Leonard Martin

Hancock's Half Hour is a BBC television comedy series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock with Sid James. The final series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone. Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development.

A quintessentially British comedy-of-manners. Based at the fictional Yeovil College of Lifemanship, Richard Briers plays Stephen Potter and is joined by Peter Jones as the snooty Gatling-Fenn and Frederick Jaeger, complete with monocle, playing Cogg-Willoughby. "The world is divided into two types of people," Potter says, "winners and losers, the one-up and the one-down. He who is not one-up is surely one-down".

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh undertook an official visit to the region in February 1966, as documented in this film. The destinations on this month long excursion included: British Guiana; Trinidad and Tobago; Grenada; St. Vincent; Barbados; St. Lucia; Dominica; Montserrat; Antigua; St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla; Tortola (Virgin Islands); the Bahamas; Jamaica. This rich and detailed Technicolor travelogue was the only film authorised by the Palace. Strict instructions were given prior to the production being given the green light, most notably that the royals could only be filmed when ‘engaged in a public function’. Unlike the more relaxed footage or interviews you might see with the royals now the film is visually very official in tone.

The history of the BRS (British Road Services), the general haulage network of the UK. Part of BFI collection "Points and Aspects."