Steptoe and Son

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Steptoe and Son rightly deserves to be recognised as a programme that changed the future of TV comedy.

Before their arrival on the scene most comedy shows featured a series of short sketches featuring the show’s main stars. Even though Hancock’s Half Hour, (also written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson), featured a single story such as The Blood Donor, the focus was very much on Hancock and his reaction to wherever he was placed. The supporting cast took different roles each week, one week they could be a lift attendant, the next a librarian.

When Galton and Simpson created Steptoe, they wanted to move away from the personality being the star of the show, to the characters being the ones we cared about.

This also gave them other opportunities to explore the darker side of a character, something they could not have done in a show such as Hancock, where the lead character effectively played himself. They therefore made the decision to use established actors to play the main characters rather than noted comedians. This decision again allowed the Steptoe and Son characters to be used in far greater depth.

Each week we returned to the same location with the same characters and we were able to look at them tackling a different issue each week. What should you do when times are hard, and an opportunity to buy some dodgy looking lead at rock bottom price arises? How shall we vote in the election? What do we do when the horse dies? As each of these problems is overcome, so another aspect of the character is revealed. The situation comedy was born.