Drama
The Curse of Steptoe Wednesday 19 March
9:00pm - 10:05pm
BBC4
"It's practically Beckett," says Harry H Corbett (Jason Isaacs) of the programme that propelled him and Wilfrid Brambell to TV stardom. But Godot never turns up in Samuel Beckett, and similarly, satisfaction and happiness elude the actors who played the father-and-son rag-and-bone men in the classic sitcom. Writer Brian Fillis has followed his Fanny Cradock drama Fear of Fanny with this portrayal of the actors who made Galton and Simpson's Steptoes into giant TV characters. Up until then, sitcoms were vehicles for comedians, not a rising young star of radical theatre like Corbett. He's all brawny heterosexuality as played by Isaacs, where Phil Davis's Brambell is genteel and repressed. Their stories are new to most of us and perfectly credible in this episodic story. Best of all we see them sparring, irritating each other, pulling Harold and Albert into life in rehearsal. They and the period details are invoked, not mimicked, and the result is more than nostalgic entertainment - it works as poignant drama, too.
RT reviewer - Geoff Ellis
VIDEO Plus+: 69143432
Subtitled, Widescreen, Audio-described