The birthplace of British Sit-Com?

[spinalman]

The Hancock thread got me thinking. Galton and Simpson are up near the top of the list when it comes to determining who created the first truly British sitcom - Hancock (yes I know there were US sit-com transfers to the UK before).



Galton and Simpson met at Milford Sanatorium in Surrey, where they were long term patients. There they established a "new" radio room from where they could make their own comedy radio programmes, narrowcasted via their own cabling across the roofs into the hospital radio circuit. With the help of an ex-RAF radio expert they converted a laundry cupboard into their studio. Their sketches and comedy turns were the begining of a very long-running and fruitful partnership and I am sure some of their later gems were influenced by their forced internship at Milford - I am thinking of Hancock- "Sunday Afternoon" particularly.



So my question is, where is this laundry cupboard? (arguably the birthplace of UK Sit-com). Milford Hospital survives, just. It has been re-vamped many times and the cupboard adjacent to the ward may be long gone, but it would be interesting to find it before the whole site is demolished. (Milford is earmarked for early redevelopment). Does anyone have any inside knowledge of where on the site is was? I live a stone's throw from Milford but have not found any information from former staff who were there in the later years.

[spinalman]

4 years later and I have traced that cupboard. It still exists, but in a very sorry state.

[Bernardo]

That is a really nice post and quite an addition to my knowledge base I use to bore those around me with.

Another root of the sitcom tree could be the roof of Broadcasting House which was the sit for the coms, Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch.

[Moor Larkin]

name='spinalman' date='09 June 2010 - 02:47 PM' timestamp='1276091241' post='437743']

4 years later and I have traced that cupboard. It still exists, but in a very sorry state.

............... and ............................ there must be more.......





TB was a big story-line in the past. Young people now barely know what it is. Patrick McGoohan had his biggest theatre success in a play set in a then brand-new NHS TB ward, along with Terence Alexander, William Hartnell and a young Andrew Ray. But TB sanatoria used to litter the countryside in the USA and Canada too. McGoohan's play was a sort of situation comedy and inspired films such as Carry On Nurse and the much closer sibling, Twice Around the Daffodils.



McGoohan's play was called Ring For Catty, co-written by Patrick Cargill - another sitcom stalwart to come.



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...n-1219717.html

[spinalman]

1947 - the Radio room.

2010 - the Radio room.



Photos not to be reproduced.

[Moor Larkin]

That colour one reminds me of my old Bed-sit............







Just goes to show that Art needs not, the lap of Luxury...

[spinalman]

That colour one reminds me of my old Bed-sit............







Just goes to show that Art needs not, the lap of Luxury...

The Quest for the ?Birthplace of the British Sitcom?

is the website relating to my discovery