Steptoe and Son

Synopsis

Two Men. Two World Wars. Two lives knitted together as tight as a thrice darned sock. Bound together by birth, business and bloody bad luck, Albert and Harold Steptoe wake up every morning to the same old, same old, sickening sight of each other. Joined at the hip and heart, they bother, bicker and banter their way through life - toying with each others frailties like mean kittens. Do they even notice the world turning as they cling on? There are ladies if they would only look around them, and space travel... and Cliff Richard! "Open your eyes" we shout from the stalls! "Look up at the moon and count the stars!" But they can't. Or won't. Families, eh?

Our Review:

14 November 2012

A lonely father and son scraping a living as rag-and-bone men and rubbing each other up the wrong way made for an extraordinary 12-year run of sitcom episodes in the 1960s and 70s. But that’s about as far as the similarity extends between Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s original BBC series and this new stage production from physical theatre specialists Kneehigh. Joint artistic director Emma Rice has taken four of the television scripts and adapted them for a tour, fifty years on from the first screenings. But in spite of the cast’s energy and commitment, and the stuffing of lots of entertaining business into the gaps between lines, there’s a nagging question at the back of one’s mind throughout: why?

Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett made their characters of Albert and Harold so iconic that it’s a wise decision to move away from them entirely. Thus Mike Shepherd’s wiry, agile Albert and Dean Nolan’s vast but nimble Harold share little more than the lines with their TV count...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

Buster - 18 November 2012:

Very disappointing show. Seemed never to get going. Lacked something but not sure what. The tv show was extremely fun but the show failed to achieve the humour....

Read more and add your own review