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Raymond Percy Galton (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) was an English radio and television scriptwriter, best known for the
Galton and Simpson
Ray Galton OBE (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) and Alan Simpson OBE (27 November 1929 – 8 February 2017) were English comedy scriptwriters whose partnership lasted over 50 years. They met in 1948 whilst recuperating from tuberculosis ...
comedy writing partnership with
Alan Simpson. Together they devised and wrote 1950s and 60s
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sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
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 series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, ...
'' (1954–1961), the first two series' of ''
Comedy Playhouse
''Comedy Playhouse'' is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including ''Steptoe and Son'', '' Meet the Wife'', ' ...
'' (1961–1963), and ''
Steptoe and Son
''Steptoe and Son'' is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and w ...
'' (1962–1974).
Early life
Galton was born in
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...
,
West London
West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary.
The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North 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) to differentiate its ...
. He contracted
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
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 settleme ...
in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, 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
Johnny Speight (2 June 1920 – 5 July 1998) was an English television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.
He emerged in the mid-1950s. He wrote for radio comics Frankie Howerd, Vic Oliver, Arthur Askey, and Cyril Fletcher. For tele ...
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
John Arthur Antrobus (born 2 July 1933) is an English playwright and screenwriter. He has written extensively for stage, screen, TV and radio, including the epic World War II play, ''Crete and Sergeant Pepper'' at the Royal Court. He authored t ...
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 disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galton, Ray
1930 births
2018 deaths
English radio writers
English television writers
British television writers
BAFTA fellows
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Paddington
English male writers
Deaths from dementia in England
British male television writers
English comedy writers