|
|
|
|
Steptoe and Son
|
| |
|
| |
Steptoe and Son is 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 broadcast on the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. In a 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom of all time, Steptoe and Son was voted 15th.
show had its roots in a 1962 episode of Galton & Simpson's Comedy Playhouse.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Steptoe and Son' Start a new discussion about 'Steptoe and Son' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Steptoe and Son is 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 broadcast on the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. In a 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom of all time, Steptoe and Son was voted 15th.
Background
The show had its roots in a 1962 episode of Galton & Simpson's Comedy Playhouse. Galton and Simpson had split from Tony Hancock, for whom they had written Hancock's Half Hour, and had agreed to write a series of six comedy shows for the BBC. 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, and so Galton and Simpson decided to write a two-hander set in one room.
Galton and Simpson were not looking to make a pilot, having recently ended a seven-year stint writing Hancock's Half Hour and Hancock for BBC radio and TV. However, Tom Sloane, 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 legs, as did the audience of that edition of Comedy Playhouse. Galton and Simpson were reportedly overwhelmed by this reaction, and 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 46-minute Christmas specials and a number of radio shows based on the TV scripts. 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.
The series was one of the first UK situation comedy programmes 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 series' title music is "Old Ned" by Ron Grainer, the series had no standard set of opening titles but the opening sequences would often feature the Steptoes' horse, Hercules. "Steptoe and Son" is the Steptoes' trading name, but as established in the first episode, the "Son" is not Harold but Albert: the name dates from when he and his father — Mister Steptoe — worked the rounds.
Characters
The father, Albert Steptoe (portrayed by Wilfrid Brambell), is lazy, stubborn, narrow-minded, foul-mouthed, and has revolting personal habits. Albert is content with his place in the world, utterly unpretentious and downright cynical. He can be extremely vindictive and does everything he can to prevent Harold, his son, improving himself — especially if it means him leaving home.
Harold (played by Harry H. Corbett) is also obstinate, though prone to moments of enthusiasm about an idea. He wants to move up in the world — most of all to escape from the family home and his stifling relationship with his father. Harold has aspirations. He likes to see his business as being in antiques rather than junk. He is a dreamer and idealist. Politically, Harold is a Labour supporter who is appalled at his father's reactionary views. He aims to improve his mind and his social circle but always fails, often thanks to Albert's deliberate put-downs or sabotage. Harold's exasperation and disgust at his father's behaviour often results in his repeating the catchphrase "You dirty old man."
Situation
The episodes often revolve 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 derives 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 exists between the pair.
A common theme is that Albert almost always comes out on top. Despite his lack of effort Albert routinely and easily proves himself superior to his son whenever they come into competition, such as in their frequent game-playing, e.g., the Scrabble and badminton games from the 1972 series. Harold takes them desperately seriously and sees them as symbols of his desire to improve himself, but they come to nothing every time. His father's success is partly down to superior talent but aided by cynical gamesmanship and undermining of his son's confidence. In addition, Albert habitually has better judgement than his son, who blunders into all sorts of con-tricks and blind alleys as a result of his unrealistic, straw-clutching ideas. Occasionally the tables are turned, but overall the old man is the winner, albeit in a graceless fashion.
Harold is infuriated by these persistent frustrations and defeats, even going to the extent in "Divided We Stand" (1972) of partitioning the house in two so he doesn't have to share with his selfish, uncultured and negative father. Predictably, 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. Deep down, Albert seems to love his son and his behaviour is perhaps a selfish but misguided way of holding on to him so he doesn't have to face life alone. When the crunch comes, Harold sticks by his father. This protective bond is much in evidence in "The Seven Steptoerai" (1974) when they are menaced by a local gangster running a protection racket. Typically though, it is Albert who gets them ingeniously out of a very hazardous predicament.
Actors
A 2002 Channel 4 television documentary, When Steptoe Met Son, told the story of how Brambell and Corbett were like chalk and cheese — similar 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 was in reality homosexual, something that in the 1960s was still frowned upon and illegal, and 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. It therefore revealed that there were in fact a great many parallels between the lives of the two actors and those of the characters that they portrayed. However, both of the main actors used voices considerably different from their own. Wilfrid Brambell — despite being Irish — spoke with a prestige Received Pronunciation English accent. Wilfrid Brambell was aged only 49 when he accepted the role of Albert; he was 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.
Humour
During the time of its production in the 1960s and 1970s, Steptoe and Son marked itself out as radical compared to the great majority of sitcoms. This was an age when the predominant sources of laughter 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. 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, highlighted deeper qualities of writing and performance than comedy fans were used to.
