This Monday marks the eight-hundredth anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta by King John. Though widely thought of as the result of a power struggle between monarch and barons, it emerges that the origins of the charter lie in theological ideas and the influence of senior clerics Comedian tony Hancock has had a good year. East Cheam’s most famous son, who died 47 years ago, has been widely quoted on the importance of Magna Carta, whose eight-hundredth anniversary we are celebrating this year. Orating before a bemused jury in Twelve Angry Men, the episode of his television series Hancock’s Half Hour that  parodied the altogether more weighty Henry Fonda movie 12 Angry Men, he passionately challenged them on the value of justice and mercy, drawing powerfully on England