Who wrote Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son
"British sitcom in the 1960s and 1970s. Ray Galton had been one of the two writers of the original series, and he co-wrote this play. It brought an end to the ""Steptoe and Son"" saga, explaining the two protagonists' lives together and their deaths. The year is 2005. Steptoe's old house is now the property of the National Trust. Harold Steptoe, now in his 70s, visits the place but gets shut in after closing time. Through his monologue, the audience discovers that he eventually killed his father by throwing a spear at him when he was sitting on the toilet."
"Alan Simpson (scriptwriter) Alan Francis Simpson, (27 November 1929 – 8 February 2017) was an English scriptwriter, best known for the Galton and Simpson comedy writing partnership with Ray Galton. Together they devised and wrote the BBC sitcom ""Hancock's Half Hour"" (1954–1961), the first two series of ""Comedy Playhouse"" (1961–1963), and ""Steptoe and Son"" (1962–1974). Simpson was born in Brixton, south London, and was educated at Mitcham County Grammar School for Boys. He was a football fan and supported Brentford. After leaving school he worked as a shipping clerk and was a member of a church concert party. He contracted"
"episode ""Divided We Stand"" in his memory. Alan Simpson (scriptwriter) Alan Francis Simpson, (27 November 1929 – 8 February 2017) was an English scriptwriter, best known for the Galton and Simpson comedy writing partnership with Ray Galton. Together they devised and wrote the BBC sitcom ""Hancock's Half Hour"" (1954–1961), the first two series of ""Comedy Playhouse"" (1961–1963), and ""Steptoe and Son"" (1962–1974). Simpson was born in Brixton, south London, and was educated at Mitcham County Grammar School for Boys. He was a football fan and supported Brentford. After leaving school he worked as a shipping clerk and was a member"
"Duncan Wood Duncan Wood (24 March 1925 in Bristol, England – 11 January 1997) was a British comedy producer, director and writer. His best-known achievements were to produce all of Tony Hancock's ""Half Hours"" for BBC TV during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later, also with Hancock's former writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the classic British sitcom ""Steptoe and Son"" for most of its run. He also produced the first series of ""The Bed-Sit Girl"". From 1972-73, he was the BBC's Head of Comedy, but left in 1973 to become Head of Light Entertainment at Yorkshire Television"
"and was responsible for commissioning ""Rising Damp"". Duncan Wood Duncan Wood (24 March 1925 in Bristol, England – 11 January 1997) was a British comedy producer, director and writer. His best-known achievements were to produce all of Tony Hancock's ""Half Hours"" for BBC TV during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later, also with Hancock's former writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the classic British sitcom ""Steptoe and Son"" for most of its run. He also produced the first series of ""The Bed-Sit Girl"". From 1972-73, he was the BBC's Head of Comedy, but left in 1973 to become"
"Ray Galton Raymond Percy Galton, (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) was an English radio and television scriptwriter, best known for the Galton and Simpson comedy writing partnership with Alan Simpson. Together they devised and wrote many 1950s and 60s popular BBC sitcoms including ""Hancock's Half Hour"" (1954–1961), the first two seasons of ""Comedy Playhouse"" (1961–1963), and ""Steptoe and Son"" (1962–1974). Galton was born in Paddington, West London, and after leaving school he worked for the Transport and General Workers Union. He contracted tuberculosis aged 18 in 1948 and was admitted to Milford Sanatorium near Godalming in Surrey, where"
"Piece of Eden"", ""Suspended Animation"" and ""The Looking Glass"". John D. Hancock John D. Hancock (born February 12, 1939) is an American stage and film director, producer and writer. He is perhaps best known for his work on ""Bang the Drum Slowly"". Hancock's theatrical work includes direction of both classic and contemporary plays, from Shakespeare to Saul Bellow. John was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Ralph and Ella Mae Rosenthal Hancock. His father was a musician with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Chicago, Illinois, and his mother a schoolteacher. Hancock spent his youth between their home in"
"and its role in their subsequent careers. Following their break with the Derek Roy vehicle ""Happy Go Lucky"", they became writers for Tony Hancock, including the ""Hancock's Half Hour"" radio show and Hancock's later television specials. Subsequently, the pair wrote several comedy series for television, including ""Comedy Playhouse"" and ""Steptoe and Son"". The latter became the basis for the American series ""Sanford and Son"" and the Swedish series ""Albert & Herbert"". Many of their works were re-adopted for later production, such as the Paul Merton revival of the ""Hancock's Half Hour"" for ITV, and the 2009 audio plays ""Galton and"
