Steptoe and Son: Series OneGenre: Drama ComedyDescription: [NON-U.S. FORMAT (PAL) Region 2 U.K. Import - This will not play on U.S./Canada DVD players or those from most other countries outside of Europe. You would need a multi-region or region-free PAL compatible DVD player or computer.] REVIEW: Fresh from their success with Tony Hancock writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson originally planned Steptoe and Son as a one-off for the BBC's Comedy Playhouse. It was quickly turned into a series originally broadcast in 1962 and the six episodes here (including the Comedy Playhouse pilot) contain all the classic ingredients that were to keep the show on British TV screens until 1974. Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell are the father and son rag and bone men constantly bickering constantly at each other's throats. Corbett's Harold harbours ridiculous bourgeois aspirations hoping to impress the birds with asparagus soup or his wine cellar which has been painstakingly collected by draining the dregs of empty bottles. But all his efforts at social improvement are in vain thanks to the mean-spirited efforts of his father Albert who glories in his son's contemptuous dirty old man tag and who is content with life exactly as it is in the cast-off paradise of their ramshackle junk-filled boneyard. The show was groundbreaking at the time depicting working-class people in light comedy instead of serious social drama as was the norm. It also differed significantly from Hancock's Half Hour and other sitcoms which featured comedians effectively playing themselves: Brambell and Corbett were real actors whose marvellous chemistry helped ensure the show's longevity. In our modern throwaway culture Steptoe and Son provides a window into a bygone era when men with horses and carts routinely patrolled the streets recycling junk without the need for government incentives or environmental pressure.
"Steptoe and Son: Series One (DVD) is ideal for fans of British comedy TV shows in the late 1940s and early 1950s."
