The John Freeman Interview

Freeman:

Now, your own comedy character, the one we know in...

Hancock:

(laughs) Yes.

Freeman:

...Hancock's Half Hour.

Hancock:

Yes, yes...

Freeman:

...swagger, bluster and then, not being very effectual in the end. Is that right?

Hancock:

Er...I'm not entirely sure you can sort of really theorise entirely about these things. As I say, this is all sort of part of what you are and part of what everybody else is. It's er...a comment on yourself and a comment on everybody else I think.

Freeman:

Well now, how much is this a comment on yourself?

Hancock:

Oh to a great extent, to a great extent. I mean, shall we say, the character that I...it isn't a character I play, that I put on and off like a coat. It is er...greatly a part of me and a part of everybody else that I see.

Freeman:

Erm, are you trying to say with it something which is, which is serious? Is there a message or are you simply trying to make people laugh?

Hancock:

Erm...w...not exactly a message. I think if you go to that extent, I think perhaps you lose the...the intuitive thing which is bad...erm...no. I think it's just a true observation of the way things are, as far as you can see it yourself.

Freeman:

Looking at yourself as a comic after all in the, in the television and film era, you've seen yourself as a comic...

Hancock:

Yes.

Freeman:

...very often which many of the great comics didn't. What is there about you, you think, which makes people laugh?

Hancock:

Well, it's difficult to say. I don't think I can be really objective about that...erm...I think I know what my own mistakes are as I make them. I don't think I gain anything by seeing myself.

Freeman:

Is it facial expression? Is it good scriptwriters? Is it a, a...a..a sense of timing? Is it a knowledge of what constitutes comedy? What, what is it? You must have some idea.

Hancock:

It's a knowledge of what constitutes living in general I think. As I say you, you take erm...the..erm, weaknesses of your own character and of other peoples' characters and you exploit them. You, you...you show yourself up and you show them up.

Freeman:

Now it's often been said of you, I don't know whether this is true or not, that one thing that you do in your comedy is to ridicule the things that you dislike in life. Is that true?

Hancock:

Er, yes. That also applies to the things that you dislike in yourself.

Freeman:

Alright. Now, what are they?

Hancock:

Oh I think a certain erm...affectation. I mean I..I know for instance I often find in a script...erm...things that I've said in all seriousness which they later write up in detail and absolutely which later turn out to be funny. You know, I've been angry or something like that and I...I look at this and I think, "yes that's very funny", unfortunately. Yet it's something I'd said at the time and been rather pompous about and...erm, they have noticed this and, er...written it down and there it is.

Freeman:

This is an example of you debunking yourself. Now, how much do you try and debunk other people as well?

Hancock:

Oh well you do that...er...shall we say generously...erm...yes you do. You debunk pomposity and erm...affectation.

Freeman:

What are the things, can you tell me that there are particular things in the world that you know you dislike; personal characteristics first of all. Is it pomposity that you're after?

Hancock:

You don't dislike them, you accept them.

Freeman:

But do...do you all...

Hancock:

...I mean, you're tolerant towards them.

Interview transcription - Page 3

 

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