New BBC Four tribute

The film, called Tony And Joan, will focus on the comedian’s well-publicised affair with the wife of Dad’s Army star John Le Mesurier.

It follows the success of the digital channel’s Fabulousa about another disturbed Sixties comic, Kenneth Williams.

Filming starts in November, with an expected broadcast early next year. The script will be based on Joan Le Mesurier’s 1989 memoirs Lady Don’t Fall Backwards.

But the programme has re-opened old wounds between Joan, now 75, and Hancock’s widow Freddie.

Freddie, 76, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The BBC are milking a cow that’s got nothing left. This all happened 40 years ago and most of Tony’s fans are probably dead by now.

And she sniped at Joan: ‘You almost have to feel sorry for her. She has nothing else in her life but this project. I assume she has got no other form of income.

‘I don’t really remember much about her, but Tony told me I met her once when she was a barmaid.’

Hancock had a two-year affair with Joan, that began in 1966, just a year after both got married. It only ended with the heavy drinking comedian’s suicide in 1968 in a Sydney hotel room.

Here is a ten-minute documentary about Hancock's death, featuring Joan Le Mesurier:

Published: 16 Sep 2007