Tony Hancock's birth location (Hall Green, Birmingham)

Here I am outside the large semi-detached home where comedian Tony Hancock was born. When I’m out walking on the hills I sometimes put some of his comedies on my mp3 player and even though I know what’s going to happen they’re still funny. They don’t seem to date and seem to last as they’re based on everyday situations folk can relate to.

There were about a hundred Hancock’s Half Hour radio episodes over seven peak years in the fifties. Many thought it was a mistake to transfer it to television but it made Tony a bigger star and he was the first comedian to demands £1000 for a half hour show. I asked my mum and dad if it was true that his shows were so popular that they cleared they streets but they couldn’t remember.

I prefer the episodes featuring Sid James but rubber-faced Tony got rid of him when he feared they were becoming a double act. In the end he got rid of talented regular actors and his legendary regular scriptwriters Galton and Simpson and isolated himself. He committed the ultimate isolation by swilling down lots of pills with vodka in his flat in Sydney Australia aged 44.

This roomy Victorian house was among others of similar size and quality. All the houses on Southham Road boasted the width and depth required to make a roomy guesthouse but they seemed to be privately owned and thankfully hadn’t been butchered into flats. This is a nice house on a nice road in a nice area so Tony probably had a nice life here. However it’s doubtful he had no memories of the place as when he was three the family moved to Bournemouth on the south coast where his dad ran a hotel (he died when Tony was ten.) I’ve been to the hotel and the link is at the bottom of this page.

The house is on a quiet road of detached houses. These two photos were taken with the house behind me…