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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle

Good riddance to those dull Sundays that Tony Hancock and I loathed

Tony Hancock puts his feet up
Tony Hancock puts his feet up. Photograph: Daily Mail/REX

In 1958 Tony Hancock had a very different take on the British Sunday from Sian Dudley’s bucolic vision (Letters, 30 August), as outlined in the Hancock’s Half Hour episode Sunday Afternoon at Home: “I might just as well be in bed: there’s nothing else to do. [Sigh] I wish I hadn’t got up now … I hate Sundays. It’s not like this on the continent: it’s their big day over there. All the cafes open and football matches and race meetings – everybody’s gay. Aahh! Not over ’ere though! Everything’s shut up.”

My memory accords with the bard of East Cheam. What we have now, and didn’t then, is choice.
Bob Waring
Southport, Merseyside

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