John Hewer brings Hancock's Half Hour (The Lost TV Episodes) to The Hawth in Crawley on October 11.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely today
00:06to speak to John Hewer, who is doing a very, very special show, which is coming to Crawley
00:10on October 11th, Hancock's Half Hour, the lost TV episodes. Now, part of the reason
00:16for this show now is that Tony Hancock would have been 100 this year, and it's the 70th
00:22anniversary of Hancock's Half Hour. But you were born, what, 19 years after Tony Hancock
00:29passed away. How did you get on to Tony Hancock?
00:35I was brought up very, very well. My parents brought me up on all the classic comedies
00:41from the 60s, 70s in particular, you know, their generation, I guess, really. And then
00:45once I kind of exhausted that, I then looked at those wonderful cast names of Sid James,
00:49Hattie Jakes, Kenneth Williams, and I was then introduced to Hancock's Half Hour through
00:55a collection of LPs that my grandparents had. And then the love for Hancock just stemmed
00:59from there.
01:00What is it that Hancock says to you? Why do you enjoy his work so much?
01:05I think, yeah, I think because even though his character and the world he's in is somewhat
01:12dated from that mid-50s period, his ideas, his ideology, and his just character, that
01:18curmudgeonly British underdog, is a very familiar trait throughout British comedy ever since.
01:25And he's still recognisable, you know, even though we don't admit it, maybe sometimes
01:28we're like, oh, actually, I kind of see where he's coming from. And even if we don't, we
01:33can still laugh at him, which is still, you know, that's what we've been doing for nearly
01:3770 years or so now.
01:39And how easy is it to slip into Tony Hancock? Can you just summon him?
01:43Oh, I don't know. You've got to think about the grandeur at all, really, you know, you've
01:49got to think about how he owns the room, you know. It's not all about me, of course, but
01:53you know, I like to think so.
01:54It's that laugh, isn't it? That's what...
01:57Yes. He's not the easiest, you know, I'll be honest. You know, your Harold Steptoes
02:02and your Frankie Howards, you know, they're slightly more iconic vocally, I guess. But
02:07when you put on that Astrakhan coat and the famous Homburg hat that Hancock was often
02:11seen in, the audiences, they love it. They recognise him. You know, he is still an icon.
02:16He still has that power and that affection that we all have for him.
02:19And it also helps at the moment, you are on the set. Show us a bit of the set, if you
02:23don't mind.
02:24Yes, we are. Yes, there we go. Yes, we're halfway through a pretty interesting scene.
02:30One of the episodes has Hancock down on his luck and his good old friend, Sid James, decides
02:36to auction off all his belongings. So we're just mid-rehearsing that particular scene
02:41and I won't give it too much away, but basically they end up having to try and get half the
02:45stuff back because there is some money hidden in it and they have to try and get it back
02:49and remember who they gave it out to. But yeah, no spoilers here, folks.
02:53Fantastic. Well, good luck with the rest of rehearsals and the show is at the Hawthorne
02:58Crawley on October the 11th. Lovely to speak to you, John. Thank you for your time.
03:04Thank you very much, Bill. Thank you.