Harry H. Corbett lets us laugh at Harold Steptoe's pretensions without asking us to despise him. His particular skill is keeping a man's need for respect apparent through behaviour that might otherwise exhaust our patience.
Fi1m perspective
Harold Steptoe wants to be thought better than he is, and Harry H. Corbett makes him painfully aware that his father has noticed. In Steptoe and Son (1962), he lets the vanity show without making it the only thing worth knowing about Harold. We rate the performance because the wish for respect remains understandable even when the man doing the wishing is tiresome. Corbett gives us reasons to stay with him through another quarrel, though we need not share Harold's estimate of himself.
Wilfrid Brambell's Albert is the person least inclined to indulge that wish, and Corbett makes the embarrassment of being seen through central to their scenes together. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's writing gives him long exchanges in which precise timing and natural delivery matter more than physical business. We felt for Harold when his pretensions were exposed, because Corbett made the humiliation recognisable without concealing the vanity that brought it about. The laughs depend on words and on the father and son's relationship, rather than a succession of physical gags.
The success of Steptoe and Son narrowed a career that had already included classical theatre, films and Armchair Theatre dramas. Corbett had worked at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop before Harold arrived in 1962; the serious acting did not begin as an attempt to escape the sitcom. Rattle of a Simple Man (1964), in which he played Percy Winthram, offers another example of his character comedy. He returned to Harold in Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973), and later appeared as the Squire in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky (1977). The difficulty was getting offered serious dramatic work once Harold had become so familiar.
Harold's wounded dignity could easily become a plea for sympathy that never stops. Corbett avoids that trap by allowing him to be irritating, and by keeping the performance natural enough that the dialogue sounds like something a man needs to say. The series still wears us down when it returns to the quarrelling too often; neither actor can make that repetition disappear. Start with Steptoe and Son, but leave a little space between visits.
Biography
Harry H. Corbett (28 February 1925 – 21 March 1982) was an English actor. Born in Rangoon, Burma, he served in the Royal Marines during the Second World War before joining a repertory company and working in theatre, including at the Bristol Old Vic.
He is best known for playing Harold Steptoe in the BBC sitcom Steptoe and Son (1962–1974). He received an OBE in 1976. His other screen roles include Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung in Carry On Screaming! (1966), the Squire in Jabberwocky (1977) and George Balsam in an episode of Tales of the Unexpected (1979).
