- published: 14 Sep 2011
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Alec Bregonzi (21 April 1930, London – 4 June 2006) was an English actor who appeared in a number of stage and television roles.
Bregonzi began his career as a professional actor in 1955 in repertory theatre in Farnham, then in York, Bromley and Leatherhead, amongst other places. Work in the West End followed, in Tennessee Williams' Camino Real, where he played two parts and understudied Ronnie Barker.
In 1957, Bregonzi appeared in Hancock's Half Hour for the first time. He went on to appear in 22 of the 63 television episodes Tony Hancock made for BBC Television. In 1958, Bregonzi toured with Hancock, and they performed the famous "Budgerigar" sketch together on tour and in the Royal Variety Performance and on television (in Christmas Night with the Stars). They toured together again in 1961. Duncan Wood, the television director of Hancock's Half Hour recommended Bregonzi to other directors, so that he also appeared in 1950s/60s shows starring Benny Hill, Charlie Drake, Arthur Askey, Ted Ray, Frankie Howerd, Harry Worth, Jimmy Logan, and Alan Melville, among others.
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor.
Popular during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series Hancock's Half Hour, first on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James around 1960 disappointed many of his fans at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best remembered work ("The Blood Donor"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career took a downward course because of his alcoholism.
Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, Warwickshire, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, Hampshire, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as a comedian and entertainer.
After his father's death in 1934, Hancock and his brothers lived with their mother and stepfather Robert Gordon Walker at a small hotel called Durlston Court, in Gervis Road, Bournemouth. He attended Durlston Court Preparatory School, a boarding school at Durlston in Swanage (which name his parents adopted for their hotel) and Bradfield College in Reading, Berkshire, but left school at the age of fifteen.
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan KBE (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was a comedian, writer and actor. The son of an Irish father and an English mother, his early life was spent in India where he was born. The majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He disliked his first name and began to call himself "Spike" after hearing a band on Radio Luxembourg called Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles and Minnie Bannister characters. Milligan wrote and edited many books, including Puckoon and his seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse; much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After success with the groundbreaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5, a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus. He was the oldest, longest lived and last surviving member of the Goons.
Episode I, Episode 1 or Episode One may refer to:
Spike Milligan - Q6 (1975) - Part 1 of 2 Featuring Margaret Nolan, Julia Breck, Alec Bregonzi, Bob Todd, David Lodge, Chris Langham, John Bluthal, Peter Jones, Robert Dorning, Jack Watling.
Writers: Alan Simpson, Ray Galton Stars: Tony Hancock, Sid James, Alec Bregonzi
Spike Milligan - Q6 (1975) - Part 2 of 2 Featuring Margaret Nolan, Julia Breck, Alec Bregonzi, Bob Todd, David Lodge, Chris Langham, John Bluthal, Peter Jones, Robert Dorning, Jack Watling.
Sound clip: The passengers (Alan Opie, Lissa Gray, Johanna Peters, Marilyn Hill Smith, Joy Roberts and the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir) on Columbuss ship discover they have just gone off the map. Photos: Maurice Arthur, Joy Roberts, Johanna Peters, Lissa Gray, Marilyn Hill Smith, Anna Dawson, Alan Opie, Alec Bregonzi, Clive Harré, Christian du Plessis, Alun Francis - conductor, Don White - Opera Rara co-founder and lyricist of 'Christopher Columbus'. Click here to buy this CD: http://www.opera-rara.com
Tony Hancock's suicide note and things went wrong to many times and things went wrong too many times i used to be someone but now that it's all gone nothing left to do i used to be famous and fames quite contagious but all i want is you didn't want to pretend got rid of all my friends can do this by my self driven them all away now there has come a day when i'm left on the shelf drowning in self pity drowning in malt whiskey hang my head and moan your voice is inside my head pills lying on the bed and no one left to phone
Tony Hancock On ITV Central News - 26th October 1998 Video courtesy of www.tonyhancockarchives.org.uk
Tony Hancock On Collectors' Lot - 2nd April 1999 - part 1 Video courtesy of www.tonyhancockarchives.org.uk