Double Bill STUDIO

Hancock’s Last Half Hour
By Heathcote Williams

and

The Blood Donor
By Ray Galton and Alan Simpson

13 - 20 October

Matinee 20 October at 2.45

A touching and personal epitaph to one of this country’s greatest comedians in a double bill with one of the most memorable of the ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ scripts. A poignant celebration of the life and work of Tony Hancock.

Box office: 0121 643 5858 (12 noon - 7pm Mon - Sat)

Get more info by going to their Web site: http://www.crescent-theatre.co.uk

Just a quick item of news, before I get back to my graphics editing in readiness for the updating of the Hancock book collection. As most of you will already know, there's to be a DVD released by the BBC. This DVD will be called "The Very Best Of Hancock" (BBCDVD1061). There will be five shows (hope I got that right, we'll have to see!) on this DVD, and I wouldn't be surprised to find them being the same as was released on: "The Very Best of Hancock" video (BBCV5343), now deleted. Click on the link that follows, to see what I think, will be included on this DVD: http://www.tonyhancock.co.uk/videotapes_two.htm

I have updated the Hancock video collection (The official BBC video tape releases), as most of you may have probably already seen by now. The videos are now in the order of their release dates and you can now see the back and spine of each video inlay, by moving your mouse pointer over each image. I hope you like the new design. The Hancock book and audio collections are next in line for this revamp, which as I say in an earlier news item, I'm in the process of doing, even as I type. I don't have all the books relating to Hancock (there are about 350 odd), but I have all the most important (in both paperback & hardback publications) and quite a few of the others. Once I've finished you'll find it's quite a bit bigger then before. I would say about three times the size. It will be spread over several pages (to assist in the downloading of the images). Right, if I'm to get all this work done, anytime in the near future, then I better call an end to this quick update, and get on with it.

Oh! Something I just remembered. You can also now reach The Cuttings at the following URL: www.railwaycuttings.com. You can also enter the "keyword": tonyhancock (all one word) into Internet Explorers address bar, without having to type anything else, to get to The Cuttings. It's now that simple!

Face to Face with John Freeman - The Tony Hancock Interview (PYE PICCADILLY, FTF 38500). This rare LP has finally run out of breath and stopped trying to avoid me. In fact, I've finally caught it! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the very kind fellow Hancock admirer, John, for finally agreeing to sell me this very rare LP. Thank you very much John. John, had this record amongst his own Hancock collection for over 10 years. And didn't particularly want to sell it. In fact, I only found out he had it because he saw a question on my Guest book (here: View the Guest book - Sign the Guest book) were I was asking if anyone had a copy of the Face to Face Interview on LP. And if they did, would they be interested in selling it. After seeing this, John e-mailed me to ask how much I thought the record was worth, but never mentioned selling it. As far as I knew it was listed in various record collector publications as 'booking' in at around £30. That's obviously not to say that if someone wanted it bad enough, like me, for their own collection (and the sake of others, those that visit the Cuttings) they wouldn't pay more, much more! After a few e-mails, back and forth and a marriage to boot (he got married during our conversations) I had managed to persuade him to part with it, all be it one of his most treasured Hancock LPs. I think I finally got him when I said that if he didn't want to sell to me, then sell for the sake of all the other fellow Hancock admirers, that would get a chance to see it, once I'd posted it on the Cuttings. So thanks again John. I'm sure he was doing it for all of you out there, his fellow Hancock admirers. You can see the new cover, both front and a snippet of the back, which has been autographed by the interviewer, John Freeman, by clicking here: Tony Hancock - Face to Face with John Freeman.

You can also read the sleeve notes, and find out what John Freeman thought about these two particular interviews, by clicking here: Read the sleeve notes, on the back cover of this LP.

I've added some mp3's (sound files) of all the poems read in the radio show, 'The Poetry Society'. You can hear, as well as read, them now. Go here: http://www.tonyhancock.co.uk/poems.htm and check them out.

Some people have e-mailed me suggesting the Cuttings would benefit from some sound, of various sorts. Indeed, some have suggested mp3's of various radio Half Hours. This, I think, would be playing with fire! I'm sure this would upset those at the top, namely the BBC, if it was to happen. Therefore I can't see it happening at the Cuttings, not for the time being anyhow. I might be able to get away with some classic snippets from some of our favourite shows. At the moment though I have a problem with space. The host of this Web site is allocating me minimal space. There just isn't room to add that much at the moment, even if I wanted to. As most will know, the Cuttings is a very graphics intensive Web site. This is deliberate. I will need any space I have in reserve, at the moment, for the improvements I plan to make in the very near future. I will have to increase the space at some point though. Then I may be able to add some more sound files / mp3's for all our listening pleasure.

This month (June) I've chosen a pic from the film, 'The Wrong Box'. Hancock's part in this Bryan Forbes production, as a detective, is as guest artist. He only plays a small part, mainly seen towards the end of the film. Ironically, after what I said last month, about there being very little colour photo's / material on Hancock, this film was in colour. Yet, I've put up a black & white picture! I liked this film, but I don't happen to have any colour photos / stills from it. I do have a couple of film posters / sheets relating to it though, and they're in colour, but they don't feature Hancock on them (not in picture form anyhow). There is only a printed (text) mention of him in the credits. I will be adding these posters and others, to a new section of the Cuttings in due course. You can read more about this film, and the others he's featured in, by clicking this link: http://www.tonyhancock.co.uk/films.htm

What do you mean? Stop playing games!

