Life and career
Early years
Handley was born at Toxteth Park,BBC
Handley was successful on the halls, but he was not a major star. His career took off as a broadcaster. He was a regular performer on the''ITMA''
Towards the end of the 1930s Handley and Kavanagh were, in Took's words, "at a crossroads", in need of "a new direction in which to move and a new stimulus to drive them forward". The new direction and stimulus came with the BBC's need for a replacement for ''Reputation
Handley and the ''ITMA'' team were widely credited with boosting morale during the war, and were unmissable listening for millions. A member of the Royal Household said that if the war were to end between 8.30 and 9 p.m. on a Thursday night none of the household would dare to tell the King until ''ITMA'' had finished. Although Handley was a leading star in Britain, his material in ''ITMA'' was so topical and local, and delivered at such speed, that it was incomprehensible to many outside the UK. Nonetheless, it was popular in Australia:Grahame, Charles. "The master of the rapid-fire radio show", ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 27 November 1976, p. 15 a writer in ''Filmography
* ''Notes and sources
Notes
Sources
* * * * *External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Handley, Tommy 1892 births 1949 deaths English male comedians Royal Naval Air Service personnel of World War I British radio personalities Comedians from Lancashire Comedians from Liverpool Golders Green Crematorium 20th-century English comedians British male comedy actors