Thomas Reginald Handley was an English comedian, best known for the BBC radio programme It's That Man Again ("ITMA") which ran between 1939 and 1949.
Tommy Handley
Handley rehearsing with the ITMA cast and the Royal Marines band during a visit to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, January 1944
It's That Man Again was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran for twelve series from 1939 to 1949. The shows featured Tommy Handley in the central role, a fast-talking figure, around whom the other characters orbited. The programmes were written by Ted Kavanagh and produced by Francis Worsley. Handley died during the twelfth series, the remaining programmes of which were immediately cancelled: ITMA could not work without him, and no further series were commissioned.
The ITMA cast at rehearsal during a visit to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, January 1944
Handley (centre) introduces Ann Rich, a new singer for ITMA; Charles Shadwell conducts the orchestra in the background.
The comedian Tommy Handley in the 1940s
The ITMA cast with some of the crew of HMS Anson (79) under four of the ship's 14-inch guns