I'll give away a spare copy of this LP, The Blood Donor / The Radio Ham (Hallmark, not very rare I know, but in EX/M condition), if you can tell me what I'm talking about. The first person to e-mail me with the correct answer wins. You have until Saturday 12 May 18:00, to tell me the answer. What was the last small addition / update to the Cuttings?

Those that are regulars will have a big advantage. Life's not fair is it?

This month (May) I thought we'd have a splash of colour. It's only a shame there isn't much colour material available on Hancock. So I've resorted to a picture from one of the BBC record covers (The Americans Hit Town - The Unexploded Bomb - REB 423), which I think is a great pic anyway, all be it a caricature (Illustrated by Michael Lye). This is the second of a five record set, released over a four year period. You can see the other covers from this set by going here: http://www.tonyhancock.co.uk/records_three.htm.

100 Greatest TV Characters - Channel 4 Television - 5 / 6 May, 21:00

Thousands of fictitious characters appear on television each week. Presented by Ardal O'Hanlon, this two-part special reveals the definitive roll call of TV talent as voted by the British public.

From 100 to 1, the two programmes count down the greatest characters ever to appear on British television, reveal the stories behind the favourites, and feature interviews with the actors and writers. Saturday's first installment counts down the greatest TV characters from 100 to 51, plus the top five TV characters that the public love to hate. The second and final part can be seen on Sunday 6 May 21:00, and will be presented by Ardal O'Hanlon who continues the countdown.

Keep your eye out for Tony Hancock, Sid James, Harry H. Corbett and Wilfred Brambell, or at least the characters they played on TV.

The World Of British Comedy LP, which includes an extract from 'The Missing Page' and The Best Of Hancock book (paperback version), are the latest items to be added to the Cuttings. They can be seen below. For those that are interested, the LP also includes extracts from some of the following; Marty Feldman, Frankie Howerd, Spike Milligan, The Goons, Benny Hill, Kenneth Williams, Paddy Roberts, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore. The cover of this record has been added here: The World Of British Comedy - DECCA.

The book is the paperback version of The Best of Hancock - Classics from the BBC Television series. It contains ten scripts from the TV series. The cover of this book has been added here: The Best Of Hancock - Penguin P/B. You can see the hardback version, of which there are two, here: The Best Of Hancock - Robson & BCA edition H/Bs. If you would like to read the Introdution from this book, go here: The Best Of Hancock - Classics from the television series - Introduction. Hope you all enjoy the new additions and maybe some of you (the collectors amounst us), have seen some items you either never knew existed or wondered what it looked like. Well now you know...

One last thing. Some may have noticed I've reorganised the Hancock record collection a bit (well a lot actually!). I've put most of the earlier releases at the beginning, as they probably should have been from day one. But, initially I didn't want record covers that looked the same or similar on the same page. I wanted everyone to be able to see something different on each page. However, this wasn't really the way it should have been. So I've change it. Hopefully for the better. I've also added a little more info about each record and made links that should be relevant to some collections of similar records. I will probably change it again in the near future, but not drastically and have everything in complete order. We will have to see... I'm off to get some Zzz's...

The House Guest

Lee accidentally hurls an OAP (Hugh Lloyd, "Frank") into a skip. Hugh, as you probably guessed, doesn't look like the pic above anymore. Indeed, as he says himself, "I'm not as young as I used to be". It's nice to see him on our screens again - and that he's still getting cast in small parts. I wonder if Lee is a fan of Hancock's. I'm sure he must be. Maybe he'd seen Hugh in the HHH's and thought he'd like him in his own show. Then again, maybe he'd nothing to do with helping to cast Hugh. Worth a watch I think. If you miss Mondays show you can catch the repeat on Sunday 29 April - 16:40

There are five issues of the 'Blood Donor' LP. I now have four them. The latest to be added to the Cuttings can be seen below. This was the fourth release. I never knew of this records existence, I'd always overlooked it when looking through the Hancock Bible (Roger Wilmut's great book; Tony Hancock 'Artiste'), and cross referencing my record collection. However, I was searching the many great second-hand record e-shops, via the WWW, when I stumbled across this version. The cover of this record has been added here: Tony Hancock - The Blood Donor - The Radio Ham. The two shows included on this LP are; The Blood Donor & The Radio Ham (MARBEL ARCH, MAL 872), both predominately full length versions. The copy of this record that still eludes me at the moment is the dreaded PYE NIXA PLP 1092, version. These Nixa releases (there are 3), are hard to find. Which makes trying to find them all the more rewarding for me, when I do finally come across them. Watch this space... I will return, but maybe not so quickly next time!

BTW, If anybody has spare copies of the said Nixa releases, then I'll be happy to except them as donations. For the sake of the Cuttings of course. I may even pay for them, if I'm asked. If you've got any of the 3, you'll know and probably won't need reminding of the serial #'s. If your not sure though, then here's the serial #'s to check for, all PYE NIXA of course; PLP 1039, PLP 1110, PLP 1092