Tommy Handley
(1892-1949)

Died aged c. 57

Thomas Reginald Handley (17 January 1892 – 9 January 1949) was an English comedian, best known for the BBC radio programme It's That Man Again ("ITMA") which ran between 1939 and 1949. Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, Handley went on the stage in his teens and after military service in the First World War he established himself as a comedian and singer on the music hall circuit. He became nationally known as a pioneer broadcaster. From 1924 onwards he was frequently heard on BBC variety programmes as a solo entertainer and an actor in sketches. In the 1930s Handley frequently performed on air with the comedian Ronald Frankau in a popular comedy act as "Mr Murgatroyd and Mr Winterbottom". Handley's greatest success came in 1939 with the BBC radio comedy show It's That Man Again, which, after an uncertain start, caught the British public's imagination and reached an unprecedentedly large audience. He starred as the good-natured, fast-talking anchor-man around whom a cast of eccentric comic characters revolved. The show was credited for its important part in keeping up morale in Britain during the Second World War. Handley died suddenly in 1949, and ITMA died with him.

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