Catacombs Credits GuideCast
Catacombs Credits Guide
Born 14th May, 1942 in Glasgow. He is 1.82 m tall with brown eyes and hair.
Hancock was brought up and educated in Glasgow, studying architecture at college. He was also a keen sportsman, playing rugby and becoming a fencing instructor, but he was most interested in acting and directing in an amateur theatrical company. He attended the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. He earned roles in stage plays and on television, including episodes of Z Cars, Dixon Of Dock Green, Softly Softly and Dr Finley's Casebook in the 1960s. He had continuing roles in the BBC serials The Last Of The Mohicans (1971), Spy Trap (1972) and Colditz (1972-73). He also appeared in a two part episode of The Protectors (1973), and in several Dr Who episodes (Spearhead From Space, 1970, Planet Of The Daleks, 1973, Planet Of Evil, 1975, The Ribos Operation, 1978).
Prentis guest starred as the antagonist in the two-part episode "WAM" of The Protectors (1973), alongside Jill Townsend. He is finally captured by series regular Tony Anholt.
Since appearing in the first series of Space 1999 he has appeared in episodes of The New Avengers (1977), Survivors (1977), Danger UXB (1978), Secret Army (1979), Return Of The Saint (1979), The Professionals (1982) and The Bill (1989). He was a regular in the children's series Chocky's Children (1985) and Chocky's Challenge (1986). He appeared in the TV movies Lime Street (1985) and Jekyll and Hyde (1990), and the movies The 39 Steps (1978), The Monster Club (1980), and Defence Of The Realm (1986). In 1999 he appeared in an episode of CI5: The New Professionals.
Hancock adapted and starred in the one man show Voltaire's Candide which premiered at the Edinburgh festival in 2008, and performed it again in London in October 2008 and April 2009. Prentis wrote on the website (http://www.voltairescandide.com/) At the start of shooting of the now cult sci-fi series Space 19999 at Pinewood Studios, I had the pleasure of working with Roy Dotrice. At that time Roy was also making theatrical history playing John Aubrey in Patrick Garland's celebrated adapation of Brief Lives. A dramatised monologue, it was to achieve a record number of performances. One evening, after shooting, he invited the entire cast and crew to see the show; it has lived with me ever since.
Hancock appeared in 23 episodes of Year One. He was offered the role without auditioning, the fourth cast member to be recruited. During the filming of The Infernal Machine he was in hospital having a throat cyst removed, which a Space 1999 make up lady had noticed. He was not asked to return for the second series. He liked the series, especially episodes like Black Sun in which he played the guitar, a human touch he felt the show often lacked. Other favorite episodes are Last Sunset and Breakaway. He wrote the foreword to the Powys Space: 1999 novel The Forsaken (2003)
He was a guest at several conventions: 1979, 1980 in the U.S., 1987 and 1990 in Britain, Los Angeles in 1999 and 2012, and 2014 in Britain. He joined the internet convention in 2022. He appeared in the AlphaCon Documentary (1991).
Copyright Martin Willey