Customer Reviews

Blood Donor / Radio Ham

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's been over 35 years since I heard these classics as a young lad in Scotland and they still crack me up. His witty remarks and observations, that still, even after all those years, haven't lost any of their wit and sarcarsm. As the pathetic optimist he potrays so well, "Tone" gives us two incredible funny timeless episodes.

Having said that it must be pointed out that we were very familiar with these two episodes of Hancock's Half Hour. Set in sixties England, it may not translate well over the Atlantic and several decades later.

This comedy routine is hilarious, vintage British radio. I loved it, as did my 18 year old daughter and her friends. It is a riot.

Tony Hancock is at his masterful best in these two episodes, scripted by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, who also wrote Steptoe and Son. Hancock represents the origin of contemporary reality based situation comedy. His understated, acerbic and self deprecating wit remains as fresh and funny today as it was in the 1950s. Like many of Hancock's modern day fans I was introduced to his art as a child growing up in England, listening to re-runs of his programs on Radio 4.

Hancock is the voice of the downtrodden common man, battling with his own prejudices and unpleasantness in an effort to conform to the demands of modernity. That he was predicating his work on such a notion in the 1950s illustrates how cutting edge his comedy was. Contemporary British comedians such as Chris Morris and Paul Merson owe a debt to this great man.