Web Page No 2708
1st August 2020
1st Picture. Steptoe and Son
2nd Picture. With Hercules
3rd Picture. Galton and Simpson
4th Picture. Filming in the house
Steptoe and Son
Many episodes
revolved around the disagreements between the two men, Harold's attempts to bed
women and the hope of finding something valuable on his round. Harold was
continually thwarted (usually by the Albert) in his attempts to better himself.
Albert almost
always comes out on top, and proves himself superior to his son whenever they
compete, such as when they played snooker Scrabble and badminton. Harold takes
these games extremely seriously and sees them as symbols of his desire to
improve himself, but his efforts come to nothing each time. His father's
success is partly down to greater skills but is aided by gamesmanship and
undermining of his son's confidence.
Harold was infuriateed
by these persistent frustrations and defeats, even going to the extent in
"Divided We Stand" (1972) of attempting to partition the house so
that he does not have to share with his father. However, in bad situations, Harold
sticks by his father.
The 1974 Christmas
special ended the run and it first appears Harold is once again at the bad end
of poor planning, when he books a Christmas holiday abroad, but then finds his
passport is out of date. His father must go alone, and Harold, tearfully it
seems, waves him off to enjoy a potential good time without him. Harold trudges
away, only to jump in a car with a woman to drive off on his own holiday,
revealing that he had engineered the whole situation from the beginning.
The
show had its roots in a 1962 episode of Galton & Simpson's Comedy Playhouse.
The fourth in the series, "The Offer", was born both out of writer's block and
budgetary constraints. Earlier shows in the series had cost more than
expected, so the writers decided to write a two-hander set
in one room. The idea of two brothers was considered but father and son worked
best. Ronald
Fraser was second choice for Harold, which would
have produced a totally different character.
The series' title
music, "Old Ned", won its composer Ron Grainer his second successive Ivor Novello award. The series
had no standard set of opening titles but the opening sequences would often
feature the Steptoe's horse, Hercules. Outside filming of the Steptoes' yard
took place at a car-breakers' yard in Norland Gardens, London W11, then
changing to Stable Way, Latimer Road, for the later series. Both
sites have subsequently been redeveloped with no evidence now remaining of the
entrance gates through which the horse and cart were frequently driven.
Steptoe
and Son is unique among 1960s BBC television
programmes in that every episode has survived, despite the mass wiping of
BBC archive holdings between 1967 and 1978. However, all the instalments from
the first 1970 series and all but two from the second that were originally made
in colour only survive in the form of black and white domestic videotape
recordings.
Fifty
two episodes were remade for BBC Radio, initially on the Light
Programme in 1966–67 and later Radio 2 from 1971 to
1976.
Stay in touch
Peter
grseditor@gmail.com
Griff Writes:-
A few weeks back I wrote an article on
my 1960's Fidelity record player and Dansette record players of the 1960's. To
follow that nostalgic article up a bit more I will talk about and show you my
1939 Little Maestro radio.
These wooden case radios cost 5 gns.
back then which for most people would have been a weeks wages and probably a
bit more. Just imagine a family huddled around this little radio listening to
Winston Churchill's latest war updates and Germany's propaganda minister Lord
Haw-Haw during WW 2.
The Little Maestro production fitted
with wooden cases was stopped in 1940 due to the shortage of wood (can you
believe that) and manufacturing continued with moulded bakelite cases.
This radio came into my possession a
few years ago now. It had been fully restored to factory standard by a radio
enthusiast and to this day it still looks like new and is in full working
order.
I should point out I have no knowledge
of radio repairs at all but I have always had an interest in antiques and
collectables which remains to this day. I am a mechanical engineer by
profession so it's all magic to me how radios work.......lol
(Think... two empty tin cans and a long piece of string.)
So the burning question you are all
wanting to know perhaps is: What's it worth? (for those of you who
watch the Antiques Roadshow). A Little Maestro radio in this excellent
working condition would be worth around £125 to a serious radio collector.
There are still some of these Little Maestro radios being discovered in loft
clear outs and garden sheds but generally speaking they are in very poor non-working
condition and the sale value can be as low as £10. I would imagine that
over the years as people died and houses cleared out the radios would have
ended up in a skip. Spare parts like valves and circuit diagrams can still be
found though through the many online radio repair organisations that flourish
throughout the UK.
Regards to Everyone Melvyn ( Griff )
Griffiths.
News and Views:
On this day 1st August
1960-1965
On 01/08/1961 the
number one single was Well I Ask You - Eden Kane and the number one album was Ipswich. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box
office smash was One
Hundred and One Dalmations.
A pound of today's money was worth £not
very interesting and 13.25
were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news
story of the day was No Hiding Place
(AR).
On 01/08/1962 the
number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top
rated TV show was Coronation
Street (Granada) and the box office
smash was Lawrence
of Arabia. A pound of today's
money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming
the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the week Marilyn Monroe dies.
On 01/08/1963 the
number one single was (You're the)
Devil In Disguise - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The
top rated TV show was Coronation
Street (Granada) and the box office
smash was The Great Escape. A
pound of today's money was worth £12.64
and Liverpool were on the way to
becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the day was Computer will predict chances of marriage
success.
On 01/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) and the box office
smash was The Sound of Music. A
pound of today's money was worth £11.69
and Liverpool were on the way to
becoming the Season's Division 1 champions
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