There is much on UK TV today about the sad death of Ray Dalton who has died at the age of 88.
Ray co-wrote the seminal Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son with writer Alan Simpson. These illustrious shows, now revered as groundbreaking entertainment, were at the dawn of what we now know as sitcom in Britain.
The trials of working people in a complex post-War Britain was something everyone could understand and see the funny side of.
Not so much Hancock, I did watch Steptoe all the time with my parents back in the Sixties. The antics of father and son, two generations of rag and bone men living together in a ramshackle home, was simply hilarious.
I understand that Steptoe and Son was a worldwide hit and many countries had their own version. In the US it was called Sanford and Son I think. Oddly enough I have never met anyone called Steptoe.
As an adult I have over the years bought various books and records connected with these shows. Some made it on my vintage toy stall.
In particular Hancocks Half Hour was captured on record and I found several LP's and cassettes in charity shops, one being a gatefold [pictured]. The life of an ordinary man struggling with the modern world was and is very funny and something that many people could relate to.
I have also just read that Hancocks Half Hour: The Missing Hancocks can be now be heard on Radio 4.
Did and do you enjoy Ray Dalton's and co-writer Alan Simpson's brilliant writing readers?
RIP Ray Dalton. Our sympathy goes to his family and friends,
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