FOR THOSE AFFECTED BY SYNC ISSUES, I'VE RE-UPLOADED HERE: • Ray Galton & Alan Simp... Mark Lawson, 19/03/2008. Not my copyright - just sharing found ephemera. (One clip removed.)
R.I.P Ray Galton :( I hope that you and Alan Simpson have been reunited and are relishing your comedy partnership. Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son will never be equalled.
Absolutely beautiful...legends of British TV. These men have provided my entire life with fantastic memories of superb TV. Into my adult life it only got better as I was now able to understand the complexity of the scripts.. amazing writers. Astounding productions.. simply wonderful pair who stayed together thru life and that is more than admirable.
Steptoe and Son is pure genius! Thanks so much for sharing this with us. There’s supposed to be an interview on the dvd box set but I’ve yet to find it.
Brilliant all through, thank you. I find Alan's remark about the impossibility of getting back to writing after a break very interesting. Clearly his nerves were shattered, hence his concentration problem. He refers briefly to a personal issue to do with his marriage as part of it. I once heard Alan refer to the pressure of writing they did as 'a young man's game', and, by his mid 40s it was simply to much. But of course he and Ray had given us so plenty of brilliance already!
Refreshing to hear them not feel the need to overly ''share'' their issues. I had personal problems in my marriage. End of. I don't need to cry like a baby and make everyone say ''poor you''.
Beginning around 10:15, what they say about the rhythm of a sentence, one word, even one syllable, more or less making all the difference, is excellent. 'That's very nearly an armful', is funnier than 'nearly an armful', which is funnier than 'almost an armful', which is funnier than an 'an armful'. Similarly, in comedy it's funnier if you can be specific. For example, a mate of mind once upset his girlfriend and he told us, 'She threw a tin of Chappy at me!' So much funnier than saying, 'She threw a tin of dog meat at me.'
When people talk about the first couple of waves of groundbreaking British comedy writers (Milligan... Cook... the Pythons etc), these two should always be spoken of in the same sentence, along with the writers of Round the Horne.
There was a brilliant Arena documentary on Galton and Simpson from around 2005- STILL not found it on a RU-vid! In hope it gets uploaded someday it was really illuminating
Wonderful having an insight t to the writers perspective, Must disagree on the final statements. I listen to all the Hancock and still laugh at the jokes every time even for the 100th time. perhaps it is in the delivery. What a loss these guys are.
I just cant imagine how they came up with such unbelievably funny one liners..and how Harold could even remember those lines!!!just cracks me up.!!!brilliant
Love the Hancock sketch with the oak tree the council want to cut it down and Hancock is saying "how dare you no way an oak tree the backbone of Britan etc etc...the Sid James the council man says we'll give you a quid and Hancock say Chop it down its only an old tree. Lmao.
never understood why The Rebel was never better thought of ... also The Sunday Afternoon at Home and would rank that alongside anything by Harold Pinter
Odd things seem to be happening with RU-vid. Sync issues seem to occur where I've had to remove a clip due to copyright - but only all these years later! If you download the clip - or watch on a phone - there's no issue! No idea what's going on.
when galton and simpson wrote for frankie howard he was indeed going to quit and run a pub!his last performance written by the boys was at the opening of wolseley hall in cheshunt a local council banqueting sweet. he could still draw a crowd ! g and s were at the show and on entering frankie was accosted by our local rag and bone man charlie finch who also ran a mobile pea nut stall and was a local character.two things came from this one was them persuading frank not to quit til he did a comedy playhouse they were writing the other was the idea of an old rag and bone man!frank because of this was offered a live spot on that was the week that was which led to his career restsrting.charlie finch for years after would bunk into the local carnival parade as old man steptoe with his horse and cart.
G&S deserved knighthoods for the pleasure they brought, and still bring us. I met them at a screening of their Frankie Howerd series a decade or so ago. Lovely chaps, and the audience were in fits of laughter throughout - I think they even enjoyed watching their old pals.
@@jahno7154 His writers said in retrospect that they were told to insert even 'oohs' and 'missus' in the scripts... then they said Frankie would complain that that was his input. Very few wrote their own material back then, but if you listen to Frankie's interviews he was quite a comical fellow in his own right.
@@ppotter Thanks very much for the info I was always curious about Frankie but yes he is funny in interview's that's good enough for me he's a comedian all right. Good heavens comedians writing for other comedians LOL
I have to disagree with Alan. I have watched comedy series a few times and always enjoy them. Rising Damp and Fawlty Towers to name just two. Also films, The Life of Brian and the original The Producers have wonderful performances. And I still enjoy listening to Round The Horn and of course Hancock's Half Hour. Count Arthur Strong is also good.
For Hancock to be rounded both men had to write for him, Alan seems like the innocent childlike side of Tony and Ray the pompous and supercilious, which he always came across to me.
I remember as a kid being told by a man how as kids thay would watch the dog fights in the sky.. The Spitfires attacking the bombers and fighting off the Stukas and Meschersmidts
