Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son was a
British sitcom written by
Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two
rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in
Shepherd's Bush,
London. Four series were aired on the
BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune was composed by
Ron Grainer.
The show had its roots in a 1962 episode of
Comedy Playhouse entitled "The Offer". Later that year, the first of eight series was commissioned, the first four of which were made in black and white. Each series comprised five to eight half-hour episodes, and the last was transmitted in 1974. At the peak of the series' popularity, it commanded viewing figures of some 28 million per episode. In addition, the early 1970s saw two feature films, two 45-minute Christmas specials and a number of radio shows based on the TV scripts.
The programme was one of the first to employ actors, rather than
comedians, in the principal roles. Galton and Simpson had decided themselves that they wanted to try to write for performers who "didn't count their laughs".
The father, Albert Steptoe, was stubborn, foul-mouthed, and had revolting personal habits. The actor
Wilfrid Brambell, who played him, even had two sets of false teeth — his own and Albert's rotten-looking dentures. The son, Harold, played by
Harry H. Corbett, was also obstinate, though prone to moments of enthusiasm about an idea. He wanted to move up in the world and liked to see his business as being in
antiques rather than junk. Harold's exasperation and disgust at his father's behaviour often resulted in his repeating the
catchphrase, "You dirty old man."
The episodes often revolved around (sometimes violent) disagreements between the two men, Harold's attempts to bed women and momentary interest over things found on his round. As with many of the best examples of British comedy, much of the humour derived from the
pathos of the protagonists' situation, especially Harold's continually-thwarted (usually by the elder Steptoe) attempts to "better himself" and the unresolvable love/hate relationship that existed between the pair. A 2002
Channel 4 television documentary,
When Steptoe Met Son, revealed that there were in fact many parallels between the lives of Corbett and Brambell and those of the characters that they portrayed.
[The Guardian: feature on the Channel 4 documentary]Steptoe and Son is rare among 1960s BBC television programmes in that every episode survives for posterity, despite the mass
wiping of BBC archive holdings between 1972 and 1978. However, all the instalments from the first 1970 series and one later show that were originally made in colour have only survived in the form of black and white recordings made off-air by Galton and Simpson themselves, using a half-inch reel-to-reel video recorder â€" a forerunner of the
video cassette recorder.
Arguably the most memorable episode was "The Desperate Hours", made in 1972, and starring
Leonard Rossiter as one of two escaped convicts who break into the Steptoe home looking for food and money. The scenes between Corbett and Rossiter â€" two formidable actors of a competitive nature â€" were remarked upon by critics as being truly compelling.
The BBC has released seven
DVDs of the series to date â€" the first two being compilations of the "best" colour episodes, and the other five containing the complete first five series, respectively. Also available is a DVD containing the two feature films:
Steptoe and Son, and
Steptoe and Son Ride Again.
| Series 1 (black and white) |
| Title | Recorded | First broadcast | Notes |
| "The Offer" | 1962-01-04 | 1962-01-05 | Harold's been offered a job elsewhere, so he begins to pack up his belongings and leave his dad for good. Part of Comedy Playhouse. |
| "The Bird" | 1962-05-16 | 1962-06-14 | Harold has invited his new girlfriend over for dinner. |
| "The Piano" | 1962-06-06 | 1962-06-21 | A posh chap calls Harold in from the streets to help him get rid of a luxurious piano. |
| "The Economist" | 1962-05-30 | 1962-06-28 | Harold is trying to improve the business by reading a book on capitalism, and Albert disagrees... |
| "The Diploma" | 1962-05-23 | 1962-07-05 | Harold wants to be a television engineer — his new excuse to get away from his domineering old dad. |
| "The Holiday" | 1962-06-13 | 1962-07-12 | Harold dreams of a luxurious holiday abroad — while Albert is adamant on going to Bognor. |
