Steptoe and Son had an immense influence on British television comedy, and specifically the writers who created some of the finest sitcoms of the last fifty years.

The fact Steptoe and Son depicted a working-class father and son was truly groundbreaking. To put it into context, the BBC in the early sixties and for many years subsequently, tended to commission safe, middle-class family fare for its main situation comedy offerings. 1963’s The Marriage Lines, was a pleasant but frankly, rather dull, comedy about a newly-married couple by Richard Waring. It starred talented young prospects, Richard Briers and Prunella Scales, the series is not widely remembered as both stars eclipsed these early roles with iconic parts in the seventies sitcoms The Good Life and Fawlty Towers respectively.

There was a sea-change in screen drama at the start of the sixties. The British New Wave, which emphasised a raw, provincial realism in film and television, swept all before it. The BBC modernised and the rather stuffy edict that the BBC should invest in drama that was “good for the audience” was replaced by a more relevant, contemporary approach with the appointment of Sydney Newman, who developed the prestigious long-form drama strand The Wednesday Play. In comedy, the newly launched BBC2 saw the debut of a series which embodied the new wave realism. The Likely Lads (incidentally, the first comedy series to be set outside London), was created by a talented young writing team heavily influenced by Galton and Simpson: Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.