A series of outstanding and memorable programmes to mark 40 years of BBC TV.

Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
featuring Patrick Cargill, Hugh Lloyd, June Whitfield, Frank Thornton, James Ottaway, Peggyann Clifford, Ann Marryott and Jean Marlow
In this most famous of all the Hancock programmes, the country gets a new volunteer blood donor.

Hugh Lloyd remembers Hancock's Half-Hour:
Hugh Lloyd worked on more than 20 episodes of Hancock's Half-Hour including playing a fellow donor in The Blood Donor. He also appeared with Hancock in the film "The Punch and Judy Man".
He remembers: 'The Blood Donor was actually one of the easiest TV shows I ever worked on because I read my lines from an auto-cue on top of a camera. Hancock had just been involved in a slight car accident when we started rehearsals and was still shaken up by it so it was decided that, on this occasion, he should read his lines straight from the cue board. In my scene I had to lie on the bed next to him and look at the same camera so I was able to see my lines, too.
'I owe a lot to Tony and the Half-Hour. Had it not been for the programme I doubt whether I would have been offered the Hugh and I series. And Hancock taught me about what I call the serious side of comedy - that the best humour springs from character and situation and that it's the comedy of human nature that makes us laugh, not the jokes'.
Interview: David Gillard