"Simpson's Half Hour"" broadcast on BBC Radio 2 to celebrate the team's 60th anniversary. Galton and Simpson continued to write for other one-off comedies and series until Simpson's retirement in 1978, after which the two remained in contact. Simpson retired from scriptwriting in 1978 to concentrate on business interests. He was appointed an OBE in 2000, and he and Galton received a BAFTA Fellowship on 8 May 2016 for their comedic contributions. Simpson died on 8 February 2017, as a result of lung disease, at the age of 87. On 11 February 2017 BBC Two broadcast the ""Steptoe and Son"""
"Hancock for a time. After their association with Hancock had ended, they wrote a series of ""Comedy Playhouse"" (1961–62), ten one-off half-hour plays for the BBC. One play in the series, ""The Offer"", was well received, and from this emerged ""Steptoe and Son"" (1962–74), about two rag and bone men, father and son, who live together in a squalid house in West London. This was the basis for the American series ""Sanford and Son"" and the Swedish series ""Albert & Herbert"". Their comedy is characterised by a bleak and somewhat fatalistic tone. ""Steptoe and Son"" in particular is, at times,"
"Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. Hancock started his career with Donald Byrd. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles. Hancock's best-known compositions include ""Cantaloupe Island"", ""Watermelon Man"" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaría), ""Maiden Voyage"", ""Chameleon"", and the singles ""I Thought It Was You"" and ""Rockit"". His"
"John D. Hancock John D. Hancock (born February 12, 1939) is an American stage and film director, producer and writer. He is perhaps best known for his work on ""Bang the Drum Slowly"". Hancock's theatrical work includes direction of both classic and contemporary plays, from Shakespeare to Saul Bellow. John was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Ralph and Ella Mae Rosenthal Hancock. His father was a musician with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Chicago, Illinois, and his mother a schoolteacher. Hancock spent his youth between their home in Chicago and their fruit farm in La Porte, Indiana."
"the age of 92. He was survived by his wife of 35 years, Teddi, and his three stepchildren, Jennifer Levison, Daniel Levison, and Michael Levison. Donald S. Sanford Donald S. Sanford (March 17, 1918 – February 8, 2011) was an American television, radio and film screenwriter. Sanford was known for his work on numerous television series, as well as his role as the author of the screenplay for the 1976 World War II film ""Midway"", starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, which became a cult classic. Sanford was born March 17, 1918. He served as a chief sonar soundman in"
"Myoho Renge Kyo"" each day. In 2013, Hancock's dialogue with musician Wayne Shorter and Soka Gakkai International president Daisaku Ikeda on jazz, Buddhism and life was published in Japanese. Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. Hancock started his career with Donald Byrd. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles. Hancock's best-known compositions"
"H. Irving Hancock Harrie Irving Hancock (January 16, 1868 – March 12, 1922) was an American chemist and writer, mainly remembered as an author of children's literature and juveniles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and as having written a fictional depiction of a German invasion of the United States. Hancock was born in Massachusetts on January 16, 1868. His parents were William Henry and Laura (Oakes) Hancock. Hancock married Nellie Stein on December 21, 1887. They had two daughters, apparently adopted: Vivian Morris Hancock and Doris Hancock. A prolific author who liked to work at night, Hancock"
"Howard Talbot Richard Lansdale Munkittrick, better known as Howard Talbot (9 March 1865 – 12 September 1928), was an American-born, English-raised conductor and composer of Irish descent. He was best known for writing the music to several hit Edwardian musical comedies, including ""A Chinese Honeymoon"", ""The Arcadians"" and ""The Boy"", as well as a number of other successful British musicals during the first two decades of the 20th century. Of Irish descent, Talbot was born in America in Yonkers, New York but moved to London at the age of four. His parents were Alexander Munkittrick and his wife, Lillie. Originally"
"Tony Hancock Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ""Hancock's Half Hour"", first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James, when it became known in early 1960, disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best remembered work (""The Blood Donor"")."
