Tony Hancock: The Definitive Biography. John Fisher
Thursday night offering an uneven, ragged business. As the star, Derek Roy was lost in a mêlée of overlong and unfunny contributions from others.’ Of Educating Archie, which aired in a half-hour slot the following day at 20.45 on the same station, it stated, ‘Tony “Flippin’ kids” Hancock shoots to star billing in his first outing with the “A” team. This man is funny. A slick script and smooth production make this a winter’s winner as usual.’ The mark of a successful catchphrase was such that it could identify itself that quickly. Already Hancock was marked with the two words that would now haunt him for several years.
An intriguing sidelight to the two reviews, not deemed worthy of mention to Mirror readers, is that both shows were produced by the same man, Roy Speer. While this was ludicrously too large a burden for one individual, Speer would have been the first to concede that the established show, which had already completed one award-winning series, had something more than an ‘A’ team at its disposal, not least – in Eric Sykes – a co-writer of inspiration and – in Peter Brough – a star with class, enterprise and his own finger on the pulse of aspiring talent. Unfortunate is the ventriloquist whose name begins with ‘B’, but, when his dummy spoke, Brough was never ‘Grough’ by name, and certainly never gruff by nature. All three saw the potential of Hancock when they watched him together in a London music hall earlier in the year, but he may not have been the first choice. A press release to herald the second series at the beginning of June 1951 announced Harry Secombe as the new tutor to Archie, while an internal BBC memo ahead of the very first series also suggested Harry as a potential member of the original cast. Secombe would not get his opportunity to educate Archie until the third run of the show, when he took over from Hancock, who was anxious not to outstay his welcome and be typecast as a schoolmaster comedian, at the same time as Brough and Speer were anxious to keep the basic format refreshed with continual cast changes.
It is feasible that without Ted Kavanagh, the influential creator of ITMA, Educating Archie would not have come into being at all. He certainly provided the final piece of the jigsaw for Brough’s success. Peter was a struggling ventriloquist on the variety circuit when one night in 1942 he was advised by the music publisher and record producer Wally Ridley either to invent a new character for his doll or to get out of the business completely. In devising ‘Archie Andrews’ Brough displayed all the skills of a producer himself, accessing the best individual talents to contribute to the completed whole. Len Insull, now a legend in ventriloquial circles, crafted the puppet to coincide with Peter’s creative vision. On an unrelated business trip to Brora in the Highlands, Brough and Ridley took long walks together on the beach as the ventriloquist tried to find the voice required, until, as Peter recollected, ‘out of the empty sea, sky and shore one voice suddenly seemed to click – the thin, cheeky treble of a boy of fourteen or so!’ However, the personality was not complete until Peter revealed the doll to Kavanagh in a dressing room at Lime Grove film studios, where Ted was working with Handley on a film. A name was required and without hesitation the burly, witty writer responded, ‘His name, Peter, is Archie Andrews.’ Duly christened, in Brough’s eyes his new wooden partner became a real person from that moment, and in due course, with his elegant guardian, a variety attraction on a level with Max Miller, Tommy Trinder and Gracie Fields.
As Archie’s tutor, Hancock came on board the second series of Educating Archie in the role played initially by his ex-colleague from the Gang Show, the daffy Robert Moreton. The premise was that Archie – a magnet for trouble when not instigating it himself – could only be taught at home: no school would take him. Tony joined an established cast that included Max Bygraves as the cheery odd-job man, youthful ITMA stalwart Hattie Jacques as Miss Dinglebody – ‘Call me, Agatha’ – who has eyes for Tony, and Julie Andrews as Archie’s girlfriend. Hancock’s duties in the show extended beyond the tutorial role. The opening cross-talk segment between the ventriloquist and his dummy defined the relationship of Brough as the moralistic father figure and Archie as the cheekily nonchalant Pinocchio within his care, before segueing into an encounter with an unnamed Hancock in whatever job happened to fit the situation, whether dentist, car salesman, zoo keeper, estate agent, train driver or gym instructor. Whatever the occupation, a seedy obsequiousness was his calling card, waiting to be worn dog-eared by the precocious schoolboy. In their very first encounter Brough takes Archie to the barber.
TONY: Just kneel on the chair, will you, sonny? There we are then! Now where are my scissors? Scissors, scissors …
ARCHIE: These what you’re looking for?
TONY: Ah yes, thanks – ahahaha. That was a jolly good idea, dipping the handles into the brilliantine, wasn’t it?
ARCHIE: I thought it wasn’t bad.
PETER: Archie, you shouldn’t have done that.
TONY: That’s all right, sir. All in good fun. I love children. Especially boys and girls. Now let’s get started … where’s he gone to?
ARCHIE: I’m over here.
TONY: Ah yes there … what are you doing with that razor?
ARCHIE: Just sharpening my pencil.
TONY: Just sharpening … give me that! Now kneel up on the chair, laddie. Ahahaha. Flippin’ kids!
No matter what job Hancock held down, Archie would be there to plague him. Only following a musical interlude did Hancock don mortarboard and gown for the middle section of the show that began by focusing on Archie’s schoolroom activities. As far as the listener at home was concerned, Brough had now left the scene and the emphasis was set securely upon teacher and pupil:
ARCHIE: Good morning, Dr Hancock, sir.
TONY: Good morning, Andrews. I fervently hope – admitted with a certain amount of trepidation – that our relationship will be fruitful and none the less amiable, for the fact that I may impose a discipline you may not have encountered hitherto? Do you follow me?
ARCHIE: Well, I got as far as ‘Good morning, Andrews.’
Much of the humour was schoolboy-howler based, with Archie always one step ahead of his mentor:
TONY: Why did Boadicea build the Suez Canal? Steady, Andrews. It’s a catch question.
ARCHIE: Well the catch answer is ‘Boadicea did not build the Suez Canal.’
TONY: Exactly – the catch being that you don’t build canals – you dig them – simple, isn’t it?
ARCHIE: Not half as simple as you are.
TONY: Ahahaha – saucy scholar …
The sketch would then expand to include Hattie, Max and the occasional guest star who was allowed to wander in and out of the format. After Julie Andrews’s song the third segment spiralled off into a fantasy dimension not unworthy of The Goon Show, with Archie often identifying himself in his imagination with an iconic figure from history, literature or legend, abetted by Hancock, Max and Hattie in appropriate roles. In Hancock’s time, Alexander Graham Bell, Hannibal, King Arthur and Christian of the Bounty all received the Archie treatment. Because of these constant shifts of focus, the show never became boring. Once Peter, figuratively speaking, had left the microphone to leave Archie centre stage, the role of comic foil zigzagged back and forth between the schoolboy hero and the eccentric members of Brough’s household.
The conventional opening dialogue between Brough and Archie originated from the pen of Sid Colin; when the action opened up to include the others, Eric Sykes took over the writing reins for the lion’s share of the half hour. According to Eric, not only did Tony’s presence lift the show considerably, they also shared an instant rapport. In one of the closing sketches Hancock found himself showing a miscreant Archie around Hell, where he is working as a guard. ‘It was at the time the Russians were vetoing everything,’ recalls Sykes, ‘and there was this sound of marching feet and the cry of “Niet, niet, niet, niet” as they trudged past, and as they went by Tony had to say, “They’re from Russia.” And he said to me, “How would you say this, Eric?” And I said, “When you are saying it, imagine that you have a cigarette in your hand and you are tapping the ash