Steptoe and Son

One of the all time greats, and I'm sure a huge inspiration to "Only Fools and Horses." Harold was convinced he could have made it anywhere in life, but was held back by his possessive and selfish Father Albert. Yet he considered it his duty to look after his Father, who often succeeded in what Harold tried to accomplish! His impression of his domestic liabilities tended to shelter Harold from any of his own inadequecies, and the character drew comfort from his imagination of what might have been, if not for his Father. Harolds late Mother was a central character, cleverly etched, though we never saw her, relying only on the characters impressions of her memory.moreless

Although Steptoe and Son ran on British TV for twelve years it is one of those rare (maybe unique) examples of an idea which continued to develop and evolve rather than slide into stale repetition.

In its early years the series emphasised broad comedy. One well-remembered episode features Albert eating a meal while sitting in his bath, earning a rebuke from his son which became a national catchphrase: "You dirty old man!"

As time went by the characters became established and the writing began to emphasise the mutual dependency of two basically lonely men (Harold the batchelor and Albert the widower). Harold dreams of a better quality of life away from his father and constantly makes attempts to achieve something in his own right. His attempts are thwarted by his own lack of social standing and his father's scheming: if Harold joins a local theatre group, Albert joins too and becomes the star of the show.

Albert, for his part, fears losing his son and being abandoned in his old age. He will use any means (especially moral blackmail) to keep Harold at his side. More importantly he is far more realistic than Harold and sees that his attempts at social ambition are doomed.

The performances of Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett never faltered through the show's run. Galton and Simpson produced scripts of wit and insight and they performed with great skill and subtlety. This is a show where you laugh while recognising the truth and basic sadness of the situation in which the characters live.moreless

One of my top three comedies ever!

Both actors preform brilliantly, and i dont usually write reviews for TV.com, but this show isnt deserving the credit it deserves.

The chemistry between these two is known to be infamously full of hatred, which probably helped in their preformances, seeing as they were down eachothers throats in nearly every episode.

Watch it to believe it.

To me Steptoe & Son is and was the greatest comedy of all time. Ray Galton & Alan Simpson are fantastic writers to produce this amazing comedy series. Their choices of Harry H Corbett as Harold Steptoe and Wilfrid Brambell as Albert Steptoe was perfect choices, they was amazing actors and even though they did not see eye to eye in real life their chemistry on the show was perfect together. Both comedy geniuses. It was a real tragedy that Harry H Corbett died at such an early age of 57 in 1982. Steptoe & Son was the type of show that you never wanted to end even after 8 Series. I still wish they would have got at least another 2 more series making it 10 series before Corbetts death but it was not to be, sad really but you can't take away how amazing the show was, and it is still fondly remembered and reshown even today due to the popularity of the show, you can't keep good comedys down no matter how long ago they was shown, and Steptoe & Son will always be remembered as an amazing series. The writers, and actors, everything was perfect, it was a perfect comedy show.moreless