"John Lee Hancock John Lee Hancock, Jr. (born December 15, 1956) is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for directing the sports drama films ""The Rookie"" (2002) and ""The Blind Side"" (2009), and the historical drama films ""Saving Mr. Banks"" (2013) and ""The Founder"" (2016). Hancock's debut as a screenwriter and director came in 1991 with ""Hard Time Romance"". He worked on two more films as a screenwriter with ""A Perfect World"" and ""Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"" before making his next directing effort in 2002 with the sports drama ""The Rookie"","
"Michael Cole (writer) Michael Cole (17 March 1933 – 4 August 2001) created a number of children's programmes from the 70s to the 90s, including ""Alphabet Castle"", ""Heads and Tails"" and ""Ragtime"", for which he won a Society of Film and Television Award (later known as a BAFTA) for Best Children's Programme. Together with his wife Joanne Cole, he created ""Bod"", originally published as four books in 1965 and made into a TV show in the 70s, as well as ""Fingerbobs"" and ""Gran"". Michael Cole was born in Willesden, London on 17 March 1933. During the war he and his"
"Half a Hero Half a Hero is a 1953 American comedy film starring Red Skelton and Jean Hagen. Directed by Don Weis, the film was written by Max Shulman and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Freelance writer Ben Dobson (Skelton) lands his first full-time writing job at a national magazine, tasked with rewriting other authors' work. His wife Martha (Hagen) uses this as the perfect time to start their family, and four years later pressures Ben into moving from New York City to the suburbs, where he's swiftly living beyond his means. His boss then wants him to write a story on"
"Stanley Hollingsworth Stanley Walker Hollingsworth (August 27, 1924, Berkeley, California – October 29, 2003, Rocklin, California) was an American composer and teacher. He was a student of composer Darius Milhaud from 1944–46, and of Gian Carlo Menotti from 1948–50. As a composer he is probably best known for his operatic trilogy of children's stories: ""The Mother"", ""The Selfish Giant"", and ""Harrison Loved his Umbrella"". Hollingsworth was conversant in all the vocal and instrumental forms, examples of which are his ""Five Songs"" (1960) for solo voice and piano, ""Death Be Not Proud"" (1978) for mixed chorus and piano or orchestra, Sonata"
"1913 comedy ""Peg O' My Heart"", was less successful. David Heneker David Heneker (31 March 1906 – 30 January 2001) was a writer and composer of British popular music and musicals, best known for creating the music and lyrics for ""Half a Sixpence"". Heneker was born in Southsea, England, in March 1906, the eldest son of the Canadian-born Lieutenant Colonel William Heneker, a notable military strategist and tactician, who would later serve with distinction in World War I, rising to the rank of General. Educated at Wellington and Sandhurst, Heneker followed his father into a military career. He served as"
"Half an Hour Half an Hour is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Harley Knoles and written by Clara Beranger. The film stars Dorothy Dalton, Charles Richman, Albert L. Barrett, Frank Losee, and H. Cooper Cliffe. It is based on the play ""Half an Hour"" by J. M. Barrie. The film was released on September 19, 1920, by Paramount Pictures. As described in a film magazine, Lady Lillian Garson (Dalton), whose marriage to man of wealth Richard Garson (Richman) has been in name only and the result of parental pressure, decides after an unpleasant meeting with her husband"
"Stuart Hancock Stuart Hancock (born 5 August 1975) is an award-winning British composer of film, TV and concert music. Hancock is known for having composed the original soundtrack to series 2 of the BBC fantasy series Atlantis, and he won the BASCA British Composer Award in 2015 for his community song-cycle, Snapshot Songs. Hancock attended Downing College, Cambridge University, earning a BA in Geography. He was the inaugural recipient of the Pomona-Downing Scholarship, studying for an academic year at Pomona College, Claremont, California, US, where he developed his interest in music composition and scored his first film. He subsequently gained"
"MP, Minister for Health, as the Surrey County Sanatorium on 20 July 1928. The hospital joined the National Health Service as the Milford Sanatorium in 1948. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson (the writers of Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son) created comedy scripts together after meeting while patients in Milford Sanitorium in 1948. It was also the location for an episode of Doctor Who starring Jon Pertwee and his adversaries, the Silurians, in 1969. The facility became the Milford Chest Hospital in 1972. A long campaign to secure the future of Milford Hospital as a centre of excellence was"
