Jack Dee will front retrospective documentary Tony Hancock: Very Nearly an Armful, produced by Studio Crook, for UKTV’s Gold.
The feature-length documentary looks at the life and career of comedy legend Tony Hancock .
Additionally, Gold has commissioned two 30-minute episodes from Hancock’s BBC series’ to be colourised and available to view in their treated versions.
Crook has had exclusive access to the Hancock archives, including never-before-seen personal items such as photos, ideas, scripts, scrapbooks, production files and letters that illustrate his life in vivid detail. Thie documentary also has exclusive TV access to clips from Hancock’s 1963 ATV series, unbroadcast for over 50 years.
Hancock is commissioned for UKTV by Iain Coyle, head of comedy entertainment, and ordered by Gerald Casey, channel director for Gold. Richard Watsham is director of commissioning, and Steve North is genre general manager for comedy and entertainment. Executive producer is Matt Crook, managing director of Studio Crook.
Matt Crook said: “To get access to such treasures from the Hancock estate and to work with UKTV on such an engaging project has been incredibly exciting. We have loved adding a splash of colour to classic Hancock, it’s been an absolute dream project”
Jack Dee said: “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.”
Iain Coyle said: “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.
Pippa Considine
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