Hancock's Half Hour - Television Version

Television Version

The television version appeared in 1956 under the same name and with the same writers, produced for the BBC by Duncan Wood. The television and radio versions alternated until 1959, when the final radio series and the fifth television series were both broadcast during the autumn season. Only Sid James transferred from the radio series, although Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques each made a couple of appearances. The television version drew on a stock company of actors, who played different supporting characters in each episode. Semi-regulars included Liz Fraser, John Le Mesurier, Hugh Lloyd, Arthur Mullard and John Vyvyan.

The final television series, broadcast in 1961, was retitled Hancock, as it was shortened from a half-hour to 25 minutes. For this final series Sid James was dropped from the cast, as Hancock feared they were coming to be seen as a double act. Some of the most celebrated episodes of the TV series were produced in this final series, including "The Blood Donor", "The Radio Ham", "The Bedsitter" and "The Bowmans". Hancock relocated to Earl's Court for the last series.

Some episodes of the radio series were wiped, and telerecordings of some episodes from the third and fourth television series were destroyed. No episodes survive from the first season of the TV series. The surviving radio episodes, which sometimes exist only in edited versions that have been cut for overseas sale to commercial radio stations, were released as CD box sets between 2000 and 2003 (see below).

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Hancock's Half Hour was placed 24th. In 1962, the show became the first imported programme to win a Jacob's Award following its transmission on Telefís Éireann, the Republic of Ireland's national TV station.

In 1956 and 1957 Hancock had starred in two series of a sketch show made by Associated-Rediffusion for ITV television, which were broadcast either side of his first television series on the BBC.

In 1972 a Norwegian TV show called Fleksnes Fataliteter aired for the first time. It was based on scripts from Hancock's Half Hour. The show became trilingual, as it usually starred both Swedish and Danish actors, and was broadcast in Sweden and Denmark as well as Norway.