Theatre

Tony got his start performing at the Bournemouth Avon Road Labour Club, with the assistance of George Fairweather. But after his successful risquée performane there failed to translate to the more conservative stage at the Church of the Sacred Heart, he saw off blue humour. Touring the country he performed a variety of sketches and routines for concerts, cabarets, clubs and more. He even enjoyed Panto, performing across the country. 

Tony got his start performing at the Bournemouth Avon Road Labour Club, with the assistance of George Fairweather. But after his successful risquée performane there failed to translate to the more conservative stage at the Church of the Sacred Heart, he saw off blue humour. Touring the country he performed a variety of sketches and routines for concerts, cabarets, clubs and more. He even enjoyed Panto, performing across the country. 

Hancock joins George Fairweather's Black Dominoes concert party and tours army bases close to his Bournemouth home and also performs at Boscombe.

Hancock performs in local camp concerts following his call up to the Royal Air Force

The Gang Show (featuring Hancock) tours North Africa in May. On 4th June the Gang Show perfored at the Jubilee Theatre, Blackpool, before The No. 9 Gang Show moved on to tour Italy in August. Returning in May 1945 to the UK after a 12 month tour, it later merged with the No. 4 Gang Show in Gibraltar. On 27th December 1946 the No. 4 Gang Show performed in Cairo.

The Gang Show, as a format, was created Ralph Reader in 1931 when asked to write a Scout-based variety show to raise money for a swimming pool for Downe Scout Camp. Rehearsals began the following year on the 25th May, his 29th birthday, to run from 30th October until the 1st November 1932. 'The Gang's All Here' (so named for the cast response when asked if everyone was ready) and while it didn't sell out, it was successful in raising the funding required for the swimming pool. 

Baden-Powell persuaded Reader to produce another show in 1933, The Gang Comes Back, which ran for a week. He continued to write and produce The London Gang Show, which became The Gang Show in 1934. In 1937 it became the first amateur production to have a Royal Command Performance, and again in 1957. A feature film by the same name premiered in April that same year, Ralph Reader and The Gang starring. 

These volunteer run shows have continued to this day, giving youth scouting members a learning opportunity for the performing arts and contributing to the local culture. While scouting members of all ages are involved, the on-stage component is limited to youth members (under twenty-five). In 1972 Reader founded The London Gang Show Fellowship, facilitating the ongoing connection between current and forner members. Since its origin, it's expanded all over the world (Reader produced and directed the first US gang show in Chicago in 1958). The song On the Crest of a Wave, created by Reader, is the signature tune for Gang Shows globally

Ralph Reader, creater of the gang show format in the 1930s, created Wings in the immediate aftermath of the second world war on behalf of the Air Council. 

Visualised as an experimental recruiting technique to see whether money allocated by the government to the Air Council for recruiting/publicty could be successfully used for a theatrical pageant. 

'Everyone today is air-minded. “Wings”, the mammoth show which comes to the New Theatre Oxford on Monday August 18th tells the story of Flying, of man's triumph over the air, from the first tentative beginning up to the present day. In a quick changing, colourful series of scenes … as big as anything Drury Lane itself has staged, when no less than three hundred people people are upon the stage … it has the No. 1 Regional Band of the R.A.F. and the R.A.F. Dance Orchestra. It is full of colour, with glowing scenery by Charles Reading and beautiful costumes by Charles Judd … and produced by Britain's leading producer, Ralph Reader, who is also responsible for the original music. Mr. Reader's great series of successful productions and gigantic pageants are well-known, and in “Wings” he has surpassed himself …“Wings” has a splendid cast. There are fifty first class professional performers with a background of two hundred and fifty specially picked airmen and airwomen. … there are plenty of well known names, such as John Forbes-Robertson, a descendant of the great actor of that name; Brian Nissen, who made a great success in that long running play “The Watch on the Rhine” and is also under contract to J. Arthur Rank, the film magnate. It should be noted that “Wings” is not an all-male show – there are plenty of girls.' - Press release for the New Theatre, Oxford (30/07/1947)

RAFA Festival of Reunion at the Royal Albert Hall, London

Tony got his start performing at the Bournemouth Avon Road Labour Club, with the assistance of George Fairweather. But after his successful risquée performane there failed to translate to the more conservative stage at the Church of the Sacred Heart, he saw off blue humour. Touring the country he performed a variety of sketches and routines for concerts, cabarets, clubs and more. He even enjoyed Panto, performing across the country. 

Playing three small parts at the Playhouse Theatre, Oxford

Revudeville' No 214 at the Windmill Theatre, London. Tony performed as part of a double act with Derek Scott and performed as 'Derek Scott and Hank'