Dennis Main Wilson (born 1924, died 1997) was producer of The Goons and Hancock's Half Hour for BBC radio and Till Death Us Do Part for BBC television. Year 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Goons are a small internet community. ... Hancocks Half Hour was a famous BBC radio comedy series of the 1950s starring Tony Hancock. ... BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. ... Til Death Us Do Part (also known as Till Death Us do Part)1 was a BBC television sitcom series written by Johnny Speight that ran from 1964 until 1974. ... BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which began in 1932. ...

He has been described by Screenonline as "Arguably the most important and influential of all comedy producers/directors in British radio and television." screenonline is a website devoted to the history of British film and television, and to social history as revealed by film and television. ...

Other hit shows he produced include Sykes with Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, Here's Harry with Harry Worth, It's Marty starring Marty Feldman and The Rag Trade (which he also directed). He had less success with Private Eye TV, an unsuccessful attempt to turn the satirical magazine Private Eye into a television programme. Sykes was a long-running BBC television sitcom of the 1960s and 1970s, starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques. ... Eric Sykes in the Sykes TV series (DVD) The Plank (DVD cover) Eric Sykes, CBE (born May 4, 1923 in Oldham, Lancashire) is a British comedic writer and actor. ... Josephine Edwina Jacques (7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980), better known by the stage name Hattie Jacques, (pronounced Jakes) was a British comedy actress born in Sandgate, Kent. ... Harry Worth (real name Harry Illingworth) (20 November 1917 - 20 July 1989) was a British comedy actor, His standard performance was as a genial, bumbling middle-class and middle-aged man from the North of England, who reduced all who came into contact with him to a state of frustration. ... Its Marty is a British television sketch comedy series, with Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and John Junkin. ... Marty Feldman in his television comedy series Marty (DVD) Martin Alan Marty Feldman (July 8, 1934 – December 2, 1982) was an English writer, comedian and film and television actor, famous for his bulging eyes, which were the result of a thyroid condition. ... The Rag Trade is a British television sitcom transmitted by the BBC between 1961 and 1963. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio...

In 1976, a scene shifter at the BBC handed him a script he'd written. It so impressed Main Wilson that he turned it into a series, Citizen Smith. The writer/scene shifter was John Sullivan, who would go on to write the sitcoms Just Good Friends, Dear John and most famously Only Fools and Horses. Citizen Smith was a British TV sitcom from the 1970s. ... For other men with this name, see John Sullivan (disambiguation). ... Just Good Friends was a BBC sitcom written by John Sullivan. ... Dear John was a 1986-1987 British sitcom, written by John Sullivan with a relatively short run (14 episodes and one special). This sitcoms title was a reference to letters sent by girls to their absent boyfriends breaking off the relationship, known as Dear John letters. ... Only Fools and Horses is a British television sit-com, created and written by John Sullivan, and made and broadcast by the BBC. Seven series were originally broadcast in the UK between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003. ...

He was also the producer that gave TV breaks to the likes of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Griff Rhys Jones and Emma Thompson. Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English comedian, author, actor and filmmaker. ... James Hugh Callum Laurie OBE (born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian and writer known as Hugh Laurie. ... Griff Rhys Jones on Not The Nine OClock News Griff Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a British writer and actor. ... Thompson in the 1989 film The Tall Guy Emma Thompson (born April 15, 1959) is a two-time Academy Award and BAFTA-winning English actress, comedienne, and screenwriter. ...

External links

• Screenonline on Dennis Main Wilson
• BBC Comedy Guide on Dennis Main Wilson
• Daily Telegraph obituary
• 1991 Bectu interview Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 4