...just 66 years after they were written

Two long-lost Tony Hancock radio scripts are to get their first ever London airing later this year.

They are from a comedy series entitled Vacant Lot, which was written by Goon Show writer Larry Stephens in 1952 – two years before Hancock’s Half Hour hit the air.

Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Kenneth Connor had all been considered for supporting roles, but the show, set in the fictional seaside town of Churdley Bay. was never recorded.

The scripts emerged last year while  Stephens’s cousin, Julie Warren, was working on a biography, and were performed in November in the writer’s home town of Wolverhampton

Now they are to get another outing at the British Library  in London in September. Tickets are available here.

Impressionist James Hurn, who has appeared on Dead Ringers, will play  Hancock with Janice Connolly – the performer behind  Mrs Barbara Nice – in supporting roles. Tickets are available here.

On Friday, Chortle reported how Hancock was to be the subject of a new Sky Arts documentary made by Victor Lewis Smith.

Published: 11 Jun 2018