Steptoe and Son

Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business. They live at Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. The theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find "Britain's Best Sitcom". It was remade in the United States as "Sanford and Son", in Sweden as "Albert & Herbert", in the Netherlands as "Stiefbeen en zoon", in Portugal as "Camilo & Filho", and in South Africa as "Snetherswaite and Son". Two film adaptations of the series were released in cinemas, "Steptoe and Son" (1972) and "Steptoe and Son Ride Again" (1973).
The series focused on the inter-generational conflict of father and son. Albert Steptoe, a "dirty old man", is an elderly rag-and-bone man, set in his grimy and grasping ways. By contrast, his son Harold is filled with social aspirations and pretensions. The show contained elements of drama and tragedy, as Harold was continually prevented from achieving his ambitions.
In 2000, the show was ranked number 44 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute. In a 2001 Channel 4 poll Albert was ranked 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.
Plot.
Many episodes revolve around sometimes violent disagreements between the two men, Harold's attempts to bed women and momentary interest over things found on his round. Much of the humour derives from the pathos of the protagonists' situation, especially Harold's continually thwarted (usually by the elder Steptoe) attempts to better himself, and the unresolveable love/hate relationship that exists between the pair.
Albert almost always comes out on top, and routinely proves himself superior to his son whenever they compete, such as when they played snooker into the night and pouring rain in 1970, and Scrabble and badminton in the 1972 series. Harold takes these games extremely seriously and sees them as symbols of his desire to improve himself, but his efforts come to nothing each time. His father's success is partly down to greater skills but is aided by cynical gamesmanship and undermining of his son's confidence. In addition, Albert habitually has better judgement than his son, who blunders into multiple con tricks and blind alleys as a result of his unrealistic, desperate straw-clutching approach. Occasionally the tables are turned, but overall the old man is the winner.
Harold is infuriated by these persistent frustrations and defeats, even going to the extent in "Divided We Stand" (1972) of attempting to partition the house so that he does not have to share with his selfish, uncultured and negative father. His plan ends in failure and ultimately he can see no way out. However, for all the bitterness there is an essential bond between the pair. In bad situations, Harold sticks by his father. This protective bond is shown in "The Seven Steptoerai" (1974) when they are menaced by a local gangster running a protection racket.
The 1974 Christmas special ended the run and it first appears Harold is once again at the bad end of poor planning, when he books a Christmas holiday abroad, but then finds his passport is out of date. His father must go alone, and Harold, tearfully it seems, waves him off to enjoy a potential good time without him. Harold trudges away, only to jump in a car with a woman to drive off on his own holiday, revealing that he had engineered the whole situation from the beginning.
Characters.
The two main characters in the show are Albert Steptoe (Wilfrid Brambell) and Harold Steptoe (Harry H. Corbett). They have a large extended family who appear occasionally including many of Albert's brothers and sisters, among them Auntie May (Rose Hill), Uncle Arthur (George A. Cooper) and Auntie Minnie (Mollie Sugden).
Production.
Development.
The show had its roots in a 1962 episode of "Galton & Simpson's Comedy Playhouse". Galton and Simpson's association with comedian Tony Hancock, for whom they had written "Hancock's Half Hour", had ended and they had agreed to a proposal from the BBC to write a series of 10 comedy shows. The fourth in the series, "The Offer", was born both out of writer's block and budgetary constraints. Earlier shows in the series had cost more than expected, so the writers decided to write a two-hander set in one room. The idea of two brothers was considered but father and son worked best. Ronald Fraser was second choice for Harold.
Galton and Simpson were not aiming to make a pilot for a series, having worked for seven years with Hancock. However, Tom Sloan, the BBC's head of comedy, told them during rehearsals that "The Offer" was a definite series pilot: he saw that the Steptoe idea had potential. Galton and Simpson were reportedly overwhelmed by this reaction, and the first of what became eight series was commissioned, the first four of which were transmitted between 1962 and 1965. The last four series were broadcast between 1970 and 1974, in colour. At the peak of the series' popularity, it received viewing figures of some 28,000,000 viewers per episode. In addition, the early 1970s saw two feature films, two 46-minute Christmas specials. In 2005, the play "Steptoe and Son in Murder at Oil Drum Lane", written by Ray Galton and John Antrobus, brought the storyline to a close.
Casting.
The series employed actors rather than comedians in the principal roles; casting for comedy still tended to favour the former when the series was created in 1962. Galton and Simpson had decided that they wanted to try to write for performers who "didn't count their laughs".
