Only episode to feature Peter Sellers will now get a Radio 4 airing

An episode of Hancock’s Half Hour that has been lost for 67 years is to get an airing on Radio 4.

First broadcast in 1955 and never repeated, it is the only one to feature Peter Sellers,  who was standing in for Hancock’s regular collaborator Kenneth Williams

A recording was discovered by fan Richard Harrison on a domestic reel-to-reel audio tape, and it has now been restored, ready to air on Radio 4 at 6.30pm on October 18.

In the episode, called The Marriage Bureau, Hancock decides that he must get a job and find a wife.  The penultimate episode in the first series of the radio show, it was previously recreated as one of Radio 4’s  Missing Hancocks, with Kevin McNally impersonating the lad himself.

The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society  wrote on Twitter: ‘We’re absolutely thrilled that a lost episode of Hancock’s Half Hour has been found, restored, & will be broadcast on Radio 4 on October 18

‘The Marriage Bureau was never repeated and has not been heard since 1955. Only episode to feature Peter Sellers.

‘Sellers plays the parts given in the scripts to Kenneth Williams who couldn’t make it that week. How did he play them? Tune in to find out! This is a brilliant find!’

A documentary has been made about finding the lost episode – as well as other recent discoveries including episodes of Desert Island Discs and a Ken Dodd show from 1957. Called Raiders Of The Lost Archive, it will air on Radio 4 at 11.30am on Thursday October 13.

The news comes after TV channel Gold announced it was making a two-hour Hancock documentary, to be fronted by Jack Dee, as well as colorising two classic TV episodes of Hancock’s Half Hour.

Published: 30 Sep 2022