Gold celebrates the work of Tony Hancock

The UKTV channel will air a host of programming on the late comedian.

Jack Dee will front the brand-new retrospective documentary Tony Hancock: Very Nearly an Armful, which looks at the life and career of comedy legend Tony Hancock for Gold. Additionally, Gold has commissioned episodes two episodes from Hancock’s BBC series’ to be exclusively colourised and available to view once more.

Jack Dee:

“The life and career of Tony Hancock is truly fascinating. As a fan myself, to view items so personal to him was such an experience. I hope Gold viewers get as much out of this as I did.”

With exclusive access to the archives of one of Britain’s greatest and most influential comedians, comedy actor and Tony Hancock fan Jack Dee opens up the archive for the first time to discover its priceless, unique contents. A treasure trove of never-before-seen personal items such as photos, ideas, scripts, scrapbooks, production files and extraordinary letters that illustrate his life in vivid detail.

A scene from Tony Hancock’s ABC series

This documentary also has exclusive TV access to clips from Hancock’s 1963 ATV series, unbroadcast for over 50 years.

Iain Coyle, head of comedy entertainment, UKTV:

“Two comedy icons in one show. I’m so delighted to be working with Jack. The legend of Hancock still has a huge influence on comedy and sitcom today and the team at Crook have done a fantastic job and unearthed some incredible artifacts. I can’t wait to see these two classic episodes in full glorious colour.”

Tony Hancock: Very Nearly an Armful and the newly colourised episodes of Hancock will air on Gold next year.

In other Hancock news, a lost episode of Hancock’s Half Hour has been found in an off-air reel-to-reel home recording. The sound has been restored and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the 18th of October. The Marriage Bureau was never repeated and has not been heard since 1955. It’s the only episode to feature Peter Sellers, who was standing in for an unavailable Kenneth Williams.

A scene from Tony Hancock’s ATV series