2006-12-08 Be a bit cautious here......

When the BBC came to present the complete run of Tony Hancock's epic radio series in six box sets, it transpired that a significant number of the original recordings were absent from the archives. One of these - "The Stolen Petrol", from series four - turned up in time for inclusion out-of-sequence in the Series Six box-set. This CD contains two further, newly-rediscovered episodes ("The Blackboard Jungle" and "The New Secretary") which were recorded at home by a listener.

Naturally, as a keen fan of Hancock, I greatly looked forward to the release of these episodes on CD, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed here. Both are good episodes, and "The New Secretary" is recognised as a pivotal moment, marking the introduction of Hattie Jacques, a development which is widely recognised as transforming Hancock's Half Hour from a good to a truly great series.

This said, a version of this show did already exist in the archives - a revised version recorded for sale overseas by the BBC Transciption Service. These transcription recordings, which are included in the Series Six box set, differed from the originals by removing specifically topical and home-based references. They are often regarded as inferior to the original recordings of the episodes, though the "New Secretary" TS recording is actually quite good.

The existence of the TS version can cause some confusion - hearing 'The New Secretary' on this CD, you might think that you had already heard it, and that it is not really a 'lost' episode at all. In fact, though, this is a genuinely "lost" episode, because the version previously issued (on cassette as well as in the Series Six box set) was actually the TS version, not the original version as presented here. (I hope this clarifies things).

The release of these newly discovered recordings should have been a great moment, so why, then, my sense of disapppontment here? First, the recording quality falls significantly short of the studio recordings contained in the box sets. Whilst not surprising, this does detract from listeners' enjoyment, particularly with "The New Secretary", which suffers from such an annoying background hiss that you might decide to listen to the Transcription Services version instead. Second, the BBC chose to expand this from a single to a double CD set by including, on the second disc, two Hancock retrospectives, neither of which is particularly good.

If, like me, you're a die-hard Hancock fan, you're probably going to buy this anyway, but please be warned that both the recording quality of the lost episodes, and the quality of the second disc retrospective, give significant scope for disappointment.