Raymond Percy Galton (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) was an English radio and television scriptwriter. He was best known as part of the Galton and Simpson comedy writing partnership with Alan Simpson. Together they devised and wrote 1950s and 60s

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

s including ''

Hancock's Half Hour ''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The radio series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James, Bill Kerr and,at various ...

'' (1954–1961), the first two series of '' Comedy Playhouse'' (1961–1963), and '' Steptoe and Son'' (1962–1974).

Early life

Galton was born in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

, West London, and after leaving school he worked for the

Transport and General Workers Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900,000 members (a ...

. He contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

aged 18 in 1948 and was admitted to Milford Sanatorium near

Godalming Godalming ( ) is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settl ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, where he met fellow patient Alan Simpson.

Galton and Simpson

Later career

Alan Simpson retired from scriptwriting in 1978 to concentrate on his business interests. Galton then often worked with Johnny Speight on scripts, including '' Spooner's Patch'' (1979–1982) about a corrupt police station. He also wrote scripts for sitcoms produced in Germany and Scandinavia. He co-wrote the ITV series '' Room at the Bottom'' (1986–1988) about television executives. His last sitcom was '' Get Well Soon'' in 1997 which he co-created with John Antrobus and which was based on his own experiences in a sanatorium. In October 2005, Galton and Antrobus premiered their play '' Steptoe and Son in Murder at Oil Drum Lane'' at the Theatre Royal, York. The play was set in the present day and related the events that led to Harold killing his father, and their eventual meeting thirty years later (Albert appearing as a ghost).

Honours and awards

Galton won two BAFTA awards among many others such as a British Comedy Award. He accepted an OBE in 2000 and he and Simpson received a

BAFTA Fellowship The BAFTA Fellowship, or the Academy Fellowship, is a lifetime achievement award presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in recognition of "outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image". The award is t ...

on 8 May 2016.

Personal life and death

Galton married Tonia Phillips in 1956, and they had three children; she died from cancer in 1995. He died on 5 October 2018. Galton's family said he died in his sleep at a family home after a long period suffering from

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

. His Manage
Tessa Le Bars
said in a statement “I have had the great honour of working with Ray for over 50 years and for the last 40 as his manager and friend. With his lifelong co-writer, the late Alan Simpson, they were regarded as the Fathers and creators of British sitcom. The end of an iconic era, but the legacy of Hancock’s Half Hour, Steptoe and Son and over 600 scripts is huge. They will endure, inspire and bring laughter to the nation for evermore".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Galton, Ray 1930 births 2018 deaths BAFTA fellows British male television writers Deaths from dementia in England English comedy writers English male writers English radio writers English television writers Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Paddington Writers from the City of Westminster