Released in 1968, the first budget release of The Blood Donor / The Radio Ham was effectively untitled with just the artist name and the titleof the episodes on the front slleve. The Marble Arch label was Pye's first foray inot budget releases and many of Pye's older LPs resurfaced on the Marble Arch label during this time. Growing out of the Golden Guinea seriesm its not surprising that the release features the same photograph as on the Golden Guinea release and a very similar label.

This first BBC release of Hancock's Half Hour features 9 extracts from the radio shows: Almost A Gentleman, Christmas East Cheam Style, PC Hancock Have Feet Will Travel, Michael Hancockelo, The Doctor's Dilemma, Like A Dog's Dinner, Is That Your Car Outside?, With My Woggle I Thee Worship and The Hospital or Hancock Revisited. The sleeve notes state that all of these recordings were sourced from BBC Transcription Service archive recordings. Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the sleeve notes also include the following extract: 'The excerpts on this record were selected from various radio versions of Hancock's Half Hour originally broadcast in the 1950's and were taken from original sound tracks. They have not before been issued on record and in our view provide a good cross-section of the art of Tony Hancock.

Issued in 1976, the next BBC release celebrated 40 years of BBC television with 14 comic extracts from the archive. Artists featured included Peter Cook & Dudley Moors, Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques and The Two Ronnies. Featured programmes included Steptoe & Son, That Was The Week That Was and Till Death Us Do Part. The Tony Hancock extract was a 4 ¬Ω minute extract from The Radio Ham starting from the moment Tony returns home with his new valves.

The first release of complete episodes from the BBC interestingly did not feature radio half hours. Rather it featured 2 complete TV episodes. Released in 1976, the episodes on this release were Twelve Angry Men and The Lift. Neither episode featured any incidental music for 'contractual reasons'; the programmes start with just audience applause. For The Lift, an additional line of dialogue was recorded by Hugh Lloyd for the section where Hancock re-enters the lift towards the end of the episode. The front cover features a great montage of photographs from the archives.

Back to the BBC, this release (in 1979) included extracts from a number of shows that had featured in the Radio One Programme 'Fun At One'. The artists featured were not the usual line up featured on BBC compilations and included Woody Allen, Shelley Berman and The Bickersons alongside The Glums, Ronnie Barker and Round The Horne. The Tony Hancock extract was a 4 ¬Ω minute segment from The Blood Donor starting from the moment Hancock goes in to see the Doctor.

Other than This Is Hancock in 1960, this was the first release of complete radio half hours and was the real start of the BBC's archive release programme. Released in 1980, the shows on this release were Sid's Mystery Tours and The Poetry Society and were the most complete versions available in the archive at the time. However, similarly to The Lift from 1976, no incidental music was included. Investigation on the Internet has revealed that there is an alternative cassette release of this item, which appears to have been released in the Far East, although it may have been a bootleg. This was released in 1984 with similar artwork on the Quality 747 Variety label and numbered 5182. This release also featured Fullers Earth on the B side, which was attributed to the Goons on the sleeve, but was actually from a Peter Sellers EP called The Two Peters, which also featured Peter Ustinov on the other side.

The second LP from this new series was released in 1981 and featured The Americans Hit Town and The Unexploded Bomb. Incidental music was again missing but both shows were otherwise complete. As with the Sid's Mystery Tours release, a Quality 747 Variety cassette version of this release exists. Numbered 5180, this version includes a track called One Life by The Goons on side B.

Released in 1981 on the budget 'Music For Pleasure' label, this double album was a re-release of the 1966 album Adventure and the 1961 album Serenade. Included are Miss Marple's Theme, 633 Squadron Theme from The Trap. The Hancock related track is entitled Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines but this is not just the title track but a series of extracts from the various themes throughout the film.

Released on the Ronco label in 1981, this double LP release featured 31 extracts from a wide range of comedians, including Rowan Atkinson, Monty Python, Billy Connolly and Not The Nine O'Clock News from the then current crop of talent and Joyce Grenfell, The Goons and Benny Hill with older recordings. The Tony Hancock extract was a 3 Minute extract from the Blood Donor starting from when Hancock goes in to see the Doctor.

