The curse of Steptoe and Son: how the sitcom ruined its star’s career
John Gielgud praised his Richard II for Joan Littlewood, so why did Harry H Corbett end his days in panto? There s only one role to blame
7 February 2021 • 12:00pm
Harry H Corbett, pictured here with Wilfrid Brambell in Steptoe and Son, was stuck with the role for 14 years
Credit: Mike Lawn/Getty
Harry H Corbett – he of the lustreless, big red-rimmed eyes; “the hulking figure in the tatty overcoat and turned-down gumboots”; the faint rhotacism and a voice that was like a flame, swaying and trembling – was born in Rangoon in 1925. I picture a Kipling background – tough non-commissioned officers in a hot corner of the Empire; a world of duty and service and forbearance; of burdens carried. (“I’m beginning to be a burden, am I?” Albert Steptoe one day challenges his son, Harold, who replies: “No white man ever had a bigger one. But rest assured, I will not fail in my filial duty.”)