YMMV / Hancock's Half Hour

• Genre Turning Point: Tony Hancock was a pioneer in comedy, as he was one of the first to look beyond stock characters and jokes and sought to create a core cast of consistent characters and place them in situations where their reactions would drive the humor. This would become the basis for practically all scripted comedy to follow it.
• Growing the Beard: The radio series grew some stubble with the addition of the Snide character in series 2 and a bit more in series 3 when the writers got better hold of the characters. Fully growing the beard came with series 4, when Hattie Jacques replaced Andrée Melly.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In "The Emigrant", Tony attempts to emigrate to Australia, hoping for stardom down under (but is turned away with "try Canada") and dies in the end only to be told to try "the other place" when he arrives at the Pearly Gates. In real life, Tony Hancock emigrated to Australia to try to revive his failing career. Tragically, it didn't work, and he killed himself.
  • In the episode "The Bowmans", Hancock alludes to thinking about killing himself.
  • Miss Pugh is regularly teased for her appearance and size. Hattie Jacques struggled with weight and body image issues and ultimately died of health problems associated with yo-yo dieting.
• More Popular Replacement: Fans tend to regard Hattie Jacques' Griselda Pugh as superior to Andrée Melly and Moira Lister.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Ginger Johnson from "The Reunion Party" is played by Clive Dunn, who would later be best known for playing Lance Corporal Jones in Dad's Army.
  • Mr. Johnson from "The Blood Donor" is played by Frank Thornton, who would later be best known for playing Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served?.
  • A radio voice from "The Radio Ham" is played by John Bluthal, who would later be best known for playing Frank Pickle in The Vicar of Dibley.
  • Nine guest roles from between 1957 and 1961 are played by John Le Mesurier, who would later be best known for playing Sergeant Wilson in Dad's Army.
  • Three guest roles from between 1957 and 1961 are played by June Whitfield, who would later be best known for playing June Fletcher in Happy Ever After, June Medford in Terry and June, and Mother in Absolutely Fabulous.
  • Six guest roles from between 1956 and 1960 are played by Liz Fraser, who would later be best known for appearing in four Carry On films.
  • Six guest roles from between 1956 and 1959 are played by Warren Mitchell, who would later be best known for playing Alf Garnett in Till Death Us Do Part.
  • A council official from "Lord Byron Lived Here" is played by William Mervyn, who would later be best known for playing the Right Reverend Cuthbert Hever in All Gas and Gaiters.
• Unintentional Period Piece: In "Twelve Angry Men", Tony makes two impassioned speeches to his fellow jurors pleading the defendant's innocence, painting (entirely invented) pictures of the defendant's family life. In his first speech, Tony says the defendant has a wife and small child; in the second, he says the defendant lives with his mother. For audiences from the 1980s onwards, this seems a contradiction. In fact, three generations of a family all living together was not unusual in 1960.

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