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The duo first collaborated on a comedy script for the hospital's radio station.

By the early 1950s, they were working for the Â鶹Éç and sharing an office with Peter Sellers, Frankie Howerd, Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes.

Their big break came in 1954, with Hancock's Half Hour establishing the two as a devastating comedy-writing partnership, in demand by the top performers of the era.

Their next success was Steptoe and Son. It set a high water mark they were never able to match.

After Simpson's retirement in 1978, Galton often worked with Johnny Speight.

His final sitcom was Get Well Soon in 1997, co-created with John Antrobus. Fittingly, it was about two lads who met in a TB sanatorium in the 1940s…