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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 f ....