This was one of the great sitcoms of the 1960's and 1970's and was aired and often repeated on the BBC. Around 50 audio episodes were made as well and although not on the radio any longer are available on the web and cd. This was a story of a father and son team who ran an old fashioned junk business. The father refused to move with the times and the son was forever looking for a way out of the hell that had been created. The 2 characters were very well acted (disliked each other off screen) and the main set was well put together. Albert, the father, would defeat Harold at anything he tried and spent most episodes trying to keep him in his place. Harold, although trying to better himself, was fiercely loyal to his Father and Albert used that to his advantage. Albert was incredibly selfish over this and saw Harold purely as a ticket to comfortable old age. Any time Harold met a girl or had a chance to better himself Albert would purposely mess it up for him as he saw everything like that as a potential threat to the status quo which he enjoyed. This left the viewer quite often with a big feeling of frustration. Harold had chance after chance to leave but did not take them because of the aforementioned loyalty. It had got stale by the end as the conclusions to each episode became very predictable. Good viewing though ultimately flawed. The series never developed, it just stayed the same for far too long.
Review of Steptoe and Son
