Pre-dating the earliest Hancock release by 2 years, this LP was released in the UK in 1958 having previously been released in South Africa. The best description can be found in the sleeve note: 'Moira Lister, the beautiful and talented South African actress whose performances in 'The Love of Four Colonels' and other productions in the West End and on Broadway have won her an ever-widening public, first introduced her programme 'People In Love" on Television. Subsequently she assembled her material into a one-woman show, and toured South Africa and Australia with great success. The four most popular stories from the stage show are reproduced on this record.' The stories are 'Her Son' by Jose d'Almeida, 'The Lady of Gollerus' by Thomas Crocker, The Chairmender by 'Guy de Maupassant and finally 'The Tell-tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe.

This version of Pieces of Hancock was manufactured and released in Australia. Both the front and reverse of this cover are identical to the UK release other than the sticker on the front, which reads Astor Goldengroove Series and the Astor logo in the bottom left hand corner. The early versions of this release featured a black and grey label. Later versions featured an orange label. Content on this album is identical to the UK release.

This version of Pieces of Hancock was manufactured and distributed in Canada on the Pye Red Label. The content is identical to the UK release.

This version of This Is Hancock was manufactured and released in Australia where there was a significant fan base for Hancock's Half Hour. The blue stripes on the sleeve are a much brighter blue than on the UK release and the sticker on the front reads Astor Goldengroove Series. Content on this album is identical to the UK releases.

This version of This is Hancock was manufactured and issued in Canada, where there was also a significant fan base. Content for this release was the same as the UK version.

This is Hancock was first released in April 1960 just four months after the last Hancock's Half Hour radio episode had been broadcast. The release contains edited (but virtually complete) radio episodes The Wild Man of the Woods and A Sunday Afternoon at Home. Released on the Pye Plum label, early versions were on the Pye Nixa label. This later changed to the later Pye plum coloured label with the final versions appearing with a cherry coloured label. A fantastic first release of Hancock's Half Hour with briliant sleeve notes by Galton & Simpson. Illustrated is the front cover (top left); the original Pye Nixa Label (top right); the early Pye Plum Label (bottom left) and the Pye Cherry Label (bottom right).

Released in 1960 as a follow up to This Is Hancock, this release featured a series of extracts with specially recorded links featuring Tony. Side 1 featured The East Cheam Drama Festival, a 20 minute extract from the programme of the same name. The second extract on side 1 is a 9 minute extract entitled The Secret Life of Anthony Hancock. This 'Test Pilot' extract was from the programme The Diary and is probably the best known sequence from the Radio Half Hours owing to the number of times this extract was played on the Radio, especially during 'Stewpot's Choice', a weekend radio programme in the 70's. Side 2 features a 12 minute extract from The Publicity Photograph and a further 12 minute extract from The Threatening Letters. All of the extracts were heavily edited. The front sleeve features the same photo as on the main UK release of This Is Hancock and the jigsaw effect makes for an interesting cover. However, the reverse of the cover is interesting in that it contains a photo of all of the cast and underneath a numbered drawing intended to show who is who. Unfortunately, the names are all in the wrong place! Released on the Pye Plum label, early releases featured a dark plum label, which later changed to the almost pink label.

The second version of this Australian release of Hancock was on the Astor label. As with the previous release, this LP features the studio re-recordings of The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham. The label states that this is a Pye Records UK Recording and the sticker on the front of the cover reads: 'Gold Star Series'.

The Canadian version of this release featured an identical sleeve to the UK release other than the appearance of the wording Pye Astral and the record number on the front sleeve. The label on this release was red.

The Canadian version of this release featured an identical sleeve to the UK release other than the appearance of the wording Pye Astral and the record number on the front sleeve. The label on this release was red.

The New Zeland version of this release featured an identical sleeve to the UK release other than the appearance of the record number on the front sleeve. The label on this release was the tradional early plum label.

You could easily mistake this release for something it isn't! Other than the purple and white stripes, this looks like a different version of This Is Hancock but in fact it is the Australian version of the UK album Hancock and features The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham. This first version was released on the Pye Australia Label.

The third version of the release of Hancock Volume 2 features a pink stripped front cover instead of the previous purple stripes whilst the label no longer states that this is a Pye Records UK Recording. The content on this release is identical to the previous releases and features the studio re-recordings of The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham.

The third Pye release featured a brand new recording of The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham, recorded before an invited audience. Released in 1961, these recordings have been released in more different versions than any other Hancock recordings and continue to be available on CD and tape today. This article will include only vinyl and cassette releases. This first UK release originally featured a plum coloured label but this changed to a pink label on later releases (pictured) The album was the first to feature a specially posed photograph, rather than featuring stills from the TV Series. As part of the pre-production process for the creation of vinyl LPs, an acetate of the final disc is created. This enables quality testing to be undertake. The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society is very fortunate to have an acetate of the Hancock release and the centre label is illustrated here.

Described as a ‘a special 4 record set, this 4 LP collection came in a sturdy cardboard box and contained 4 LPs in plain white standard inner LP sleeves in the box. The albums were all from the Golden Hour series and comprised: ‘The Golden Hour of Tony Hancock’, ’The Golden Hour of Till Death Us Do Part’, ‘The Golden Hour of Steptoe and Son’ and ‘The Golden Hour of Comedy’. This last LP comprised 2 compilation extracts on each side of the LP from the programmes ‘It’s Marty’, ‘Round The Horne’, ‘The Frost Report’ and ‘The World of the Beachcomber’ (starring Spike Milligan) The set was badged with a gold label as ‘ A Pye Presentation Pack; 4 records at the special price of £4.70’.

The Candian release of the Golden Hour of Tony Hancock was virtually identical to the UK release featuring the same content and artwork. The label states that the recording is bu courtesy of B.B.C. Records and is 'Made in Canada by Phonodisc Limited)

The first Pye releases were re-released on their budgte label 'Golden Guinea. In the same way Decca released 'The Missing Page' and 'The Reunion Party' recordings from the 'Its Hancock' LP on their budget series in 1975. The Decca approach to its budget range was to retian the standard Decca label but to release their budget series under the 'World of' title. The World of Tony Hancock is identical to the previous 'Its Hancock' release.

The Australian release featured identical content to the UK release with the front cover also identical other than the addition of the Drum Records logo and the number DRUM6359. The label stated that the record was 'Made in Australia by EMI (Australia) Limited.

Released on the Dead Bird label to commemorate Alan Freeman's retirement from Pye Records (Alan was one of the joint founders of Pye Records), this single sided 12" record featured specially recorded extracts from Tony Hatch, Peter Sellers and others. The Tony Hancock extracts all came from the shows released on Pye records (The Blood Donor and The Test Pilot sequence) plus extracts from the specially recorded segments from 'Pieces of Hancock'. However, the extracts were broken up into small sections and interspersed with newly recorded additional commentary to make them relevant to Alan Freeman. So, for example, the comments in The Test Pilot saying how fast the aircraft can travel were made to relate to the speed of Alan's driving! An unusual record, which wasn't commercially released.

This ultra rare release on the Pye Picadilly label from 1963 features two interviews from the Face To Face programme on BBC. On one side is the interview with Stirling Moss and on the other the interview with Tony Hancock. The LP was also pressed in Canada. The Canadian version had the same artwork and number but was released on the Astral label.