GALTON AND SIMPSON: GRUMPY OLD MEN? | Culture | The Independent

GALTON AND SIMPSON: GRUMPY OLD MEN? | Culture | The Independent

A 1996 interview with the creators of Hancock's Half-Hour and Steptoe and Son, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson:

"Why do they still appeal to generations born long after they stopped being made? 'Without getting portentous,' Simpson observes, 'the characters we write are not of any particular era. Their attitudes have been around for 2,000 years. It's about people aspiring to better themselves - and that's not just particular to the 1960s. The Hancock character is there in Dickens. People can still identify with these characters, they're recognisable.'...

"Galton, like a well-drilled double-act partner should, takes up the story. 'If there's any secret, it lies in the characters. In those domestic sitcoms, there are no characters, they're all just stereotypes. Ab Fab and Father Ted have wonderful characters - and that's half the battle.'

"'Laughs come from the actions between the characters,' Simpson adds. 'You don't need a joke to get a laugh; things become funny because you know the characters. When we started, people couldn't understand that you could write a half-hour comedy without gags.'"