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Harry William Thompson was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. Thompson was widely regarded as one of the most successful television producers and comedy writers of his generation.
Born in London, Thompson was educated at Highgate Grammar School for Boys and Brasenose College, Oxford University before joining the BBC as a trainee in 1981. He soon focused his attention on comedy, working as a researcher for Not the Nine O'Clock News and BBC Radio's The Mary Whitehouse Experience. Rising to the level of producer, he produced the BBC radio shows The News Quiz and Lenin of the Rovers. Hat Trick Productions subsequently employed Thompson to produce a television adaptation of The News Quiz, entitled Have I Got News For You; a critical and commercial success, he would produce the show for five years before moving onto other projects.
A biographer and novelist, Thompson authored five books; biographies of Hergé and his Adventures of Tintin series, Peter Cook and Richard Ingrams, as well as a novel, This Thing of Darkness, and the semi-autobiographical Penguins Stopped Play.
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