Stone me! A Hancock tribute in Grassington

“When Tony Hancock was my age, he’d already been dead ten years”, says Mark Bamforth as he prepares for his one man show, a tribute to the great British comic actor as part of the Fringe at Grassington Festival.

Mark presents the show, A Homage to Hancock, at 9pm on Monday 15^th June in the The Octagon Theatre at Grassington Devonshire Institute. The intimate setting of the theatre-in-the-round venue is well suited to the performance setting, which comprises the Hancock Half Hour episode ‘The Bedsit’ and a piece by Heathcote Williams which imagines Hancock’s own final half hour in a Sydney hotel room with his ultimately tragic psyche and several bottles of vodka.

For Hancock fans this is an absolute must, for anyone else, an introduction and insight into the character behind the curmudgeonly bravado of this prominent figure from 1960s radio and television.

Mark Bamforth, who identifies himself strongly with the tragedy of his comic hero, is a well-known face in the local thespian world, featuring in a number of prominent roles for Grassington Players, Grassington Pantoloons and widely recognised as the larger-than-life front man character, Malvolio Hardcastle, of the Victorian themed Penny Plain Theatre Company.  Mark has also appeared with several other respected companies including Bristol Gilbert & Sullivan society, Western Opera Players and The New Enterprise Players in Woking.

Tickets for the show are available in advance from Grassington Festival box office on 01756 752691 or on the door at £6.