"edited out and pauses shortened. The LP credits the theme music to Angela Morley, even though the music was omitted, and the episodes were recorded when she was still called Wally Stott. There have been six LPs released of substantially complete radio episodes. The first was by Pye Records in 1960 entitled ""This is Hancock"" containing ""The Wild Man of The Woods"" and ""Sunday Afternoon At Home."" The other five were by BBC Records, released as ""Hancock's Half Hour"": ""The Poetry Society"" and ""Sid's Mystery Tours"", released in 1980; ""The Americans Hit Town"" and ""The Unexploded Bomb"" in 1981; ""The"
"In high school, he was the Assistant Concertmaster of the Chicago Youth Orchestra playing the violin. Hancock graduated from Harvard University. He continued his theatrical studies in Europe with a grant from Harvard and observed Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble. He made his directorial debut at age 22 with the Off-Broadway hit production of Bertolt Brecht's ""Man Equals Man"". This was followed by Robert Lowell's ""Endicott and the Red Cross"". In 1968, Hancock directed Shakespeare's ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"", which won him the Obie Award for Distinguished Director for the 1967–68 season. ""Cue Magazine"" noted, ""This brutal, vulgar and erotic production"
"Half a Sixpence Half a Sixpence is a musical comedy based on the 1905 novel ""Kipps"" by H. G. Wells, with music and lyrics by David Heneker and book by Beverley Cross. It was written as a vehicle for British pop star Tommy Steele. The show is based on H.G. Wells's novel ""Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul"". Steele played Arthur Kipps, an orphan who unexpectedly inherits a fortune, and climbs the social ladder before losing everything and realizing that you just can't buy happiness. David Heneker (who had also worked on ""Irma La Douce"" and ""Charlie Girl"") wrote"
"Jane Stanton Hitchcock Jane Stanton Hitchcock (born November 24, 1946) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. She has written several plays but is known mostly for her mystery novels ""Mortal Friends"", ""One Dangerous Lady"", ""Social Crimes"", ""The Witches' Hammer"" and ""Trick of the Eye"". Hitchcock also wrote the screenplays for ""Our Time"" and ""First Love"". Hitchcock was born Jane Johnston Crowley on , to Robert Crowley, a surgeon, and Joan Crowley (known professionally as Joan Alexander), an actress known for playing Lois Lane on the radio serial ""The Adventures of Superman,"" and Della Street on the radio serial ""Perry"
"had not read any of the screenplays. The result of the break was that Hancock chose to separately develop something previously discussed, and the writers were ultimately commissioned to write a ""Comedy Playhouse"" series for the BBC, one of which, ""The Offer"", emerged as the pilot for ""Steptoe and Son"". That ""something previously discussed"" became ""The Punch and Judy Man"", for which Hancock hired writer Philip Oakes, who moved in with the comedian to co-write the screenplay. In ""The Punch and Judy Man"" (1962), Hancock plays a struggling seaside entertainer who dreams of a better life; Sylvia Syms plays his"
"Raymond Hitchcock (author) Raymond John Hitchcock (9 February 1922 – 23 February 1992) was an English novelist, screenwriter, and cartoonist, He is best remembered for his novel ""Percy"", which was the basis for a 1971 film of the same name. Several of his earlier books were light-hearted sexual farces; his later titles included several thrillers. He was the father of English musician Robyn Hitchcock. His daughter Fleur is a children's author. Hitchcock was born in Calcutta, India in 1922 to English parents. At age 22, one of his legs was wounded during the Allied forces invasion of Normandy, giving him"
"Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, musician and travel writer. His most famous works are ""Treasure Island"", ""Kidnapped"", ""Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"", and ""A Child's Garden of Verses"". He was a literary celebrity during his lifetime, and now ranks as the 26th most translated author in the world. His works have been admired by many other writers, including Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Proust, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Cesare Pavese, Emilio Salgari, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov, J."
"Donald S. Sanford Donald S. Sanford (March 17, 1918 – February 8, 2011) was an American television, radio and film screenwriter. Sanford was known for his work on numerous television series, as well as his role as the author of the screenplay for the 1976 World War II film ""Midway"", starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, which became a cult classic. Sanford was born March 17, 1918. He served as a chief sonar soundman in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1945 during World War II. Sanford began his career, initially in radio and television, after leaving the U.S."