Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The name, the very thought of his face and the way he was even able to clear the pubs of any custom at his absolute peak, is enough to remember Tony Hancock for what he was, a genius of comedy, the master of stalled look at camera in which he carried a nations funny bone for over a decade until his untimely death in Australia in 1968.
What makes the man still relevant today 45 years after his sad passing? What makes him still a champion, a comedy idol, the ultimate British clown of many who saw him perform, took his words and laughed with the rebel and who still today garners more adulation than many 21st century comedians.
In My Hero: Ben Miller on Tony Hancock, one of those 21st Century comedians, Ben Miller, took a voyage of discovery to learn more about the man who shaped his life. Ben Miller is no slouch when it comes to comedy, one half of the superb Armstrong and Miller pairing and one of the stars of the fantastic recent revival of The Ladykillers, which was a smash hit across the country, to cite Birmingham born Tony Hancock as one of the inspirations to which you owe your chosen profession is not something to bandy about lightly and during the entire hour the respect in which Mr. Miller spoke of the man who made British sit-com history and became a national institution was at times overwhelming. Even when faced with the darker side of his life, his increasing alcoholism, the nature in the way he discarded many along the way as he sought fame didn’t deter Ben Miller from facing the absolute truth that Tony Hancock was perhaps arguably the finest comic this country has produced.
With rarely seen footage of the comic as he became more dependent on drink whilst he performed, a frank interview with Sylvia Simms, the innocence of his youth at The Darlston Court Hotel and the genius of his work scripted by the supremely talented Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, Ben Miller showed why Tony Hancock’s name will live on a lot longer than many of the comics who have followed in his hound dog encrusted shoes. A remarkable film about a remarkable man, the B.B.C. acknowledging one of their own for what he was, a hero!
Ian D. Hall