Steptoe and Son

I am an American who has only discovered the marvelous 'Steptoe & Son' British television series many years after it originally aired. I have managed to watch just about every episode that is available on you tube. I highly recommend this television classic. There were numerous episodes that made me want to cry. The death of their horse Hercules was virtually unbearable, as well as the one where Harold had Albert placed in a old folks' home. The love-hate relationship of the father and son junk company team is more intense than anything ever seen on American television. Although I feel very sorry for Harry being trapped in a world he never made, I find Albert the more appealing of the two. I also can understand the old man's accent more than the son's.

One of the saddest sights I ever saw on television was Wilfrid Brambell, close to tears on 'Nationwide' in 1982 following the sudden death of his 'Steptoe & Son' co-star Harry H.Corbett. The pairing of these great actors, combined with some wonderful scripts by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, made 'Steptoe' a classic. I think viewers recognised the truthfulness of the situation; rag and bone man Harold desperately wanted to escape from his father's domination to begin a new life on his own, but couldn't because he loved the old man too much. When searching for comedy ideas, today's writers fall into the trap of thinking: "How can I shock the public?". 'Steptoe' did not set out to shock, yet did because it was so real. After a successful run in the '60's, it was revived in the '70's in colour, and these episodes are my favourites, particularly 'Divided We Stand' in which Harold and Albert tried to lead separate lives in the same house. The word 'timeless' is overused these days, but it definitely applies here.

A brilliant exercise in British comedy from the sixties and seventies ! Not one episode fails to please and the dialogues were extremely savoury. A certain number of episodes are available on BBC dvds in the UK region 2. The picture quality of the latter episodes is so good that you'd swear they'd been made yesterday. It is hard to believe that both of these characters have sadly left us but thanks to this series they will live on forever in our hearts and minds ! It appears that in real life, Wilfred Brambell was an exceedingly well-spoken man and didn't have a common accent at all. In one of the episodes involving Harold acting in a play, we do in fact hear Albert speak in a very posh voice albeit very briefly.

I love this type of simple comedy. No complicated stories or phrases or lines. I'm a young'un myself, growing up in such a degraded and unfunny society, so it's nice that a show that's pushing 70 years old is perfectly capable to make me genuinely laugh. As I said before, this level of simple comedy keeps me coming back, and I'm often quoting the show around people who have no idea what I'm talking about. For it's time, Steptoe was the most vulgar, offensive show on the box, yet is now considered the "elder statesman" by some today. I find it's not repeated on TV enough, with Divided we Stand being repeated on BBC Four only last October. Yet BBC Three is ok with repeating Bad Education's Christmas Special three times in one night. In conclusion, Steptoe was ahead of its time, portraying a very grim and off-beat picture of working class life.

This is a BBC sitcom that's set in Shepherd's Bush, West London. It's about a father and son who are rag-and-bone men. It ran from 1962-1974. There were also films, plays, documentaries and versions of the TV series made by other countries.

It's well-written and well-acted. There are many good performances from actors who only appear in one or two episodes each.