IN 1948 two teenagers met at Milford Sanatorium, a TB hospital in Godalming, Surrey, striking up a friendship that would last more than half a century and result in two of the most memorable and enduring sit-coms in TV history.
It may not have been the most auspicious surroundings for the start of such an important creative relationship but, having its own in-house radio station, the sanatorium at least gave budding writers Alan Simpson and Ray Galton the chance to collaborate on some scripts and have them broadcast.
And, having spent years recuperating from TB, they knew what it felt like to be trapped in a situation beyond your control, something they put to good use in their work on, first, Hancock's Half Hour, and then Steptoe and Son.
Having effectively invented the situation comedy with the Hancock show –
