A rare piece of 1950s British comedy, which hasn’t been seen since the early days of television, is about to make its debut on YouTube rather than Freeview – and the reason why says quite a lot about the state of modern broadcasting.
Rewind TV has decided that one episode from the recently rediscovered Jack Hylton Presents: The Tony Hancock Show will premiere exclusively on YouTube rather than on their Freeview and Sky channels, because they’re worried about getting into trouble with Ofcom over period language and attitudes.
It’s a pretty telling decision that shows just how nervous smaller broadcasters have become about regulatory sanctions.
The material features Tony Hancock, one of Britain’s most beloved comedians who became a household name through Hancock’s Half Hour on radio and later television.
These 1956 performances, unseen for seventy years, capture Hancock alongside future comedy legends Dick Emery and June Whitfield during the formative years of post-war British television comedy.
Most episodes will air normally on Rewind TV, but this particular one gets the YouTube treatment with warnings attached.
Rewind TV’s Growing Presence
Rewind TV launched on Sky back in May 2024 and has done a decent job carving out space for classic British programming that would otherwise stay locked away in archives.
The channel made it to Freeview in September 2024 and currently sits on Channel 81 – though it’s moved around the EPG a fair bit since launch.
Oscar Beuselinck and Jonathan Moore‘s independent channel also broadcasts on Sky Channel 182 (satellite only) and Freely Channel 141 (with an aerial connected).
What’s frustrating is that you still can’t get it on Sky Stream, Sky Glass, or Freesat – seems like a wasted opportunity when everyone’s going mad for nostalgic content.
The channel has made its name digging up television gems that haven’t been seen since they first aired. We’re talking about stuff from before video recording was common, which makes these finds genuinely special.
The Tony Hancock Show: Comedy Gold from 1956
Jack Hylton Presents: The Tony Hancock Show is a piece of television history. Originally broadcast in 1956 as part of bandleader Jack Hylton‘s variety series, these performances show Tony Hancock making the jump from radio star to television.
Eric Sykes wrote and performed on the show, creating early television work that helped shape post-war British comedy. Hancock was already massive on radio with Hancock’s Half Hour, but telly was still new territory for him.
What makes this discovery unique is seeing Dick Emery and June Whitfield alongside Hancock – all three would become comedy legends, so you’re watching British entertainment history in the making.
Richard Latto from Rewind TV said: “This is more than just television history, it’s comic gold, unseen for seven decades.”
That any of this survived is remarkable. Most early television was broadcast live and either never recorded or got wiped later. Finding intact recordings from 1956 is like striking gold.
Why YouTube Gets the Controversial Episode
Here’s where it gets unusual. Rewind TV is putting one specific episode only on YouTube, because they’re genuinely worried about Ofcom coming down on them if they broadcast it normally.
As co-founder Jonathan Moore put it, “many broadcasters live in permanent fear of falling foul of Ofcom guidelines,” and smaller companies feel potential fines most keenly.
The problematic content appears in Episode Two of the series, which Rewind TV cannot broadcast on linear television due to what they describe as “broadcast compliance concerns around cultural appropriation and outdated stereotypes.”
Rather than edit the 1956 material – which would compromise its historical integrity – the channel has chosen to present the complete episode on YouTube with appropriate warnings, allowing viewers to see the work in its original context whilst acknowledging the content reflects the attitudes and cultural understanding of its era.
The YouTube premiere happens on August 31 at 3:00 PM on Rewind TV’s official page, and you’ll get to see the work exactly as it was made seventy years ago – with clear viewer guidance before the show.
Moore’s calling for what he terms a “presumption of innocence” for historically significant broadcasts shown with proper context – surely there’s a difference between modern content that’s deliberately offensive and historical material that reflects its era.
When Classic Comedy Faced Modern Scrutiny
This isn’t the first time broadcasters have wrestled with historical content, and the Tony Hancock situation sits within a much broader pattern that really kicked off around 2020.
Little Britain took the biggest hit, getting simultaneously pulled from Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and BritBox in June 2020 due to Matt Lucas and David Walliams using blackface for various characters.
The show eventually returned to BBC iPlayer in 2022, but with significant chunks removed – the character of Desiree Devere was completely eliminated, and episodes now carry warnings about “discriminatory language”.
Channel 4 completely removed all five series of Bo’ Selecta! from their All4 service after Leigh Francis made a tearful Instagram apology for his blackface portrayals of celebrities like Michael Jackson and Craig David.
The most absurd case was probably Fawlty Towers. UKTV temporarily removed “The Germans” episode in June 2020 due to “racial slurs” – specifically Major Gowen’s offensive comments about the West Indies cricket team.
John Cleese defended the show by pointing out they weren’t supporting the character’s views but making fun of them, and UKTV reinstated the episode within days with additional warnings.
Even newer shows weren’t safe. Netflix re-edited Peep Show after one episode featured a character in blackface, whilst The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen also got pulled from Netflix due to blackface content.
Perhaps most telling was when warning systems started getting applied to increasingly recent content. “That’s TV” applied historical content warnings to a 2015 episode of Birds of a Feather, stating it “contains adult humour and reflects the standards, language and attitudes of its time” – which struck many as treating a show that’s barely a decade old as if it were from the dark ages.
The BBC went on a warning spree, adding advisory messages to shows including the latest version of Alan Bennett‘s Talking Heads, Porridge, High Hopes, and The Mighty Boosh.
These typically read along the lines of the show being “a classic comedy which reflects the broadcast standards, language and attitudes of its time.”
The Regulatory Split: Telly vs YouTube
This whole situation shows up what Rewind TV calls a “two-tier” system, and the differences are pretty stark.
Linear television (channels on Freeview, Freesat, Sky, etc.) must adhere to Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code, which assesses each programme individually on taste, decency, and impartiality.
YouTube operates under completely different rules that focus on systems and illegal content rather than the Broadcasting Code’s specific standards.
This means historical comedy often appears unedited online, whilst getting pre-emptively chopped up for traditional broadcast. Rewind TV argues this creates a “culture of fear” among smaller channels, pushing them to make unnecessary cuts to classic material.
- For more TV news and updates, Subscribe to our free newsletter.
I have a trigger warning by my front door: “leaving the house will expose you to disgusting language, scenes of drug taking and lawlessness not consistent with civilised society”. What a load of bunkum these trigger warnings are.
Do you believe Ofcom serve a useful purpose ? Censoring material that is perfectly harmless generally on grounds of supposed racism or 70s lack of moral standards. How dare they. The only ones offended are the lefty university graduates. Time for some growing up
I’ve seen this Hancock episode on You-tube, and the most offensive thing about it, is that it is mostly not funny!
Yes, there is one “character” that is so “over the top” that a lot of people could find it offensive, these days. But it’s so ridiculous that, if you found it funny at all, you should be laughing AT it, not with it.