For three long and bleak years in the late 1940s a teenager with tuberculosis had to endure boredom, depression and a sense of alienation because all the other occupants of his sanatorium were much older. Then another teenager was brought into the ward and one of Britain’s most successful and enduring comedy writing teams was born.
The lonely young man was Ray Galton, who has died aged 88. The other was Alan Simpson. The two boys found they were on the same wavelength and teamed up to become writing partners. Until Simpson’s death last year, they were still making each other laugh. Together they created Hancock’s Half Hour – on radio and later on television – for Tony Hancock, a programme that, in 1954 was one of the first “situation comedies”, based on characters and experiences rather than on gags.
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