30 minSeason 8 • Episode 6
LatestAlbert invites a spiritualist to give a reading so he can contact his dead wife, but Harold is sceptical over the whole thing...
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father and son played by Wilfred Brambell and Harry H. Corbett who deal in selling used items. They live on Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by 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. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the US as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert and in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon. In 1972 a movie adaptation of the series, Steptoe and Son, was released in cinemas, with a second Steptoe and Son Ride Again in 1973.
Acting
Brambell and Corbett's brutally authentic father-son warfare.
Writing
Galton & Simpson turned sitcom into social tragedy.
Creators
Alan Simpson, Ray Galton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Wilfrid Brambell was later arrested for 'importuning' in a toilet, ironically making him as socially trapped as Albert. The tabloids had a field day.
Galton and Simpson originally wrote it as a single play—BBC insisted on a series, accidentally creating the template for every dysfunctional family comedy since.
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