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Radio 4 Extra celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of comic actor Tony Hancock – born 12th May 1924 - with a collection of rarely heard and previously lost radio programmes.

Introducing the shows, Jim Lee is joined by Martin Gibbons, president of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, who have helped find some of the lost tapes.

Radio 4 Extra presents a long lost episode of Hancock’s Half Hour – A Visit To Swansea.

Rediscovered and restored by radio enthusiasts, The Radio Circle, it was first broadcast on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Light Programme on the 10th May 1955, just two days before Tony Hancock’s 31st birthday.

Tony Hancock had taken an unscheduled trip to Italy, leaving Hancock Half Hour’s producer, Dennis Main Wilson, to ask Harry Secombe to step in to star in the first three episodes of the second series of Hancock’s Half Hour.

The fourth episode saw Tony return, and begrudgingly make ‘A Visit To Swansea’, to thank Harry Secombe for stepping in. Although the first two minutes are sadly missing, the remainder of the show, long searched for, is gloriously restored.

Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's classic comedy about the life and times of Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock.

Starring Tony Hancock.

With:

Harry Secombe
Bill Kerr
Sidney James
Andree Melly
Kenneth Williams

Theme and incidental music composed and conducted by Wally Stott.

Producer: Dennis Main Wilson

First broadcast on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Light Programme in May 1955.

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This episode was found by Richard Harrison of The Radio Circle, with an introduction by Keith Wickham.

Tony Hanock 100
Presenter: Jim Lee
Production Co-ordinator: Andrew Jupp
Producer: Peter McHugh

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