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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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ 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…