The third LP from this series was released in 1982 and featured The Scandal Magazine and The Last of The McHancocks. Incidental music was again missing but both shows were otherwise complete. As with the Sid's Mystery Tours release, a Quality 747 Variety cassette version of this release exists. Numbered 5179, this version just includes the two Hancock episodes and does not feature any additional material by the Goons.

Released in 1982, this album featured extracts from a number of releases available at the time and included a booklet advertising what was available. As can be seen, the Hancock releases featured were Unique Hancock, Hancock, The Poetry Society/Sid's Mystery Tours and The Americans Hit Town/The Unexploded Bomb. The 14 extracts featured on the 'Laughing Stock' album included Yes Minister, The Goons and Hoffnung. There were two extracts from Hancock: a 2 minute extract from the very beginning of 'Almost A Gentleman' and a 4 Minute extract from 'The Americans Hit Town', starting from the moment when Kenneth, inspects 23 Railway Cuttings.

The fourth LP in the series was released in 1983 and featured The Sleepless Night and Fred's Pie Stall. Once again incidental music was missing but both shows were otherwise complete. A search of the Internet has not revealed any reference to a Quality 747 Variety version of this release. Please let us know if it exists.

The final release in this series came in 1984, which made 5 releases in as many years; the greatest number of different shows released up to that time. This release featured Hancock's War and The Christmas Club Handout and, again, did not feature any incidental music. The Quality 747 Variety version of this release is numbered 5181 and just features the Hancock episodes.

This cassette was issued in 1985 and was a promotional release for British Rail's Red Star Parcel Service. Starring Trevor Bannister, the scene is that Hancock has set himself up in opposition to Red Star but he is having trouble with his trained carrier pigeons. The Society has not managed to track down a copy of this cassette so no image is available. If anyone can provide the Soicety with a copy of the artwork or an original cassette, please contact our archivist. Please see the 'Contact us' section of the website. A recording of this promotional release is available to hear on YouTube

This cassette release was given away by BP petrol and features extracts from the period 1945 to 1985 and includes Winston Churchill's victory speech, The Boat Race, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, James Bond, the 1966 Cup Final and Billy Connolly. The Tony Hancock contribution is an extract from The Missing Page.

Introduced by Russell Davies and featuring artists from BBC 3's Turns Of The Century, this release from 1988 included a wide variety of artists, including Tommy Cooper, Flanders and Swann, Max Wall, Beryl Reid, Stanley Holloway, Hylda Baker, Ken Dodd, Sandy Powell, Morecambe and Wise, Jimmy James, The Crazy Gang and many more. The Hancock extract was from his Royal Variety Show performance of 1952.

Following on from the success of the BBC record / cassette releases of many programmes (including the 5 records above), the BBC Radio Collection was born. . Volume 1 featured The Poetry Society, Sid's Mystery Tours, The Americans Hit Town and The Unexploded Bomb. It represented a re-release of the first 2 volumes of the previous record collection. First editions did not feature incidental music, which was added in 1992. New artwork was created in 2000; both versions are illustrated here.

Volume 2 was also released in 1988 and featured The Scandal Magazine, The Last of The McHancocks, The Sleepless Night and Fred's Pie Stall. This volume represented a re-release of volumes 3 and 4 from the previous record collection. Similarly to Volume 1, the 1988 release did not feature incidental music, which was added in 1992. New artwork was created in 2000; both versions are illustrated here.

This autobiography of Kenneth Williams features extracts from the 10 part Radio 4 series first broadcast 16 to 27 September 1985, which includes Kenneth discussing Hancock's Half Hour, Beyond Our Ken, Round The Horne, The Carry on Films and his numerous stage appearances.

This volume was released in 1989 and featured Hancock's War, The Christmas Club Handout, The Lift and Twelve Angry Men. This volume represented a re-release of volume 5 from the previous record collection and also a re-release of the 1976 LP entitled Hancock. The Lift and Twelve Angry Men were the only TV shows to be released in this series. In common with the first 2 volumes, there was no incidental music on the 1988 release, which was added in 1992. New artwork was created in 2000. The original 1988 (with and without signature tune versions) plus the 2000 covers are illustrated.