<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>EX-99.77B ACCT LTTR
<SEQUENCE>2
<FILENAME>nsar.txt
<DESCRIPTION>ACCOUNTANT'S LETTER
<TEXT>

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Board of  Trustees  and  Shareholders  of John  Hancock  Bank and  Thrift
Opportunity Fund (the "Fund").

In planning and performing our audit of the financial  statements of the Fund as
of and for the year ended October 31, 2005, in accordance  with the standards of
the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), we considered its
internal  control over financial  reporting,  including  control  activities for
safeguarding  securities,  as a basis for designing our auditing  procedures for
the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial  statements and to comply
with the  requirements  of Form N-SAR,  but not for the purpose of expressing an
opinion on the  effectiveness  of the Fund's  internal  control  over  financial
reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

The  management of the Fund is  responsible  for  establishing  and  maintaining
effective  internal  control  over  financial  reporting.   In  fulfilling  this
responsibility, estimates and judgments by management are required to assess the
expected  benefits and related costs of controls.  A company's  internal control
over financial  reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable  assurance
regarding  the  reliability  of  financial  reporting  and  the  preparation  of
financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted
accounting  principles.  Such internal control includes  policies and procedures
that provide reasonable  assurance  regarding  prevention or timely detection of
unauthorized  acquisition,  use or disposition of a company's  assets that could
have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent  limitations,  internal control over financial reporting
may not prevent or detect misstatements.  Also, projections of any evaluation of
effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become
inadequate  because of changes in  conditions,  or that the degree of compliance
with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

A control  deficiency  exists when the design or operation of a control does not
allow management or employees, in the normal course of performing their assigned
functions,  to prevent or detect  misstatements on a timely basis. A significant
deficiency is a control deficiency, or combination of control deficiencies, that
adversely affects the company's ability to initiate,  authorize, record, process
or  report  financial  data  reliably  in  accordance  with  generally  accepted
accounting  principles  such that there is more than a remote  likelihood that a
misstatement  of the company's  annual or interim  financial  statements that is
more than inconsequential will not be prevented or detected. A material weakness
is a significant deficiency,  or combination of significant  deficiencies,  that
results in more than a remote  likelihood  that a material  misstatement  of the
annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected.



<PAGE>

Our  consideration of the Fund's internal  control over financial  reporting was
for  the  limited  purpose  described  in the  first  paragraph  and  would  not
necessarily  disclose  all  deficiencies  in  internal  control  that  might  be
significant  deficiencies or material weaknesses under standards  established by
the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). However, we noted
no deficiencies in the Fund's internal control over financial  reporting and its
operation,  including controls for safeguarding securities,  that we consider to
be a material weakness as defined above as of October 31, 2005.

This report is intended solely for the  information  and use of management,  the
Board of Trustees and  Shareholders of John Hancock Bank and Thrift  Opportunity
Fund, and the  Securities and Exchange  Commission and is not intended to be and
should not be used by anyone other than these specified parties.



Boston, Massachusetts
December 9, 2005


                                        2
</TEXT>
</DOCUMENT>
