Roger Hancock and John Freeman obituaries

Obituary of Roger Hancock, brother and agent of Tony Hancock in The Independent

"The previous year, a chain-smoking, nervous-looking Tony had been very self-critical in a Face to Face television interview with John Freeman. 'It was the biggest mistake he ever made,' Roger reflected later. 'I think it all started from that, really. Self-analysis - that was his killer.'"

Roger Hancock represented many of the prominent comedic actors and writers of the 1960s, including Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, the Monty Python team, and Terry Nation.

John Freeman profile (shortly before his death) in The New Statesman

"Thirty years later the BBC repeated Face to Face and sent the radio psychiatrist Anthony Clare (of In the Psychiatrist's Chair fame) and me to California to film an introductory interview in which the roles were reversed. The programme was a failure. Freeman had an intimidating physical presence and a manner that combined an old-fashioned, somewhat insincere charm with his thoroughgoing put-downs: 'I'm sorry, I don't want to sound rude to you - but that's the sort of portentous question I don't think I want to answer.' As always, he gave nothing away. An old friend of his had warned me: 'John has a capacity to put up the shutters that is excelled by nobody except a shopkeeper during a time of riots.'...

"Barbara Castle travelled around the country with [Freeman], expecting him to take a lead in arguing the 'Keep Left' case to Labour supporters, but she was disappointed. 'In one stormy meeting after another he stood against the wall, almost hiding himself behind the window curtains, but did not speak. After years of studying his complex personality [on intimate terms it should be added as they were lovers] I decided he was afraid of giving himself too fully to anything or anyone. I once told him his motto ought to be "Je me sauve" ("I protect myself").'"

Perhaps best known for his 1959-1960 talk show, Freeman was a Desert Rat in World War II, was an MP after the war, a diplomat, editor of the New Statesman, High Commissioner to India, Ambassador to the United States, managing director of London Weekend Television, chairman of Independent Television News, and professor at UC Davis.