[DOC] Tony Hancock: The Definitive Biography by John Fisher in Arts-Photography

Review

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. More than Half an Hour HereBy malcsharpRemember the show about nothing? The main character was a comedian. there was a couple of "unusual" male friends. one of whom was "on the make" and a female friend. Thinking Seinfeld? Well no. Think Hancocks Half Hour. originally a hugely successful radio series and then an equally successful TV series back in the 1950s.Galton and Simpson provided the scripts and Tony Hancock delivered them to perfection. This is an excellent biography of the comedian who yearned to be taken seriously. Fortunately some of his most magnificent work is available on CD and DVD and John Fisher does a very good job highlighting the successes as well as dealing with the complexities of a man that wanted to be so much more.Unlike Hancocks great hero Sid Field we have a lasting memory of the man in this work.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Hancock and the human condition - both funny and sadBy MR PHILIP J SHANNONTony Hancock. at his peak in the 1950s. made one third of the British population laugh. He did it. not by telling jokes or delivering the smutty double-entendre. but by finding humour in the clash between the common persons dreams for a better life and the serial disappointment of those dreams. John Fishers biography of Hancock analyses the man. his artistic persona. and the essence of his comedy that had made Hancock Britains most-loved comic.Born in 1924 to a semi-professional music hall family. Hancock got hooked early on the thrill of making people laugh. He served his apprenticeship in provincial variety clubs and radio where his aptitude for the comedy of character brought him to the attention of the BBC and two of the best comedy scriptwriters in the business. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. who combined to produce his greatest achievement. Hancocks Half Hour. on radio and TV from 1954 to 1961.Hancocks skill with interpretation. timing. delivery. vocal inflection. body gesture and facial expression captured every nuance of Galton and Simpsons scripts. and. with one of those chemically perfect support casts (Sid James. Hattie Jacques. Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams). turned their fictional home at 23 Railway Cuttings. East Cheam. into everyones site for the mugging of aspirations by reality.East Cheam was a shabby south London suburb. struggling with poverty and rationing after the war. and a rebuttal to the Tory Prime Minister. Harold MacMillans. catch-cry of `You never had it so good. Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock (Hancocks radio and screen persona) aspired to the good life but was doomed by his lowly class. The added pomposity and pretensions of his character made for a doubly humorous fall without ever losing his identification with all those who knew through bleak experience that life is not as it should be.Hancock could make humour literally out of nothing (such as the boring Sunday afternoon). extracting comedy out of the "dreary minutiae of humdrum existence". Hancock. and Galton and Simpson. were admirers of the American humourists. James Thurber and Robert Benchley. who were masters of this brand of humour. Walter Mitty. the fictional subject of a famous Thurber short story. also inspired the daydreams of heroism. excitement and adventure in the fantasies of Hancock. yearning for something better than grimy suburbia or a lonely Earls Court bed-sit.It is not a clicheacute; to say that Hancock suffered for his art. He sought perfection and was plagued by self-doubt. not helped by a life-long struggle with learning his lines. Every night on TV (or stage) was like a first night and he would usually be physically sick.This core anxiety soon intensified. as. seeking new directions and international film recognition. Hancock moved on from Galton and Simpson and the BBC. This began. however. a seven year slide in his career. feeding his self-doubt and insecurity as his ratings plummeted. overtaken by. amongst others. Galton and Simpsons new vehicle. Steptoe and Son.Alcohol was Hancocks recourse but this only served to destroy his technical comedic gifts. In his private life. he became violent towards his women partners. and suffered psychotic episodes and mood swings. Clinical depression. vodka and barbiturates provided the lethal combination for Hancocks suicide in Sydney in June 1968. aged just 44 - "things seem to go too wrong too many times". said his suicide note. It is ironic that Hancock. whose character made life bearable for so many others. was unable to save himself in the end.The rise and fall of Hancock is exhaustively told by Fisher but he is rather less voluble on one of the main reasons for Hancocks achievements. for Hancock described himself as a socialist (this gets one sentence in a 627 page biography) as Galton and Simpson also called themselves socialists (this is only hinted at by Fisher in describing Galton as a "pen-pusher" at the Transport and General Workers Union).The socialist politics of Hancock. Galton and Simpson gave them a genuine sympathy for the lives of the Hancock public with their disappointments and antagonism to those who stood in the way of fulfilment. Hancock was also a fervent atheist and strong sceptic of war (he had lost his elder brother in World War 11). and his disillusion with the self-feeding hypocrisies of war and religion helped to make the rationalist and pacifist. Bertrand Russell. his most admired philosopher.Hancock identified. and personified. the "two basic ingredients of good comedy" - it should be "both funny and sad". Hancock knew that to laugh at the human condition you had first to be able to cry at it if the point. as the socialist Hancock also knew. was to change it.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A little wordy. but lots of informationBy Andruma MorLike it overall...a bit wordy at times. and it assumes a knowledge of pre-1970 british show business. However. lots of information and substance.