voice. Tony Hancock was at the height of his powers during the late 1950s, squeezing every comic ounce out of his lines, pulling off perfectly judged pauses and demonstrating a sense of timing to match the great Jack Benny's. His character - Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock - was invariably a loser, whose aspirations and plans were dashed by fate, circumstance, Sid James or, more often than not, his own pomposity or unfettered ambition. Hancock suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ruefully, occasionally lamenting his lot with the heartfelt phrase 'Stone me, what a life'. The screen Hancock's misery was the viewer's delight - the many millions who watched the shows saw something in the frustrated funster with which they could identify while consoling themselves that their lot wasn't as bad as his. Hancock's genius, coupled with Galton and Simpson's fabulously rich scripts, resulted in a very fine series indeed and a bunch of classic half-hours.
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