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
• Sian Dudley was lucky having such a relaxed Sunday as a child. My 1950s Sundays were rather different. My brothers and I had to go to church in the morning and Sunday school in the afternoon, we didn’t have a telly and I hated board games. I like my 2026 Sundays.
Martin Cooper
Bromley, London
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