"One of Britain's most innovative comedians and arguably its most popular, Hancock united the nation in laughter with Hancock's Half Hour, the show that established the situation comedy. But behind Hancock's success lurked a tendency to self-destruction that would compromise his later years." "In this first full appraisal of both his life and work, Fisher sheds new light on Hancock's fall from grace, examining withsensitivity what went wrong and questioning whether his suicide was inevitable." "Tony Hancock: The Definitive Biography will redefine the Hancock legacy, reaffirming Hancock's body of work on stage, radio and television as unsurpassed by a single British comedian."--BOOK JACKET.Abstract: Regarded as the best radio and TV comic of his era, Tony Hancock was a man whose star burned brightly in the eyes and ears of millions before his untimely death in 1968. Now, forty years on,critically acclaimed biographer John Fisher brings the first fully authorised account of his life.