| Series 2 |
| "Wallah-Wallah Catsmeat" | 1962-12-20 | 1963-01-03 | Harold gets an offer of £25.00 from a catsmeat man for Hercules the Horse. |
| "The Bath" | 1962-12-13 | 1963-01-10 | Albert decides to have a bath while Harold's latest companion is due to come round for pre-bingo cocktails. |
| "The Stepmother" | 1963-01-03 | 1963-01-17 | Harold feels the threat of Albert's new admirer: Emma Marshall. |
| "Sixty-Five Today" | 1963-01-10 | 1963-01-24 | Albert's 65th birthday comes as a joke to Harold, who pretends to forget in order to wind him up. |
| "A Musical Evening" | 1963-01-17 | 1963-01-31 | Harold has picked up some old gramophone records, which he's keen to add to his classical music collection. |
| "Full House" | 1963-01-24 | 1963-02-07 | Harold plans an evening of cards with a group of friends. |
| "Is That Your Horse Outside?" | 1963-02-04 | 1963-02-14 | Harold and Albert's horse gets them into trouble. |
| - bgcolor="#ff9999" | Series 3 |
| "Home Fit for Heroes" | 1963-12-12 | 1964-01-07 | The pair go on a pleasent Sunday trip out on the cart. |
| "The Wooden Overcoats" | 1963-12-19 | 1964-01-14 | Harold comes home with a cartful of coffins, finding Albert trying to get a tan from a sun lamp. |
| "The Lead Man Cometh" | 1964-01-02 | 1964-01-21 | The business is doing badly and the Steptoes are having to break into their savings to keep their heads above water. |
| "Steptoe à la Cart" | 1964-01-09 | 1964-01-28 | Harold has managed to gain access to a private block of flats and is working his way through the occupants. |
| "Sunday for Seven Days" | 1964-01-16 | 1964-02-04 | Albert and Harold are getting ready for an evening at the pictures. |
| "The Bond That Binds Us" | 1964-01-23 | 1964-02-11 | Harold's working on body-building exercises, and Albert's checking his premium bonds. |
| "The Lodger" | 1964-01-30 | 1964-02-18 | Harold has his nose deep in George Bernard Shaw's political theory, while Albert works out how to pay the ever-mounting pile of bills. |
| - bgcolor="#ff9999" | Series 4 |
| "And Afterwards At..." | 1965-09-12 | 1970-10-04 | Harold's getting married...! |
| "Crossed Swords" | 1965-09-19 | 1965-10-11 | The Steptoes take to a West End antiques expert's shop. |
| "Those Magnificent Men and Their Heating Machines" | 1965-09-26 | 1965-10-18 | Albert (while cleaning the oven) bangs his head and collapses — so Harold presumes he's tried to commit suicide. |
| "The Siege of Steptoe Street" | 1965-10-03 | 1965-10-25 | Harold notices that the fishmonger and the butcher are providing luxurious delicacies that he's never eaten. |
| "A Box in Town" | 1965-10-10 | 1965-11-01 | Harold returns to Oil Drum Lane after watching a James Bond film with his girlfriend to find that his father is still awake. |
| "My Old Man's a Tory" | 1965-10-17 | 1965-11-08 | Harold and Albert clash over their opposing political views. |
| "Pilgrim's Progress" | 1965-10-24 | 1965-11-15 | Albert feels nostalgic for World War I and so makes a return to No Man's Land. |
| Series 5 (first series in colour) |
| "A Death in the Family" | 1970-02-15 | 1970-03-06 | Hercules the Horse succumbs to a heart attack at the grand old age of 39. |
| "A Winter's Tale" | 1970-02-22 | 1970-01-13 | Albert and Harold once again clash over the destination for their annual holiday. |
| "Any Old Iron?" | 1970-03-08 | 1970-03-20 | Harold makes a new friend out of sophisticated antique dealer Timothy Stanhope. |
| "Steptoe and Son — and Son!" | 1970-03-15 | 1970-03-27 | Harold is set to be the father of an illegitimate son. |
| "The Colour Problem" | 1970-03-22 | 1970-04-03 | Albert wants a colour television set... |
| "TB or Not TB?" | 1970-04-05 | 1970-04-10 | Albert is wrongly thought to have tuberculosis. |
| "Men of Property" | 1970-03-29 | 1970-04-17 | Harold and Albert find out that they don't actually own their house. |
| Series 6 |
| "Robbery with Violence" | 1970-10-18 | 1970-10-02 | Albert pretends that the house has been burgled, having accidentally knocked over Harold's porcelain collection. |
| "Come Dancing" | 1970-10-25 | 1970-11-09 | Harold drifts into a fantasy about Henry VII, his nerves are on edge and even the cuckoo clock wakes him up! |
| "Two's Company" | 1970-11-01 | 1972-11-16 | Albert goes dancing whilst Harold patiently waits at home. |
| "Tea for Two" | 1970-11-08 | 1970-11-23 | Harold and Albert's support for rival parties in the Shepherd's Bush by-election has drawn battle lines between them. |
