In this episode of Very Nearly an Armful, Tim, James, Jon and Martin discuss the Apollo Theatre Company nationwide tour of their Hancock’s Half Hour show and are delighted to welcome John Hewer and Colin Elmer (who play Tony Hancock and Kenneth Williams respectively) to the podcast.
The tour features performances of three lost Hancock’s Half Hour episodes from a selection of The Matador, The New Neighbour, The Winter Holiday and The Red Planet. The team discuss how John and Colin each discovered Hancock, how they approach playing the characters and how Hancock’s Half Hour being so accessible these days is opening Hancock up to a younger generation.  John and Colin are also pleased to introduce the rest of the cast: Alice Osmanski (Andree Melly), Ben Craze (Sid James), Callum Hale (Bill Kerr) and Clive Greenwood (Announcer and foley artist). Full details of the tour are available at www.Apollo theatre company.com

Included in the podcast are extracts from original Hancock's Half Hour soundtracks, The Missing Hancocks soundtracks, Hambledon Productions stage performance of The Winter Holiday starring John Hewer as Hancock and The Apollo Theatre Company's performance of Hancock in the Police from their previous tour, starring James Hurn as Hancock.

The Gang of Four get sidetracked as usual, this time into the origin on the term ‘coalboxed’, the latest Vivian Stanshall CD release and the upcoming Punch and Judy Man festival in Bognor.
Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to the podcast. And, if you haven’t done so already, why not join the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society - full details of how to join are at www. tonyhancock.org.uk We have an event planned to celebrate what would have Hancock’s 100th birthday in May 2024 and our annual reunion dinner in September; we’d love to welcome you as a member and see you at our events. We’ll be back in November with a review of the oldest surviving television episode and the only surviving episode to feature Kenneth Williams in his Snide character, The Alpine Holiday. Hope that you’ll be able to join us then.