Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy series starring Tony Hancock and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and produced by Dennis Main Wilson. The series began in 1954 and ended in 1959. A television version first appeared in 1956, occasionally utilising re-written versions of the radio scripts.
Hancock played a struggling comedian, an exaggerated version of himself, residing in reduced circumstances at 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam. Sid James and Bill Kerr appeared in all six series as Hancock's friends. The characters of all three used the actor's names. Hattie Jacques featured in series 4 and 5 as Hancock's secretary, and Kenneth Williams played various roles from series 2 onwards. In earlier series Hancock had a girlfriend, played by Moira Lister (series 1) and Andre Melly (series 2 and 3).
The scripts within the collection are predominantly photocopies, though there are also examples of original scripts. THM/432/1/8 is a script for a special broadcast of Hancock's Half Hour entitled 'Welcome to London' written for a gala in celebration of the recently completed Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games, held in Cardiff in 1958.