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Hancock\'s\\nHalf-Hour\\nis the yardstick against which all subsequent British sitcoms have been\\nmeasured, the vast majority failing to size up to its extremely high standards.\\nBased on his famous radio show of the same name, the TV run consolidated Tony\\nHancock\'s standing as Britain\'s leading comic of the day, the entertainer\\nproviding ample proof that his wonderfully flexible face could be as expressive\\nas his dextrous radio voice. Tony Hancock was at the height of his powers\\nduring the late 1950s, squeezing every comic ounce out of his lines, pulling\\noff perfectly judged pauses and demonstrating a sense of timing to match the\\ngreat Jack Benny\'s. His character - Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock - was\\ninvariably a loser, whose aspirations and plans were dashed by fate,\\ncircumstance, Sid James or, more often than not, his own pomposity or\\nunfettered ambition.