Both of the main actors used voices considerably different from their own. Brambell, despite being Irish, spoke with a received pronunciation English accent, as did the Manchester-raised Corbett. Brambell was aged 49 when he accepted the role of Albert, only 13 years older than Corbett. For his portrayal, he acquired a second set of "rotten" dentures to accentuate his character's poor attitude to hygiene.
Music.
Ron Grainer won a second successive Ivor Novello award for the show's theme tune ' Old Ned ', to which he gave a different treatment, one year later, during a Rag-and-Bone Man scene in The Home-Made Car. The series had no standard set of opening titles but the opening sequences would often feature the Steptoe's horse, Hercules. "Steptoe and Son" is the Steptoes' trading name, but as established in the first episode, the "Son" is not Harold as initially believed, but Albert. The name dates from when he and his mother—Mrs. Steptoe—worked the rounds. The first series has the pair as very rough looking and often dirty and wearing ragged clothes, but they were portrayed as cleaner in later series.
Locations.
Outside filming of the Steptoes' yard took place at a car-breakers' yard in Norland Gardens, London W11, then changing to Stable Way, Latimer Road, for the later series. Both sites have subsequently been redeveloped with no evidence now remaining of the entrance gates through which the horse and cart were frequently driven.
The pilot episode and the first four series, which aired in 1962–1965, were recorded in the BBC Lime Grove Studios in London. When the show returned in 1970 after a four-year hiatus, the programme was made in the BBC Television Centre studios in west London, as from 1970 the show was recorded in colour.
Notability.
During its production in the 1960s and 1970s, "Steptoe and Son" marked itself out as radical compared to most UK sitcoms. This was an age when the predominant sources of laughter in British comedy were farce, coincidence, slapstick and innuendo. However "Steptoe and Son" brought greater social realism. Its characters were not only working class but demonstrably poor. The earthy language and slang used were in marked contrast to the refined voices heard on most television of the time: e.g., in "Back in Fashion", Harold warns Albert that when the models arrive, "if you feels like a D'Oyly Carte (rhyming slang for 'fart'), you goes outside." Social issues and debates were routinely portrayed, woven into the humour. The programme did not abandon the more traditional sources of comedy but used them in small doses. The characters, and their intense and difficult relationship, displayed deeper qualities of writing and performance than comedy fans were used to.
Episodes.
"Steptoe and Son" is unique among 1960s BBC television programmes in that every episode has survived, despite the mass wiping of BBC archive holdings between 1967 and 1978. However, all the instalments from the first 1970 series and all but two from the second that were originally made in colour only survive in the form of black and white domestic videotape recordings. Copies were made from the master tapes for the writers by an engineer at the BBC using a Shibaden SV-700 half-inch reel-to-reel video recorder—a forerunner of the video cassette recorder. In 2008, the first reel of a black and white telerecording of the Series 5 episode "A Winter's Tale" (lasting approximately 15 minutes) was returned to the BBC; this is the only telerecording of a colour "Steptoe and Son" episode known to still exist.
The original 2" Quad videotapes of all the episodes of the original 1962–65 series were wiped in the late-1960s. However, these episodes mostly survive on film transfers of the original videotapes as 16mm black and white telerecordings. The exception being "My Old Man's a Tory" which only exists as an optical transfer made from a domestic 405 line reel to reel videotape obtained from Galton and Simpson.
The BBC has released 10 DVDs of the series—each of the eight series, and two compilations entitled "The Very Best of Steptoe and Son" volumes 1 and 2. Two Christmas specials are also available on DVD, as are two feature films: "Steptoe and Son" and "Steptoe and Son Ride Again". A boxed set of Series 1–8 and the two Christmas specials was released on Region 2 DVD by 2entertain on 29 October 2007.
Also, 52 episodes were remade for BBC Radio, initially on the Light Programme in 1966–67 and later Radio 2 from 1971 to 1976.
A special one-off remake of the "A Winter's Tale" episode aired on BBC Four on 14 September 2016, as part of the BBC's Lost Sitcom season recreating lost episodes of classic sitcoms.
Adverts.
In 1977, Brambell and Corbett appeared in character for two television ads for Ajax cleaning products, recorded during their tour of Australia. In 1981, their final ever appearance together was in a UK advert for Kenco Coffee.
In other media.
Audio.
A number of LPs and EPs featuring TV soundtracks have been released.
Books.
To tie in with the original series, two novelisations were written by Gale Pedrick:
In 2002 BBC Books published "Steptoe and Son" by Galton, Simpson and Ross, which comprehensively covered the television and radio series, films, Royal Variety Shows, commercials and the "Sanford & Son" spin-off.
Other countries.
