[1] Galton and Simpson met in 1948, while recuperating from tuberculosis at the Milford Hospital near Godalming in Surrey, The partnership's break in comedy writing came with the Derek Roy vehicle Happy Go Lucky, although this was not a success.

Duncan Wood, the former Hancock and Steptoe producer by then at Yorkshire Television, commissioned The Galton & Simpson Playhouse, a seven-part series broadcast in 1977, featuring leading actors of the time such as Richard Briers, Leonard Rossiter and Arthur Lowe.

In October 2005, Galton and John Antrobus premiered their play Steptoe and Son in Murder at Oil Drum Lane at the Theatre Royal, York.

The play is set in the present day and relates the events that lead to Harold killing his father, and their eventual meeting thirty years later (Albert appearing as a ghost).

The series of four episodes was made to celebrate the duo's 60-year anniversary, and the cast consists of Frank Skinner, Mitchell and Webb, Rik Mayall, June Whitfield and Paul Merton.

On Saturday 1 June 2013, the British Comedy Society unveiled a blue plaque to Simpson and Galton at Milford Hospital (formerly the sanatorium at which the pair first met).