| "Without Prejudice" | 1970-11-15 | 1970-11-30 | Harold is desperate to move from Oil Drum Lane after a noisy new motorway causes irritation. |
| "Pot Black" | 1970-11-22 | 1970-12-07 | Harold buys a snooker table. |
| "The Three Feathers" | 1970-11-29 | 1970-12-14 | Albert gets stuck in a painful yoga position, while Harold reveals a new commode he has just picked up for a bargain price. |
| "Cuckoo in the Nest" | 1970-12-06 | 1970-12-21 | Albert's long lost Australian son turns up from out of the blue and causes Harold to be very jealous. |
| Series 7 |
| "Men of Letters" | 1972-02-13 | 1972-02-21 | Albert and Harold play scrabble, whilst Albert continues putting down rude words to win. |
| "A Star Is Born" | 1972-02-20 | 1972-02-28 | Harold joins an amateur dramatic society for their latest play, Guilt: The White Man's Burden. |
| "Oh, What a Beautiful Mourning" | 1972-02-27 | 1972-03-06 | Albert's eldest brother, George, has died, and the thought of another Steptoe funeral depresses Harold. |
| "Live Now, PAYE Later" | 1972-02-05 | 1972-03-13 | The Inland Revenue calls upon Oil Drum Lane... |
| "Loathe Story" | 1972-03-13 | 1972-03-20 | Harold is frustrated when he loses a game of badminton against his father. |
| "Divided We Stand" | 1972-03-19 | 1972-03-27 | Harold gets Albert to decide on redecorated wallpaper and carpets for the house. |
| "The Desperate Hours" | 1972-03-26 | 1972-04-03 | Harold and Albert struggle to keep warm in the freezing house. |
| Christmas Special 1973 | 1973-12-03 | 1973-12-24 | Harold books a Christmas holiday in Majorca. |
| Series 8 |
| "Back in Fashion" | 1974-08-31 | 1974-09-04 | Harold has been in trouble with the law... |
| "And So to Bed" | 1974-09-07 | 1974-09-11 | Harold brings his new girlfriend home. |
| "Porn Yesterday" | 1974-09-14 | 1974-09-18 | Harold discovers Albert's 'dirty' past. |
| "The Seven Steptoerai" | 1974-09-21 | 1974-09-25 | Harold finds a huge oriental vase. |
| "Upstairs, Downstairs, Upstairs, Downstairs" | 1974-09-28 | 1974-10-03 | Albert is suffering (or so he says) from a bad back, so Harold has to take care of him on doctor's orders. |
| "Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard" | 1974-10-05 | 1974-10-10 | Clairvoyant Madame Fontana conjures up the spirit of Harold's dead mother. |
| Christmas Special 1974 | 1974-10-26 | 1974-12-26 | Final episode. Harold eventually gets away from his father, after years of trying. |
The show was remade in the
United States as
Sanford and Son, which was a top-rated series that ran for five years (1972–1977) on the
NBC network. A
Swedish remake of
Sten-Åke Cederhök was called
Albert & Herbert and set in a working-class neighbourhood in
Haga,
Gothenburg. In the Netherlands there were also 17 episodes of a Dutch version called
Stiefbeen en zoon.
In October 2005,
Ray Galton and
John Antrobus premiered their play,
Steptoe and Son: Murder at Oil Drum Lane, at the Theatre Royal, York. It 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). By the end, it is clearly established that this is very much a conclusion to the Steptoe saga.
*"Steptoe and Son" is the Steptoes' trading name, but as established in one of the earliest episodes, the "Son" is not Harold but Albert: the name dates from when he and
his father worked the rounds.
*Wilfrid Brambell — despite being Irish — spoke with a prestige
Received Pronunciation English accent.
*When Wilfrid Brambell left the UK after the third series to pursue an eventually unsuccessful Broadway musical, Galton and Simpson toyed with the concept of killing Albert off. This was in order to continue the show without having to wait for the actor to return. The character would have been replaced with Harold's illegitimate son, Arthur (thought to be played by child actor
David Hemmings). This idea was detested by Corbett, who thought it ridiculous.
*Wilfrid Brambell was aged only 49 when he accepted the role of Albert; he was only 13 years older than Corbett.
*When original
Pink Floyd frontman,
Syd Barrett, came up with the riff to "
Interstellar Overdrive", the group's bassist,
Roger Waters, told him it reminded him of the theme to
Steptoe and Son.
*
List of British sitcoms turned into films*
Steptoe and Son at the BBC Guide to comedy*
Steptoe and Son at British Film Institute Screen Online*
Steptoe and Son at The British Sitcom Guide*
Steptoe and Son - Television series at IMDb*
Steptoe and Son - Feature film at IMDb