During 1963 Jack Paar screened an episode of “Steptoe and Son” during one of his one-hour Friday night shows on NBC. Paar was an anglophile and frequently spotlighted British culture on his show. Later in 1963 he screened a film-clip of The Beatles, their first appearance on U.S. TV.
In 1965 Joseph E. Levine produced a pilot based on "The Offer" for the American market with Galton and Simpson. Starring Lee Tracy as Albert and Aldo Ray as Harold, it was unscreened, and did not lead to a series. The pilot was released on DVD in the UK in 2018. The concept was later re-worked as "Sanford and Son", a top-rated series that ran for five years (1972–77) on the NBC network.
Spin-offs.
Film.
"Steptoe and Son".
In 1972 a film version was released of the show proving highly popular. This first film, also called "Steptoe and Son" focuses on Harold getting married but still not being able to get away from his father.
"Steptoe and Son Ride Again".
Due to popular demand and the commercial success of the first film, another film, "Steptoe and Son Ride Again", was released in 1973.
Television.
"When Steptoe Met Son".
"When Steptoe Met Son" was a 2002 Channel 4 documentary about the personal lives of Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. It aired on 20 August 2002.
The programme reveals how Brambell and Corbett were highly dissimilar to their on-screen characters. Corbett felt he had a promising career as a serious actor, but was trapped by his role as Harold and forced to keep returning to the series after typecasting limited his choice of work. Brambell, meanwhile, was a homosexual, something that in the 1960s was still frowned upon and, until the Sexual Offences Act 1967, illegal and was thus driven underground. The documentary went on to describe an ill-fated final tour of Australia, during which the already strained relationship between Corbett and Brambell finally broke down for good.
"The Curse of Steptoe".
The Curse of Steptoe is a television play which was first broadcast on 19 March 2008 on BBC Four as part of a season of dramas about television personalities. It stars Jason Isaacs as Harry H. Corbett and Phil Davis as Wilfrid Brambell. The drama is based upon the actors' on-and-off-screen relationship during the making of the BBC sitcom "Steptoe and Son", and is based on interviews with colleagues, friends and family of the actors, and the "Steptoe" writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
The screenplay was written by Brian Fillis, also responsible for the similarly themed 2006 drama "Fear of Fanny", which is about television personality Fanny Cradock off-screen. The 66-minute film is directed by Michael Samuels and produced by Ben Bickerton.
Both "When Steptoe Met Son" and "The Curse of Steptoe" were considered inaccurate by writers Galton and Simpson and Corbett's family.
Theatre.
"Steptoe and Son in Murder at Oil Drum Lane".
In October 2005, Ray Galton and John Antrobus premiered their play, "Steptoe and Son in Murder at Oil Drum Lane", at the Theatre Royal, York. It then went on tour across the country. It was set in the present day and related the events leading to Harold killing his father and their eventual meeting 30 years later, Albert then appearing as a ghost. By the end, it is clearly established that this is very much a conclusion to the Steptoe saga.
It was not the first time this idea had been considered. When Wilfrid Brambell left the UK after the third series to pursue an eventually unsuccessful Broadway musical career, Galton and Simpson toyed with the concept of 'killing off' Albert in order to continue the show without having to await Brambell's return. The character would have been replaced with Harold's illegitimate son, Arthur (a part thought to be intended for actor David Hemmings). This idea was detested by Corbett, who thought it ridiculous, although the 2008 drama "The Curse of Steptoe" depicts Corbett as being delighted with the concept, since assuming the role of father would allow Harold's character some development and growth, which he felt was long overdue.
"Steptoe and Son".
In March 2011 the Engine Shed Theatre Company performed three episodes of the series live on stage at the Capitol Theatre, Horsham. Jack Lane played Albert Steptoe and Michael Simmonds played Harold. The three episodes performed by the company were: "Men Of Letters", "Robbery With Violence" and "Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard". Engine Shed went on to adapt and perform the two Christmas Specials later that year.
Many of the original TV episodes of Steptoe and Son have now been officially adapted to the stage by the original writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, with David Pibworth and are available for production on www.classiccomedyscripts.co.uk
"Steptoe and Son by Kneehigh".
Performed in 2012 and 2013 by Kneehigh Theatre, "Steptoe and Son" was adapted from four of the show's original scripts. The production was designed to highlight the Beckettian nature of Albert and Harold's situation, focusing on themes of over-reliance and being trapped within social class. The production toured the UK and received positive reviews from the "Financial Times" and three stars from "The Guardian"'s Lynn Gardner.
Home media.
DVD releases.
In Australia, Season 1 was released in 2004, Season 2 and Season 3 in 2006, Season 4 and Season 5 in 2007, Season 6 and Season 7 in 2008 and Season 8 in 2009.