Tony Hancock Face to Face Interview Part 02

First Broadcast - June 1960.
Hancock appears on the BBC's Face to Face, a half-hour in-depth interview programme conducted by John Freeman. Freeman asks Hancock many searching questions about his life and work.

[@HHM706]

There’s absolutely no way a person would submit themselves to an interrogation like this today

[@thardingau]

This interview is rather intense, even intrusive. I’m not sure whether this is good or bad.

[@anon9415]

"Relaxing" = euphemism for drinking 😞

[@user-ly8bq3tx5j]

This is what is known as a gem

[@alexdavies7394]

To think 100 years ago, this comic genius was born 😊 I still enjoy your comedy Tony

[@MrBrianNZ]

I like this machine gun technique that Freeman used. Hancock knew what he was taking on and knew he would be honest and here we are. I would welcome that technique being used on some of todays “ celebs” but they certainly would not.

[@robinkeck9950]

Excellent post. I couldn’t agree more.

[@Crowthius]

Face to face was cutting edge at the time, the questions asked were the questions the public of the time would love to be asked but never expected them to be. That was the appeal. The close ups were done in the hope of showing sweat and making the guests appear to be under pressure, in fact the sweat was caused by the studio lights.

[@duffymoony]

The lad 'imself is only about 36 here, he always looked older than his age, a little like Ronny Barker.

[@bagpuss998]

Funniest man that’s ever been ; genius 👍

[@thedativecase9733]

He was also lucky to have excellent scriptwriters in Galton and Simpson.

[@edgaralan9917]

So good to see this great man...

[@victorsauvage1890]

Beautiful man!

[@darrellsimpson6966]

My favorite comedian by far

[@bagpuss998]

He should of stuck to smoking roll ups. 300 for a pound boy , mind you ‘ you get through a lot of matches 😂

[@ToporkestraVeteran]

I'm a massive Tony Hancock fan

[@monkeytron5061]

I don’t find this comfortable but you have to remember the time it happened. I wish politicians were interviewed like this now. Tony would have known what the interview would be like so it’s fascinating. He is no fool.

[@Mascherina1964]

These questions about money are incredible! Especially during this era! And especially in a country where you don't even ask directly questions such as "What do you do for a living?"

[@ericpayne2949]

This interview is rather like integration with Hancock trying to defend he’s self rather abusive in parts

[@thedativecase9733]

Yes it would have been considered pretty rude, especially from a gentleman like Freeman.

[@mcttotal]

@OofusTwillip also the interviewer seems to have very little interest in the answers...

[@meredith218461]

When it came to money I would have told Freeman to mind his own damn business!. I find the overall questioning uncomfortably intrusive.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

That's the point. It's supposed to be a deep interview.

[@mjb4983]

I mind hurt

[@boywithadolphin]

Why was he named after four body parts?

[@mioufie23]

Toe Knee Hand...

[@anthonykennedy5324]

Clever. Who thinks of this ?

[@adamantman3200]

This show FACE TO FACE is using the same format that Edward R. Murrow used on his PERSON TO PERSON program for CBS in the early-to-mid '50s.

[@esmeephillips5888]

Murrow was less hardball and put himself forward more. He admitted he acted the gushy nice guy as an interviewer so Middle America would tolerate him as a leftish political commentator, saying 'well, at least he appreciates movie stars too'.

[@piersposner1274]

The manner of the questioning is by turns an interrogation and unremittingly personal and more generally quite unkind, especially the voyeuristic interest in money.

[@monkeytron5061]

I thought that. He is being grilled like a politician. He came across brilliantly though. We need journalists like this interviewer now to grill actual politicians.

[@pix046]

There is a great take off of this by Harry Enfield. Cyril Freebody interviewing Sir Norbert Smith as follows; "Now, you're not very well endowed, are you?" (Sir Norbert looking drunk, chain-smoking, slumped and dead beat) "How do you know that?" "Because, if you'll forgive me, I'm having an affair with your wife!" As another great humourist - Peter Cook - would have said about this Face To Face interviewer, "What a cunt, eh?" (c(search 'this bloke came up to me' on KZbin.

[@bolshevikproductions]

He Binned himself off. And everyone else who aided his career.

[@bolshevikproductions]

Lower Middle his reply. Says everything about His ego.

[@bonnie3447]

The interview that killed him according to his brother. A tortured genius.

[@HenryRaeburn367]

This interview was broadcasted 8 years before his death

[@spmoran4703]

That was like seeing him interviewed by The Gestapo. So what , he was fat. So, what , he was lower middle class. That was too personal . Since then things have not improved.

[@thedativecase9733]

Tony was very conscious of his weight and his incomplete education. Freeman takes advantage of this. So different from my dad who was a similar generation who was proud of being a well-read working class man. If posh people didn't like his self confidence his attitude was "sod them".

[@stuartbritton7408]

Where did the South African accent come from? Was it from Sid?

[@michaelocyoung]

@James Henderson Sid was a Saffer.

[@junerobertson4389]

Don't like the interviewer, he comes fast and furious with questions and would make me uncomfortable and don't think Tony is impressed either.

[@peterm1826]

this guy isnt an interviewer he's a psychologist wants to know every bloody detail why not ask him how many times he takes a shit

[@DennisNutting]

He fancies himself as being a psychologist. One of the things I dislike about him. Don't like interviewers in general because they seem to me to be parasitic on genuinely accomplished people. If you look at his other interviews, most of his guests see him coming and deal with him accordingly. Poor Hancock made the mistake, in my view, of showing him far too much deference and taking him far too seriously.

[@darrenskinner3711]

I think you do Hancock a disservice. It seems more to me that Hancock approaches the interview, and indeed the interviewer, at face value and simply doesn't want to succumb to the trap of affectation or duplicity in an arena whose success is predicated on the absence of such devices. After all what exactly would be the point of the exercise of allowing oneself to be interviewed if going in you were not prepared to be as honest as you possibly could? Also I'm not sure the interviewer was particularly rude or aggressive or in any way attempted to trick Hancock during this interview so I'm a little lost with regards the assertion that there was in someway an approach the interviewer was taking that warranted the need or desire to "see him coming and deal with him accordingly." as you say. Could you give an example please as I am genuinely interested and I am actually wondering if maybe I'm not being a little slow on the uptake here?

[@thedativecase9733]

@@DennisNutting Evelyn Waugh took his Face to Face as a battle of wits. He even asked a friend well before the interview if he knew anything "compromising" about Freeman that he could use to his advantage.

[@evonneashley7834]

Who was his wife at this time

[@DanielWebb-jn8ku]

Cicely J. E. Romanis

[@MarkHarrison733]

It wasn't a real marriage.

[@eddielasowsky7777]

The interview that led him on a road of savage introspection that ultimately killed him.

[@samjoseph420]

The questions are bit uncomfortable and the interviewer is just plain rude.

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

He wasn't funny at all.

[@neilmccarthy6912]

Haha tw@t. He was a genius