Hilliam wrote a series of odes for the school magazine under the pseudonym Aimless, an anagram of Smailes.
[2] Hilliam wrote most of the duo's songs, played the piano and sang in a "light, high tenor voice".
The duo's only film appearance is in the prelude of the 1936 Tod Slaughter melodrama The Crimes of Stephen Hawke.
Hilliam appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 3 August 1959.
[5] In 1935 Hilliam appeared in court after his first wife attempted to have him declared bankrupt for failure to pay alimony.