Comedy as a passion rather than just as pure entertainment began for me as an unpleasant seven year old back in the mid-70s. For no discernible reason that I can recall, I was handed a Tony Hancock LP of recordings of two TV shows, "The Blood Donor" and "The Radio Ham". To this day I have no idea why it was given to me - I was born after the death of Hancock, one British comedy's greatest ever performers, and at that time I was far more interested in football than humour. However, as soon as I started listening I was hooked and began avidly collecting his other recordings after that.

A few weeks ago I purchased a 2CD set featuring two long thought lost "Hancock's Half Hour" radio episodes and a couple of interviews with scriptwriting legends, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. This reminded me of a time, not too long ago, where I experienced one of the greatest privileges of my life which I would like to share with you now.

During the summer in 2004 I became aware of a couple of notable comedy milestones which nudged the literary ambitions within me. My original plan was to write and publish an article to commemorate what would've been Hancock's 80th birthday and 50th anniversary of the very first of his "Hancock's Half Hour" show.

With a little searching of the web I found a contact address for Ray and Alan's agent and subsequently sent a speculative email asking if I could send a few questions for them to answer. What I didn't expect was to receive an invitation to meet them in person at Ray's very own home!

Thinking back I can't quite believe it happened. This turned out to be a truly awesome experience and just shows what can happen - and who you can meet - if you ask the right questions of the right people.

Ray's house is located out in West London on the edge a beautiful city park. I found the front of the property which was surrounded by a high wall and entered via a fairly non-descript side gate. I ascended the front steps where I was greeted by Ray and his pet dog.

This was totally surreal - I was in the actual home of a childhood hero. The house is seriously grand but appears a little faded around the edges these days but would still be comfortably into seven figures in the property market.

Glancing to my left as i stood in the hallway I could see an overstocked library with numerous books piled high on the floor and to my right a sumptuous drawing room. I was immediately offered coffee and led down the hall passing paintings on the

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