Alan Simpson

Writer

November 27, 1929 (87 years)

† February 8, 2017

Brixton, London, England, UK

Biography

Alan Francis Simpson was an English scriptwriter. He was best known as part of the Galton and Simpson comedy writing partnership with Ray Galton.

Filmography

6.0

Comedy Playhouse

Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010.

7.4

Hancock's Half Hour

Hancock's Half Hour is a BBC television comedy series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock with Sid James. The final series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone. Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development.

N/A

The Galton & Simpson Playhouse

A series of seven individual sitcom pilots from writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

5.0

Clochemerle

Clochemerle is a 1972 British–West German television comedy based on Gabriel Chevallier's 1934 novel of the same name, with Ray Galton and Alan Simpson adapting the text. Filmed on location in France, it starred Roy Dotrice, Wendy Hiller, Cyril Cusack, Kenneth Griffith, and Cyd Hayman, with narration by Peter Ustinov. In the small French village of Clochemerle, Mayor Barthelemey Piechut plans for the erection of a 'pissoir' (gentlemen's public convenience) in the town square. Unfortunately, the rest of the rural inhabitants aren't as impressed.

6.7

Fleksnes fataliteter

Fleksnes Fataliteter, better known by its shortened title Fleksnes, was a Norwegian television comedy series produced between 1972 and 2002, based on Galton and Simpson's scripts for the British series Hancock's Half Hour.

7.7

Citizen James

At and around Soho cafe Charlie's Nosh Bar, Sidney Balmoral James ('Sid') is on the lookout for any get-rich-quick scheme. He is helped by William Montmorency Beaumont Kerr ('Billy the Kerr') and quite often frustrated by local bookmaker Albert Welshman. Meanwhile, Sid's long-suffering girlfriend Liz has been waiting for seven years for Sid to set the date.

7.8

The Rebel

Anthony Hancock gives up his office job to become an abstract artist. He has a lot of enthusiasm, but little talent, and critics scorn his work. Nevertheless, he impresses an emerging very talented artist. Hancock proceeds to con the art world into thinking he is a genius.

6.7

The Wrong Arm of the Law

The crooks in London know how it works. No one carries guns and no one resists the police. Then a new gang appears that go one better. They dress as police and steal from the crooks. This upsets the natural order of the police/criminal relationship and the police and the crooks join forces to catch the IPOs (Impersonating Police Officers), including an armoured car robbery in which the police must help the gangs to set a trap.

8.0

Paul Merton in Galton & Simpson's

Paul Merton stars in various remakes of scripts written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson that were originally performed by such greats as Tony Hancock and Les Dawson.

N/A

Albert & Herberts julkalender

Albert is obsessed with Christmas. The moment December begins, he pulls out all the holiday decorations from the attic. But his son Herbert doesn’t share the same festive spirit. Tired of Albert’s over-the-top enthusiasm, Herbert decides that this year, they’ll each celebrate Christmas their own way—separately.

6.3

Steptoe & Son

Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live together at the junk yard. Harold, who likes the bright lights in the West End of London, meets a stripper, marries her and takes her home. Albert is furious and tries every trick he knows to drive the new bride from his household.

N/A

Sommarkvetter

Comedy with Sten-Åke Cederhök and Tomas von Brömssen at the Lisebergsteatern in Gothenburg, featuring scrap dealers Albert and Herbert, a waiter with rabbit teeth and a shack maid with an incomprehensible village dialect.

N/A

Lost Sitcoms

British classic Lost Sitcoms, recreated by the BBC, from shows: Hancock’s Half Hour, Steptoe And Son and Till Death Us Do Part - each with a brand new stellar cast

7.0

Galton and Simpson Comedy

Six standalone comedy plays by writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, with themes including farce, fantasy and murder. Featured stars include Leslie Phillips and Bob Monkhouse, while there's also another collaboration with Harry H. Corbett.

7.0

The Bargee

After a lock-keeper entrusts his daughter to a canal Casanova, he is shocked to learn that she is pregnant. He then refuses to open his locks - causing barges to pile up in every direction until the guilty party confesses.

7.0

Dawson's Weekly

Les Dawson puts his innate comic ability to excellent use as the hapless protagonist in this series of comedy plays made by ITV company Yorkshire Television. The series is written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. Supporting actors include Roy Barraclough and a wealth of special guests.

4.1

Up the Chastity Belt

A funny thing happened to Lurkalot, serf to Sir Coward de Custard, on the way to Custard Castle. Lurkalot sells lusty love potions and rusty chastity belts in the market place, but on this day Sir Graggart de Bombast arrives to sack the castle, and to get the lovely Lobelia Custard in the sack! Lurkalot must help Custard cream the knight in pining armour...

7.0

Don't Blame Me!

Skyll inte på mig! was a Swedish television comedy series starring Magnus Härenstam and Brasse Brännström, produced in 1977, and like Fleksnes fataliteter based on Galton and Simpson's scripts for the British series Hancock's Half Hour, translated and directed by Bo Hermansson.

5.0

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins

A septet of satirical vignettes based on the Seven Deadly Sins.

5.7

Loot

Two bank robbers, Dennis and Hal, are on the run from the police after a successful heist. Needing somewhere to hide the loot, they turn to a funeral parlour where they stash the cash in Hal's recently-deceased mother's coffin. Taking the coffin, they turn to Hal's father and hide it in the bathroom of his hotel. Before long the hotel is host to the eccentric Inspector Truscott.