Hartnell vs Hancock
I've been reading yet another bio of British comedy great Tony Hancock and was intrigued to find that even his most popular TV shows were soundly beaten in the ratings by ITV's "The Army Game". That was a 50's service comedy with an ensemble cast headed by William Hartnell and later Bill Fraser, with Alfie Bass, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Breslaw and others.
However, through the vagaries of history Hancock is more popular than ever, a veritable comedy Elvis, while "The Army Game" gets mentioned if at all as a footnote in Dr Who books. The reason for this, apart from the inner depth and quality of HHH, is that radio series repeats and records kept the Hancock memory alive until the TV performances became available on video, free to air repeats, pay tv screenings and most recently on DVD, while poor old Bill, Bernard, Alie and co had only a few passages in TV tomes to sustain dim flickering memories. Even a comedy fiend like me has never seen it apart from a 7 min You Tube download, though "Carry on Sargeant", the first film in that famous comedy series is essentially a copy of the show.
Speaking of Carry On's, some of you may have noticed an unedifying slanging match I've got into with a longtime compatriot. Haven't seen her latest missive and not sure I'll bother to, though I understand it's something of a corker. Whatever you believe, disbelieve or even gives a rat's posterior about, there is no doubting that she has been dissing a lot of people for a long time on this site and I'm the first to give her a serve back and by God she don't like it, do she?
Perhaps now she'll consider the hurt feelings and pain she causes others with her continued snipings and learn to deal with problems by changing her life instead of continously blaming others (or not).
However, through the vagaries of history Hancock is more popular than ever, a veritable comedy Elvis, while "The Army Game" gets mentioned if at all as a footnote in Dr Who books. The reason for this, apart from the inner depth and quality of HHH, is that radio series repeats and records kept the Hancock memory alive until the TV performances became available on video, free to air repeats, pay tv screenings and most recently on DVD, while poor old Bill, Bernard, Alie and co had only a few passages in TV tomes to sustain dim flickering memories. Even a comedy fiend like me has never seen it apart from a 7 min You Tube download, though "Carry on Sargeant", the first film in that famous comedy series is essentially a copy of the show.
Speaking of Carry On's, some of you may have noticed an unedifying slanging match I've got into with a longtime compatriot. Haven't seen her latest missive and not sure I'll bother to, though I understand it's something of a corker. Whatever you believe, disbelieve or even gives a rat's posterior about, there is no doubting that she has been dissing a lot of people for a long time on this site and I'm the first to give her a serve back and by God she don't like it, do she?
Perhaps now she'll consider the hurt feelings and pain she causes others with her continued snipings and learn to deal with problems by changing her life instead of continously blaming others (or not).