Hugo

"The Alpine Holiday" was the first episode of the second TV series and the only one of the six episodes to survive.
It was transmitted on 1 April 1957 and the reason that Sid James was absent was because he was in Cortina, Italy, filming "Campbell's Kingdom" with Dirk Bogarde. He also missed the second episode but was present for the other four.

42ndStreetFreak

Ahhh...thanks for the info.

Tony Pendrey

The story behind the issue of the "idiot" boards was clarified by Ray Galton a few years ago. Apparently, Hancock had always been very meticulous in reading and learning the scripts when they were making the radio shows. The same regime applied when the started on the TV series. One day, on the way to the studio to reherse and record, Tony was involved in a car accident. There was no time for him to learn the lines so he had the crew write them out on boards and parts of the set. Although it is blatantly obvious to us now, at the time it went un-noticed, the recording was a success and to the dismay of Galton & Simpson he adopted cue cards as his preferred method.

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

The_Late_Peter_Cook

That was for 'The Blood Donor' (and the remaining few episodes) so for the majority of the tv series he never used them (Tony also had mild concusion when he recorded 'The Blood Doner', what a trooper! :) )

Hackett

I got as concusioned as a newt like Hancock last Friday night.

David Brent

It's all that gnat's water they call beer in the Midlands.
Combine that with a 'Ghandi's revenge' and what do you expect?
More 'gallops' than Epsom Downs.
.....and the old Spurs havn't been playing too well lately

And to think Hackett that when you told me you were always phoning the AA for help i used to believe that you had car problems!

Cheers

Dave.

42ndStreetFreak

Listening to "Cyrano de Hancock" and it has to be said if there is one thing that taints many of these it's the horrible attitude to Hattie.
This episode was PACKED with jokes about her size and looks.
It was a barrage...and that she had to listen to such things was terrible (it's well known it upset her greatly)...one line was simply "She's an ugly great lump".
Awful stuff and nothing 'classic' about it.

Another reason why i like the TV show more.

Tony Pendrey

Oh - It wasn't all bad. There was one radio episode where Sid falls in love with her !

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

42ndStreetFreak

Yeah..that was the one I was on about. I would say there were at least 10 remarks about her weight and looks in this one show alone.
And it was actually made worse because it was meant to be about her Wedding Day...crass rubbish about how they had to re-open 3 cotton mills to make her Wedding Dress seem far worse given the fact it WAS about her Wedding Dress.
Imagine as a woman if you had to come to work and heard a barrage of jokes at your expense about how fat, unappealing and ugly you are?

If they had been remarks about someone's colour people would not be so eager to shrug their shoulders.

Cheap and BAD comedy writing.

"Hancock" was SO MUCH BETTER than this, so when it happens, it's just sad quite frankly.

DB7

Hate to say it but if Hancock didn't respond in that way it would be out of character - you're also applying modern day PC to a script maybe 50 years old. (similarly, David Brent in The Office going from shallow sexist to the sensitive bloke of the final episode was a touching closure but very unBrentlike)

For balance, in the New Nose, Hancock is taken apart by the opposite sex about the size of his 'ooter.

42ndStreetFreak

Un-PC has nothing to do with it! "Hey..you're fat! You're ugly" Oh, how funny.
It was low rent THEN, it's truly pitiful now.

And it happend at least once in every single show they ever made with her. "Cyrano" was truly awful, and made you cringe it was so relentless.
And that Hattie WAS deeply hurt by it says it all.

"The Office" has no baring. You laugh AT Brent. You don't laugh at his targets.

Cruel humour is fine, but it has to be done well. this is PURELY moronic "Look! a fat cow...lets pick on her" level of comedy.
Worse it's at the expense of a real actress who had to listen to it day in day out and had to laugh it off because it was comedy.

Old or not, "Hancock" or not, it's just bad, crass, cruel and has indeed dated so bad it's turned into dust.

Tony Pendrey

I had never really thought about this much before. The constant jibes at Hattie were always just a part of the show, just as much as Bill always calling Hancock "Tubs". Is it true that the remarks really hurt her ? It seems odd that she would be offended. She was a true professional and her physical distinctness got her a lot of work ! BUT, I will add that if it was hurtful to her then it was wrong.

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

42ndStreetFreak

They did various shows about her when she died, and she supposedly went home and cried sometimes after remarks on the show. It's something that always stuck with me.
And "Cyrano" was REALLY bad. Like I said if they were doing 'look at the wog, give him a tree to climb' or 'spit your words out Paki boy i can't understand you' there would be lots of uncomfortable feelings i think.

The 'tubbs' jokes on Hancock were nothing like as frequent, or as harsh, and he was not really fat anyway, and it's nearly always different when a women has to face such remarks, and socirty has not really changed in that way.

And quite frankly it's just not funny to hear a character, on their supposed wedding day no less, have remarks like "She's an ugly great lump" thrown at them to roars of laughter.
It's not funny anyway on just a comedy level, no matter what you think on the matter any other way.

I don't know, it just really stuck out as a horribly dated, cheap and callous aspect of some of the shows (esp "Cyrano" which quite frankly went into out and out abuse).

And I always wondered what Tony thought of it, as it's basically on the same level of sophistication as the 'silly voices and catch phrases' of Kenneth Williams he came to dislike so much.
Though I always liked Williams (and his voices) a great deal the endlessly repeated (and desperately shoe-horned in) catch phrases like "stop messin' about" did become rather tragic and dated as badly as Musical Hall routines.

42ndStreetFreak

Just in that one episode:

When Sid says he's not sure if Hattie like him Bill states...."I'm not sure she's in a position to be fussy".

Sid: "When she sits on my lap my legs turn to jelly".
Hancock: "Crushed to jelly more like".

Sid: "A tandem? I don't think so i may have to do all the peddling".
Hancock: "That's true you'd need legs like oak trees to shift her".

Hancock: "I don't want her, great big ugly thing she is". (not lump)

Bill on her dress: "They had to re-open 3 cotten mills to do it".

Sid: "You'll never carry her across the threshhold".
Hancock: "Well a gang of us might manage it".

Williams after being told it's not a ship launching ceremony, but after he meets Hattie: "Oh, are you sure it's not a launching"?

Hancock: "I just caught her trying on her Wedding dress, it was ghastly! It was like Mody Dick the white whale".

Then add remarks aimed at her wanting food all the time and how Hancock and Bill want rid of her...and it's just relentless abuse.
A shame really, as otherwise it's a very funny episode.

Hugo

There seems to be some confusion here between fantasy and reality.

Hattie Jacques was a fine and successful comedy actress and a large and attractive woman. The part she played in HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR was Hancock's secretary, Grizelda Pugh who was fat, ugly, aggressive, incompetent and lazy. The fat jokes were at the expense of this character not at Hattie personally.
She was best known for the CARRY ON films and her long association with Eric Sykes which produced the longest running TV comedy series ever (16 series over 20 years)

The Hancock programmes were a very small part of her extensive body of work.
She regretted that she was rarely offered parts that extended her range but she immensely enjoyed what she did, as can be seen in her every performance.
I find the idea that she went home and cried about Hancock's jokes very difficult to believe and quite out of keeping with her personality and professionalism.