mostly david ephgrave

Yesterday, I listened to the second episode in BBC Radio 4’s current series ‘The Missing Hancocks’, and loved it. I make no secret of the fact that I’m a huge fan of both Galton & Simpson and Tony Hancock. It’s something I’ve discussed here before . Together, they were responsible for some of my favourite comedy of all time. Watching or listening to an episode of Hancock’s Half Hour is a fail-safe for putting me in a good mood. So much so that I’ve started listening to an episode every morning in the bath, to start the day with a positive kick. (Picture it.) When I heard tell of a handful of lost episodes being rerecorded by different actors, I was concerned. How could they make this work? I knew the writing would stand up on its own two feet – Galton & Simpson’s material is faultless – but how could you have a Hancock’s Half Hour without the real Huh…Huh…Huh…Hancock? Not to mention Sid, Bill, Kenneth, Andr é e, Moira, Miss Pugh and the rest. I needn’t have wor...

It would probably come as no surprise to learn that I am a devourer of the classic comedy sitcom. It’s been the case since as early as junior school, when I kept two scrapbooks: one devoted to The Beatles and the other to Blackadder. Any time either a Fab or a ‘Blab’ appeared in a newspaper, the article would be carefully cut out and Pritt-stuck into the appropriate tome – often with my own little handwritten notes alongside it. My first ever gig was pre-assembly at the St. Nicholas JMI school, playing the Blackadder theme on an upright piano as my fellow students filed in. I was obsessed with the dry, sarcastic wit of Rowan Atkinson – and desperately wanted some of it for myself. I managed to convince my junior school friends that the BBC were going to make a series I was writing called 'March! Jenkins' (an idea lovingly ripped from 'Blackadder Goes Forth') – and spend many a lunch break drilling them through scenes from it. I was a megalomaniac e...