Episodes
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 all but two from the second that were originally made in colour only survive in the form of black and white domestic videotape recordings. Myth has it that the episodes were recorded off-air by Galton and Simpson themselves, but in fact they were copies made from the master tapes for them by an engineer at the BBC using a Shibadan SV-700 half-inch reel-to-reel b/w video recorder — a forerunner of the video cassette recorder. In 2008 the first reel of a b/w telerecording of the series 5 episode 'A Winter's Tale' (lasting approx 15mins) was returned to the BBC, this is the only telerecording of a colour Steptoe and Son episode known to still exist.
All the episodes of the original 1962-1965 series survive on 16mm black and white telerecordings, film transfers of the original 2" Quad Videotapes, which were wiped in the late 1960s.
The BBC has released ten DVDs of the series to date — the first two being compilations of the "best" colour episodes, and the other eight containing the complete eight series, respectively. 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 Christmas specials was released on Region 2 DVD by 2entertain on 29 October 2007.
Remakes
The show was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, a top-rated series that ran for five years (1972–1977) on the NBC network. A Swedish remake with Sten-Åke Cederhök and Tomas von Brömssen was called Albert and Herbert, the pair living at Skolgatan 15, an address in a working-class neighbourhood of Haga, Gothenburg. In the Netherlands there were also seventeen episodes of a Dutch version called Stiefbeen en Zoon.In Portugal there was a remake called Camilo & Filho Lda., starring famous Portuguese comedian Camilo de Oliveira, with Nuno Melo as his son. In South Africa a radio play version was titled Snethersthwaite and Son and was additionally a spin off of the radio play The Men from the Ministry.
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 that led to Harold killing his father, and their eventual meeting thirty years later, with Albert 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 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, though the 2008 drama The Curse of Steptoe depicts Corbett as being delighted with the concept, since assuming the role of father would allow the character of Harold some development and growth, which he felt was long overdue.
The Curse of Steptoe
The single, hour-long drama The Curse of Steptoe was broadcast on BBC Four on 19 March 2008; it examines the fractured relationship between Corbett and Brambell and the difficulties they had with being typecast. Jason Isaacs plays Harry H. Corbett and Phil Davis portrays Wilfrid Brambell. The film was part of a series looking at British TV comedians and personalities, including Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd and Hughie Green, and followed the success of BBC Four's award winning 2006 play Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!, starring Michael Sheen as the eponymous star Kenneth Williams. The writer, Brian Fillis, had also written Fear of Fanny, starring Julia Davis as television chef Fanny Cradock.
DVD releases
- The first series with all six episodes was released in 2004 followed by the second series in 2005 and the third, fourth and fifth in 2006. Series 6, 7 and 8 were released in 2007 alongside the Christmas specials.
- The two Steptoe movies were released in 2006.
- The complete boxed set containing all eight series and two Christmas specials was released in October 2007.
In Australia, Season 1 was released in 2004, Season 2 and Season 3 in 2006, Season 4 and Season 5 in 2007, Season 6 in 2008, Season 7 in 2008 with Season 8 due in 2009.
Future 2008 -
In conjunction with the ITV's Raiders of the Lost Archive it was announced that the first reel of a b/w telerecording of Steptoe & Son's 1970 colour episode 'A Winter's Tale', lasting approx 15 minutes, had been returned to the BBC archives.
This is the first time that a telerecording of the first colour series of Steptoe and Son has been found, albeit all the telerecordings are in black and white, which were for overseas sales. Previously all wiped/junked episodes of series five and six were present in the archive as open-reel skip-field b/w VT recordings returned to the BBC by the writers themselves in 1989. Open-reel recordings are a lower quality than the TRs. These tapes were recorded for Galton and Simpson from the master tapes using a domestic (1968) Shibaden SV-700 b/w video recorder by an engineer at the BBC.
The Curse Of Steptoe is to be released in an edited version, due to court action taken against the BBC re-this programme by Harry H Corbetts relatives, on 2nd March 2009 according to Amazon
In popular culture
- Wilfrid Brambell appeared in The Beatles' 1964 film, A Hard Day's Night, playing the role of Paul McCartney's scalliwag grandfather. The Beatles apparently lobbied to get Brambell since they were fans of Steptoe and Son. As counterpoint to the younger Steptoe's catchphrase ("You dirty old man") the repeated phrase used to describe Paul's grandfather in the film was "He's very clean".
- In the film Carry On Screaming (in which Harry H. Corbett plays the main character) the Steptoe and Son theme is played as Corbett's character pulls up to a store in a horse and cart.
- In the English translation of the Asterix book Asterix and the Great Crossing, Herendthelesson's second in command for his trip to America was called Steptohanson.
- 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.
- Elton John took his middle name, Hercules, from the Steptoes' horse.
External links
|
| |
|
|
