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 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.

Steptoe was first aired as a one off play called “The Offer” broadcast on 5 January 1962. In June of 1962 the Steptoe’s were back in the first series of 6 episodes. There were eventually eight series in all with the last episode broadcast on 10 October 1974. A Christmas special broadcast on 26 December 1974 was to be the last ever Steptoe.

The show is basically about the relationship between Albert Steptoe and his son Harold. The comedy largely came from their differing view points about the issues that affected them and how they both would use and manipulate each other to achieve what they wanted. The father, Albert, was the undoubted expert at getting his own way. It didn’t matter that they were father and son; they could have been husband and wife, mother and daughter or any other relationship between two people. Steptoe and Son highlighted the unhealthy way some relationships develop. Many of us were laughing at ourselves!!!

In this day and age with countless TV channels and other diversions, it is hard to look back and remember just how popular the show was with the whole nation. Millions of people would sit down at the same time across the nation to watch Albert and Harold. The following morning the shows would be discussed, dissected and reviewed in work canteens, school playgrounds and the pub. Such was the grip that the show had on the nation, that in September 1964, with a general election looming, Harold Wilson the leader of the opposition, asked the BBC not to show the programme on election day, as he was concerned that people would stay in and watch Steptoe rather than go out to vote.

Everybody has their own favorite show and they can still discuss what it is about it that makes them laugh. We hope to bring you an opportunity to vote for your favorite episode as this website develops further.

As said previously this was a completly new way of writting TV comedy and so a number of small discrepancys occur which would not be permitable in todays comedy shows. Galtin and Simpson wrote the shows for laughs and they were therefore not always true to the history of their characters. It would not be possible to put together a comprehensive history of the Steptoes based upon the dialogue of all the episodes. Occasionaly an actor who had appeard previously in one role, appeard later in another episode in a different role. Obvious examples of this are Leonard Rossiter, Frank Thornton and Anthony Sharpe, who many people will remember as the vicar, but he also played a doctor in an earlier episode. However these occurances unlikle the Hankcock example are not too frequent. It should also be remembered that this was the first time a series like this had been put togehter and nobody ever realised that their would be sad people out there who would one day pick up on such things.

The Show has stood the test of time and is as funny now as when they were first broadcast. The legacy left us by Albert and Harold is greater than you may at first realise. Each episode is a beautifully acted 30 minute drama. They are also little time capsules in their own right, as they reflect not only on what is now an effectively lost profession, but they also show the attitudes and thoughts of Britain in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Without the confines of political correctness the Steptoe’s were able to discuss things that real people discussed. While many of today’s TV comedies are undoubtedly funny, when they are viewed some 30 years later, will we still be able to recognise ourselves?