Hancock's Half Hour - No. 40

"LORD BYRON LIVED HERE"

[ Available on B.B.C. video: "The Lift"; Catalogue No. BBCV4038 ]

HANCOCK ON LORD BYRON

HANCOCK:

Lord Byron? He was one of the most famous men in history!

SID JAMES:

What did he do?

HANCOCK:

"What did he do"?!

SID JAMES:

Yes.

HANCOCK:

Lord Byron? What did you do at school?

SID JAMES:

All right - what did he do?

HANCOCK:

Well, he was a good-looking bloke, dab-hand with the ladies, had a bit of a limp .....

HANCOCK'S POETRY APPRECIATION

HANCOCK:

"I wish I were a Chestnut Tree, a-nourished by the sun, with twigs and leaves and branches, and conkers by the ton." Follow that! Robert Browning? I wouldn't give him house room .....

HANCOCK ON HOUSE RENOVATION

HANCOCK:

As to furniture, Sid I know has always seen himself in a four-poster.

SID JAMES:

Yeah, French Empire, bags of mirrors .....

HANCOCK:

Yes, very elegant that, very elegant. My room, I think, rococo with a slight Byzantine influence, veering towards the classic Georgian style, with half a dozen flying ducks on the wall .....