FIFTY years after his death, he is still regarded by many as the greatest comedian Britain has ever produced.

Tony Hancock’s admirers today include Star Wars actor Mark Hamill; musicians Phil Collins, Pete Doherty and Dave Davies; and countless comedians including Steve Coogan, Paul Merton and Steve Delaney.

Hancock’s Half Hour, which spanned 1954-61 as a radio and then TV series, was the show people stayed in for – and it practically invented situation comedy in Britain.

When he died at 44, on June 25, 1968, the loss was keenly felt in Bournemouth, where he grew up and where his mother was still living.

LM Evans’ recently-published book Tony Hancock: The Bournemouth Connection details the comedian’s life in the resort.

Tony was not quite three years old when his family moved from Birmingham in April 1927. They bought the Mayo Hygienic Laundry at 37-39 Wynyard Road, Winton, which later became 144-146 Strouden Road.

According to Tony’s nanny, Elsie Sparks, “he couldn’t understand the accent and the sea frightened him”.

The Hancocks later took over the Railway Hotel near the Lansdowne, but in 1933 they bought Swanmore Villa and Lodge on Gervis Road and turned it into the Durslton Court Hotel.

The hotel took its name from the Swanage school Hancock had been sent to, after time at Summerbee Infants in East Way and Saugeen Preparatory School for Boys in Derby Road.

As a youngster, Hancock was a frequent visitor to shows at the Pavilion and films at the Regent Theatre, later renamed the Gaumont and then the Odeon. He recalled that “a double feature, a half-bar of Palm toffee and three-and-a-half hours in the dark, that was my idea of fun”.

After school, Hancock enrolled on an office skills course at the Bournemouth Municipal College, at the Lansdowne. He was the only boy in the class and became proficient at shorthand and typing.

He lasted for four hours at his first job, at the tailor Hector Powe’s on Richmond Hill, now part of the NatWest bank. A second job for the Board of Trade, at the Carlton Hotel, lasted a fortnight, before he became a potman at the Pembroke Bar and Grill, Poole Hill.

Hancock's father Jack, who died in 1934, had been an entertainer as well as a hotelier, and Tony yearned to follow suit. His mother Lily called in a favour from family friend George Fairweather, who became the lad’s mentor and booked him for his first show, in 1940, at the Avon Road Labour Hall in Winton.

That summer, he performed at the hall of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Richmond Hill. He unwisely told some blue jokes, prompting an audience walkout, and abandoned risque material forever.

LM Evans tells how, in 1941, the mother and wife of the actor Jack Warner booked into the Durlston Court, and Lily told them about her starstruck son. As a result, Tony appeared at Bournemouth’s Pavilion in Garrison Theatre, a stage version of Warner’s popular radio show.

Warner, the future star of Dixon of Dock Green, decided the lad had a great future and landed him an audition for a BBC producer, which took place at Bobby’s department store, now Debenhams.

Hancock went on to perform with the Bournemouth War Service Organisation, compering his first show at Boscombe’s Hippodrome (now the O2 Academy).

After volunteering to join the RAF, his first military posting was in Bournemouth – attached to the Canadian unit at the Metropole Hotel.

Hancock became a star in 1951, through his supporting role in the radio series Educating Archie. That same year, he was at Bournemouth’s Winter Gardens, supporting Jack Warner in the variety show Music for Millions.

Fame in Hancock’s Half Hour took him away from Bournemouth, but he was a frequent visitor to see his mother. He often drank at the Cricketers in Windham Road, took part in charity cricket matches at Hampshire CC and King’s Park, and played golf with his mentor Fairweather.

He also returned to support his mother at an inquest after his stepfather, Robert Walker, took his life in 1959, when he was manager of Poole’s Harbour Heights Hotel.

In September 1966, Hancock was back on stage in Bournemouth. The Echo of September 6 reported: “The lad himself came back to his home town last night – in other words, Tony Hancock appeared at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, topping the bill for the last week of the summer show.”

Hancock was “running in” his act prior to Royal Festival Hall on September 22.

In December 1967, Hancock broke a rib in a fall at his London flat, and recuperated at the Strathallan Nursing Home at Boscombe before joining Lily at the Redroofs Hotel on Bath Hill. The actress Damaris Hayman visited and they saw in the new year, watching the Will Hay film Oh, Mr Porter on a temperamental TV set.

Lily, who had outlived three husbands and one son, was living at the Marsham Court in June 1968, when she heard Tony had taken his own life in Australia.

The anniversary also sees the publication of Tony Hancock: Spiral, a collection of memories and photographs by Dave Miles, a former publicity officer with the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society.

“It’s a selection of interviews conducted over the years with people who knew or worked with Tony. I feel very blessed to have done that,” he said.

“It’s a book I hope which will show another side to Tony. There are some amazing photographs that you might not have seen before.”

Interviewees included his writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, producer Dennis Main Wilson and co-star Hugh Lloyd.

The author says there is no one today who can match Hancock’s skill. “He was a very complex guy. He was brilliant at what he did. I must point out that he was the BBC’s really big first star and I’m very sad that they’re not going to cover the fact that it’s 50 years since he died,” he said.

Tony Hancock: The Bournemouth Connection, by LM Evans, is just out in paperback, £10, from Natula Publications of Christchurch, natulapublications.co.uk

Tony Hancock: Spiral costs £12.99 plus £3.87 for first class postage from Dave Miles, 33 Raeburn Crescent, Whitburn EH47 8HQ. Email beseeingyouihope@yahoo.com