Ray Galton, co-writer of British comedy classic 'Steptoe & Son,' dies at 88Oct 6 (AZINS) Screenwriter Ray Galton, who co-wrote the landmark British comedy series Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son, has died at 88.

Galton's family said Saturday that he died Friday evening after a "long and heart-breaking battle with dementia."

The London-born Galton was diagnosed with life-threatening tuberculosis as a teenager. In a sanatorium, he met another sick teen, Alan Simpson, and the pair became long-term writing partners.

Manager Tessa Le Bars called them "the fathers and creators of British sitcom." Galton and Simpson wrote Hancock's Half Hour for popular post-war comedian Tony Hancock.

Their biggest hit was Steptoe and Son, a sitcom about father-and-son junk dealers, which ran between 1962 and 1974.

Producer Norman Lear adapted it into the US sitcom "Sanford and Son." Simpson died last year at 87.