Ray Galton, OBE (born 1930) and Alan Simpson, OBE (born 1929) are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a Tuberculosis sanatorium in London. They are best known for writing Hancock's Half Hour for Tony Hancock on radio between 1954 and 1959, and on television between 1956 and 1960. Their relationship with Hancock ended when he moved to ITV, and without them, the quality of his work and his popularity diminished.
After Hancock, they produced a series of one-off plays for the BBC, out of which emerged Steptoe and Son (1962-1974), about two rag-and-bone junk merchants, father and son, who live together in a squalid house in West London. This was the basis for the American series Sanford and Son.
Their comedy is characterised by a bleak and somewhat fatalistic tone. Steptoe and Son in particular is, at times, extremely black comedy, and close in tone to social realist drama. Both the character played by Tony Hancock in Hancock's Half Hour and Harold Steptoe (Harry H. Corbett) are pretentious, would-be intellectuals who find themselves trapped by the squalidness of their lives. This theme was expanded upon in their 1961 script for Tony Hancock's film The Rebel, about a civil servant who moves to Paris to become an artist.
After Steptoe and Son ceased broadcasting, although both writers continued to work solidly, including several projects with Frankie Howerd, they had no further high profile successes. In 1996, comedian Paul Merton revived several Hancock's Half Hour scripts for ITV to a mixed reception, and the following year, Ray Galton's "Get Well Soon", based on his and Simpson's early sanatorium experiences, was broadcast by the BBC.
Both were awarded OBEs in the 2000 Honours list for their contribution to British television.
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