Ray Galton

This 1983 folk comedy play from Lisebergsteatern in Gothenburg follows Albert and Herbert as they face eviction from their shabby Haga house when the neighborhood is slated for demolition, sparking both worry and resistance. At the same time, Albert receives mysterious threatening letters, and when two bumbling burglars suddenly appear, father and son face new trials.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

This 1981 folk comedy play from Lisebergsteatern in Gothenburg returns to Skolgatan in Haga, where Herbert still hasn’t managed to move out despite countless attempts. When Albert stumbles upon his son’s diary and begins reading the embarrassing entries aloud, tensions rise—only to grow worse when a tax inspector arrives. For thirty years Albert has failed to report Herbert’s mother’s death, and the family has continued to receive a spousal deduction. Now father and son must resort to desperate and comical tricks to avoid being found out.

Open details →

The incredibly true story of the legendary French entertainer Joseph Pujol, who performed impersonations with his self-described 'elastic anus' and a surfeit of wind.

Open details →

Follows the daily antics of Woodley police station, where officers are more interested in taking bribes and doing little work than catching criminals. Inspector Spooner lives alone in a flat above the station and often had to deal with the messes created by his junior staff.

Open details →

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

Open details →

Albert and Herbert Hansen love each other, in the way that fathers and sons usually do. They argue and bicker, but they don't take it too seriously. If it weren't for one particular thing, they could have continued indefinitely as companions and friends. But in the distance, wedding bells are ringing.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

Based on the television sitcom Fleksnes Fataliteter. Marve Fleksnes (Wesenlund) lives a comfortable life with his mother (Schønemann), but misses a woman in his life. He is afraid he might become the last Fleksnes. His mother enrols him in a charm school, where he excels. At the same time, a young lady moves into the apartment across the hall.

Open details →

Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. Always on the lookout for ways to improve his lot, Harold invests his father's life savings in a greyhound who is almost blind and can't see the hare. When the dog loses a race and Harold has to pay off the debt, he comes up with another bright idea. Collect his father's life insurance. To do this his father must pretend to be dead.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

The misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son.

Open details →

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...

Open details →

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

Open details →

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.

Open details →

Basil Puddifoot (played by Harry H. Corbett) has moved to London for work and meets Olive Bunclark (Rosemary Leach) in his boarding house. With the help of a miss-dialed telephone number they get to know each other in this sincere comedy from Galton and Simpson.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

A dog with a spying device under its skin is sent to the Russian government as a present. When the Russians send the dog to a veterinary, British intelligence must get to the dog first and retrieve the spying device.

Open details →

A one-off special performance by Tony Hancock of his stand-up comedy act (which rarely changed), at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father and son played by Wilfred Brambell and Harry H. Corbett who deal in selling used items. They live on Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the US as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert and in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon. In 1972 a movie adaptation of the series, Steptoe and Son, was released in cinemas, with a second Steptoe and Son Ride Again in 1973.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

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.

Open details →

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.

Open details →