Hancock's Half Hour

The radio original, 1954 to 1959 Ray Galton and Alan Simpson built the modern sitcom here: one pompous, self-deceiving man and the people who puncture him, with jokes that come from character instead of gags. Tony Hancock is surrounded by Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and Bill Kerr across 107 radio episodes on the Light Programme. The TV version that followed is better remembered for a few famous episodes, but on radio the comedy lives in voices alone, and the rhythm is looser and funnier. It has dated less than almost anything else from the 1950s, because its target is vanity rather than topical news.