A full obituary from "The Daily Telegraph" may be found here.

"Charles Chilton, who has died aged 95, created two of the BBC’s classic 1950s radio serials, Riders of the Range and Journey into Space and in 1963 wrote the stage show Oh, What a Lovely War!


Leaving St Pancras Church School when he was 14, Charles was apprenticed to an electric sign maker, but while walking home one day in 1932 found himself passing the newly-built Broadcasting House in Portland Place, home of the BBC. He asked the commissionaire if there were any jobs.


In 1972 he was awarded an MBE for services to radio. He retired from the BBC after 46 years, but continued to work for the corporation as a freelance for many years.

Charles Chilton married, in 1947, Penelope Colbeck, whom he met when she joined the BBC’s wartime gramophone department as a newly-qualified shorthand typist. She survives him with their daughter and two sons.

Charles Chilton, born June 15 1917, died January 2 2013"

We all, as listeners from a certain age,  owe a great debt to Charles Chilton and his imaginative radio work...who can ever forget 'Journey into Space' .....and the thought of doing a Western on the radio....amazing. Thank you Charles. Rest in Peace.