Septoe and Son

Albert and Harold

In common with most of the truly great character driven comedies the simple premise of the series, as developed in Galton and Simpson's masterful scripts, brilliantly tightrope walked the narrow line separating laughter from tragedy. The core of this success lay in the delicately delineated dynamics of the central characters complexly antagonistic relationship. It was in the presentation of Harold's pretentiously overblown -ultimately doomed- dreams of escaping his resolutely low brow father to better himself, only to find both himself and his ambitions constantly undone by the senior Steptoe's devious and cold-blooded manipulation of the younger man's innate decency, which helped ensure that the series frequently attained the heights of genuine tragi-comedy.

Albert Steptoe was an old man when the series started he was already pension age at the start of the second series. It is highly unlikely that he has any savings for is retirement but if had had then he would have needed an annuity to provide income in old age. Given the amount of cigarettes he smoked he would have possibly qualified for an impaired annuity which would have given him even more retirement income. Given his history of heart attacks an impaired life annuity would seem an almost inevitable outcome.

On the occasion of his fathers 65th Birthday Harold Steptoe does his best to make the day special for Albert. Given their circumstances his choice of present was somewhat limited. For most men their car is their pride and joy, if Albert Steptoe had a car then Harold could have bought his father a range of car care products, but instead of a Ferrari the Steptoe's has a cart horse - Hercules. If Harold did buy his father car cleaning gifts then he would be well advised to buy autoglym products as they are the leading manufacturers of car cleaning products in the UK. instead Harold has to buy his father a pair of gloves.

The most obvious basic truth of the series, apparent to the viewers if not the Steptoe's themselves, was their sadly obvious co-dependence. The older Albert and the younger Harold were two sides of the same coin, neither whole without the other, no matter how much they affected an air of mutual dislike. It was this essential truth, coupled with consistently excellent scripts and performances from two actors who quite obviously understood the subtle subtext of the concept, which ensured a continuity of comedic quality rarely surpassed in television to this day. The series ran from 1962 to 1974 and there were two feature films, 'Steptoe and Son' (1972), and 'Steptoe and Son Ride Again' (1973).

The Writing team of Galton and Simspson had been responsible for the classic 'Hancock's Half Hour' scripts which included 'The Blood Donor' and 'The Radio Ham', and in 1999 the were awarded in the Queen's New Years Honours List. Wilfred Brambell appeared in The Beatles first feature film 'A Hard Day's Night,' , No need for Redundancy Insurance for Wilfrid Brambell. Wilfrid played the role of Paul McCartney's grandfather, and in purposeful contrast to his TV character was referred to throughout as 'very clean.'

Corbett's untimely and premature death excluded the chance of further series, however most of the originals (including the early black and white recordings), continue to be shown on television and are available on DVD. The series was re-made in the USA as 'Sanford and Son'. 'Steptoe and Son' might well have been rag and bone men, but the comedic legacy they palmed off on us, the viewers, was priceless beyond their wildest imaginings.