Duncan Wood

Duncan Wood
Wood (right) with Tony Hancock & Sid James (Photo: Bob Collins, 1959)
Born
Wilfred Duncan Wood

(1925-03-24)24 March 1925
Died11 January 1997(1997-01-11) (aged 71)
London, England
OccupationTV producer
Years active1955–1980

Wilfred Duncan Wood (24 March 1925 – 11 January 1997) was a British comedy producer, director and writer, who has been described as "the founding father of the British TV sitcom".[1]

Wood's best-known achievements were to produce all of Tony Hancock's Half Hours for BBC TV during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later the sitcom Steptoe and Son for most of its run, created by Hancock's former writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.[2]

From 1970 to 1973, Wood was the BBC's Head of Comedy.[3] He left in 1973 to become Head of Light Entertainment at Yorkshire Television and was responsible for commissioning Rising Damp.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference mccann was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ McGrath, Joe (14 January 1997). "Obituary: Duncan Wood". The Independent. London. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  3. ^ a b "BFI Screenonline: Wood, Duncan (1925-1997) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.