When two well-known people die on the same day, the person who gets more coverage in the newspapers and the TV and Radio news is often the one who deserves it the least . . . in my humble opinion, I hasten to add.
On February the 8th, an elderly man and a much younger woman, who were high profile in entirely different fields, both died.
He was 87-year old Alan Simpson, one half of the legendary comedy-writing team of Galton and Simpson who not only created the first British television sitcom “Hancock’s Half Hour” in the 1950s but then went on to even greater heights in the 1960s with “Steptoe And Son” which regularly attracted 18 million viewers. American TV made their own version called “Sanford and Son”.
The prolific Galton and Simpson also wrote films including the hilarious “The Wrong Arm Of The Law”, starring Peter Sellers; “The Rebel”, starring Tony Hancock; and two “Steptoe and Son” spin-offs – plus hundreds of episodes of radio and TV sitcoms.
The young woman who died on the same day – who I won’t name in case any readers knew her or felt some affinity with her – was described in her obituaries as a ‘socialite’.
I wasn’t aware of what a socialite does for a living . . . so I looked it up.
The thousands of pounds that Mater and Pater spent on my years at Eton weren’t wasted were they?
It turns out that a socialite isn’t actually a job description.
It refers to a person who’s well known in fashionable society and fond of social activities and entertainment. So, there’s no chance I’ll ever be called a socialite.
As she didn’t have a career, presumably the lady was able to maintain her fun lifestyle because she came from a rich family. Another reason I’ll never be called a socialite.
While many newspapers splashed on the young woman’s passing on their front and inside pages, they relegated Alan’s demise to a paragraph around page 20. It’s a funny old world, to be sure.
During the decades he created timeless, classic comedy, Alan Simpson helped to make it so.
Well, someone needs to point this stuff out.