Steptoe And Son - BBC1 Sitcom - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)

Living at Mews Cottage, Shepherd's Bush, Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are a family business. They are rag and bone men. With a yard full of battered furniture, tyres and scrap metal, Albert refuses to sell half of what Harold collects and keeps it, filling the house with worthless ornaments rather than pay the bills.

Albert is a war veteran and lived at home with Harold since he was a child. His wife has passed on leaving just the father and son. Albert is so stuck with the same routine that it is impossible for his son to do anything without Albert devising some cunning ploy to stop him, (usually involving faking a condition to get Harold's sympathy). Because of Albert's background, he refuses to leave his home in Shepard's Bush and as such his son cannot escape the everyday toil of rag and bone work.

Harold is in his late thirties and still lives at home. Not that he likes it; he hates everything about it. Paying bills, living in squalor and being on constant surveillance by his father are his biggest problems. He tries constantly to leave home, from buying a flat to going on holiday alone but his father is determined to keep him alongside him until the day he dies. It has occured to Harold more than once that if his dad were dead his life would be so much better.

Harold likes to think himself a sophisticated gentleman. A love for classical music and literature compared to his dad, the 'dirty old man' who likes nothing more than gawping at girls and keeping secrets from his son, to which some are revealed during the course of the shows eight series run.

It is Albert and Harold's diverse personalities that cause the outbursts and the arguments and though there may be conflict and torment between the father and son, they both also take pleasure in annoying each other but always come to a comforting resolve in one of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's classic comedy creations.

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