Scriptwriter Alan Simpson, co-creator of Hancock and Steptoe, dies at 87

Alan Simpson, one half of the Galton and Simpson writing duo behind Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son

The death at 87 of the scriptwriter Alan Simpson brings down the curtain on a golden age of British entertainment, though he had often dismissed the idea that such an era existed.

“When there were only two channels, there was a load of rubbish,” said Simpson, who with his partner Ray Galton devised and wrote Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son.

The pair had met as tuberculosis patients in a London sanitorium in the early fifties, and resolved to write together.

Interview: Ray Galton and Alan Simpson

Today, Galton and his family paid tribute. “There are no words to express our sense of loss and sadness at the passing of Alan Simpson, Ray’s partner and family friend over the last 70 years,” their statement read.

His manager Tessa Le Bars said: “Having had the privilege of working with Alan and Ray for over 50 years, the last 40 as agent, business manager and friend, and latterly as Alan’s companion and carer, I am deeply saddened to lose Alan after a brave battle with lung disease.”

Galton and Galton were dyed-in-the-wool Cockneys, but in the 1970s their old BBC producer Duncan Wood brought them to Yorkshire TV, where he had become head of comedy, to make a series of one-off comedies with Leonard Rossiter, Les Dawson and Arthur Lowe. One was set on board a train on a return trip from York Races.

Sid James and Tony Hancock in Galton and Simpson's Hancock's Half Hour

Their story had begun two decades earlier. After sending a skit to a BBC talent spotter, they got their first big break with Hancock’s Half Hour, which began on radio in 1954 before moving to the small screen.

Next, in 1962, came Steptoe And Son, about father and son rag-and-bone men living together in a grimy house in Shepherd’s Bush.

It earned Galton and Simpson, who had not been expected to survive tuberculosis in their teenage years, Writers’ Guild Awards in 1962 and 1963.

In 1997, a six-part BBC series called Get Well Soon, written by Galton and John Antrobus, was based on Galton and Simpson’s experiences in Milford Sanatorium.

Harry H Corbett Wilfrid Brambell in Steptoe and Son, by Alan Simpson and Ray Galton

Proving the continued popularity of their characters, the pair successfully revived Steptoe And Son for a play in 2005 called Murder At Oil Drum Lane.

Both were both awarded OBEs in 2000 for their contribution to British television.

The pair said last year that they still met every Monday to drink coffee and discuss the best comedians.

Last summer they were honoured with the Bafta Fellowship last summer.

Alan Simpson (right) and Ray Galton at the unveiling of an English Heritage blue plaque commemorating comedy star Tony Hancock.

“We always wanted a Fellowship, even though we did not know what a Fellowship was. Not the sort of thing one associates with a couple of Cockney lads, apart from Alfred Hitchcock, of course,” Simpson said at the time.

GALTON AND SIMPSON’S BEST LINES

• “A pint? That’s very nearly an armful!” - Tony Hancock, on giving blood, in The Blood Donor

• “When I’ve got my decent clobber on I’m completely classless. Providing I don’t open my mouth I could pass for anybody.” - Harold Steptoe, Steptoe And Son

• “Friends all over the world. None round here but friends all over the world.” - Tony Hancock, Hancock’s Half Hour

• “I had foot-rot, malaria, I was wounded twice. I had three doses of dysentery. Oh God. They were the happiest days of my life.” - Harold Steptoe, Steptoe And Son

• “That wasn’t a lobster that poisoned you, you swallowed your own venom.” - Harold Steptoe, Steptoe And Son