Steptoe and Son was a sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in in Shepherd’s Bush, London. Initially it was a written as a one-off play for the BBC’s Comedy Playhouse slot, but its success led to a full series being commissioned, which lasted from 1962 into the 1970s.
It focussed on the family conflict between “dirty old man” Albert Steptoe and his 37-year-old son Harold whose ambitions and social aspirations are constantly thwarted – usually by his fathe.
Albert was played by Wilfrid Brambell (1912-1985) – an Irish actor who also played Paul McCartney’s grandfather in A Hard Day’s Night. When we watched the first series in 1962 he seemed ancient, but actually Brambell was in his forties and only 12 years older than his co-star. He was also, it turns out, tormented by his own gay sexuality and addicted to alcohol.
Harry H. Corbett (1925-1982) had been a promising Shakespearean actor who’d played Richard II and worked with Joan Littlewood at Stratford East. The success of the sitcom made him a star, but ended his serious acting career. He played Hamlet in 1970 but by then he was too closely associated with Harold Steptoe and neither critics nor audiences took him seriously.
Actually I only know any of this because of a brilliant 2008 BBC 4 TV play called The Curse of Steptoe – which explored the bleak real-life drama behind Corbett and Brambell’s comedy partnership.
Our household are big fans of the post-2005 Dr Who, but I can still remember watching the first ever episode at a mate’s house in November 1963. It was the day after the Kennedy assasination, so a lot of our friends and their parents missed it. But during the following week there was such a buzz about it that the BBC had to bow to to popular demand, change its Saturday night schedule and re-screen Episode One as the first half of a double length feature. And this time everybody, but everybody, watched it.
William Hartnell was born in 1908 and played The Doctor as elderly and irascible with long swept-back silver hair. I was 13 at the time, and what with the Daleks, the police box and the unprecedented all-electronic theme music, Dr Who completely captured the public imagination.
One of our science teachers devoted a whole lesson to musique concrète and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. At the Arts Theatre pantomime in Cambridge that Christmas a Dalek scuttled across the stage just so that Cyril Fletcher (who was playing the Dame) could crack a weak pun about speaking in “a Cambridgeshire Dalek”.
When Russell T Davies first revived the show seven years ago, the biggest change he made was to cast fit, attractive leading men and – for the first time ever – make Dr Who sexy. Combined with improved plots, modern pacing and camerawork, a proper CGI budget and the occasional bisexual frisson, it’s been a perfect show for all the family ever since.
There’s quite a lot more than a frisson in the above video, made by the cast & crew of the show – plus The Proclaimers – as a swansong for outgoing writer/producer Russell T. and tenth doctor David T. My wife – a regular visitor to the David Tennant webite – happened across it a couple of days ago.
I particularly like the dancing Oud – and Dave & Will from the VFX department flaunting their skills as they sing with tiny, tiny heads.
