Steptoe And Son...And Sons

Fifty years on from their first appearance, Albert and 'Arold still form the perfect sitcom duo: bitter, failed and trapped. Paul Jackson looks at the Steptoes' vast comedic influence, in conversation with their creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, as well as present-day writers of both comedy and drama.

Paul Jackson, great practical grammarian of British television, on how Alan Simpson and Ray Galton's comedy characters, born on a BBC pilot programme in 1962, ruled the airwaves for 13 years after (with native versions in America, Sweden and Holland) and have influenced other British writers over several generations. Simpson and Galton join him, as do Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks of Birds of a Feather, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor of Red Dwarf, as well as Peter Flannery of Our Friends in the North.