Why was it this episode in particular that got remembered, I wonder? It's one of Galton and Simpson's very best scripts. The structure has a pleasing circularity to it, with the end leading back to the beginning in a way that feels natural, rather than forced - both surprising and fitting. The donor scenario and situation of the episode is genuinely original, rather than overly familiar. It’s very good on the absurd reasoning that we can produce in conversation when pressed on a subject that we don't really know about:
MAN: But I still don't see what good blood is,
though
HANCOCK: Well... your body's full of veins, isn't it?
MAN: Yes.
HANCOCK: Well, you've got to fill then up with something, haven't you?
MAN: Ah yes, I see. Are you a doctor then?
HANCOCK: Well... your body's full of veins, isn't it?
MAN: Yes.
HANCOCK: Well, you've got to fill then up with something, haven't you?
MAN: Ah yes, I see. Are you a doctor then?
The whole 25 minutes is
continually filled with very finely crafted elaborate lines - far too many for
the viewer to remember after a single viewing, which accounts for its
phenomenal subsequent success as an LP. But the thing that I'd forgotten which
made me laugh and laugh this time round was a very simple illustration of the
gap between Hancock's self-image as a generous man and the immediate limits of
that generosity: "(to Hugh Lloyd) Do you like wine gums? Don't take the
black one."
Watching with the knowledge of Hancock's car accident before recording and that he's reading the dialogue off an autocue prompts two responses in me. You're really aware of how wrong the eye lines are, and how rarely Hancock looks at the person who he's talking to, giving the performance a rather glazed feel. But at the same time, his fluency with the dialogue is amazingly good. The emphasis and phrasing in some quite complicated and allusive speeches is almost invariably comically right - it couldn't be spoken in a different way without being less funny.
With Hancock not really making eye contact with the other performers, it's fortunate that his supporting cast were such accomplished comic actors. June Whitfield, Frank Thornton and Patrick Cargill all have to respond to Hancock with a form of reserved exasperation, and each manages to convey a distinctive individual character with a life beyond a stooge reacting to a star performance. With none of their high-status characters able to humour Hancock's delusions, the viewer gets a sense of reward when Hugh Lloyd's modest and trusting fellow donor appears at the next bed when Hancock comes around after the transfusion. His naïve and accepting responses are also beautifully performed and draw out another side to the lead.
Watching with the knowledge of Hancock's car accident before recording and that he's reading the dialogue off an autocue prompts two responses in me. You're really aware of how wrong the eye lines are, and how rarely Hancock looks at the person who he's talking to, giving the performance a rather glazed feel. But at the same time, his fluency with the dialogue is amazingly good. The emphasis and phrasing in some quite complicated and allusive speeches is almost invariably comically right - it couldn't be spoken in a different way without being less funny.
With Hancock not really making eye contact with the other performers, it's fortunate that his supporting cast were such accomplished comic actors. June Whitfield, Frank Thornton and Patrick Cargill all have to respond to Hancock with a form of reserved exasperation, and each manages to convey a distinctive individual character with a life beyond a stooge reacting to a star performance. With none of their high-status characters able to humour Hancock's delusions, the viewer gets a sense of reward when Hugh Lloyd's modest and trusting fellow donor appears at the next bed when Hancock comes around after the transfusion. His naïve and accepting responses are also beautifully performed and draw out another side to the lead.
