New play revisits rag & bone men

Steptoe and Son writer Ray Galton is to revive his famous rag and bone men for a new stage play.

The new piece, Murder At Oil Drum Lane, tells of what happened to Harold and Albert Steptoe 40 years after their sitcom days.

And the shock is that Harold killed his father to escape his stifling company.

Galton - who created the original programme with Alan Simpson - collaborated with fellow comedy writer John Antrobus, who is best known for his work with Spike Milligan, on the new script.

The show has its world premiere at York Theatre Royal on October 24, where it runs until November 12.

The theatre's artistic director Damian Cruden said: ‘We are all looking forward to working with Ray, John and Roger [Smith, the director] on Steptoe.

'This is a great opportunity for our audience to see this first production featuring two of the greatest comedy characters ever created.

'The quality of the writing, as one would expect fro writers of John and Ray's calibre, is superb and for our company to be the originators is very exciting. I hope our audience will have as much fun watching the show as we are bound to have creating it.'

Galton revealed the fate of his characters in a newspaper interview this week.

'I thought, because the son has threatened to kill the old man, that's exactly what he does,' he said. 'He's killed the old man and fled to South America."'

The play takes place in the same rag-and-bone yard today - when it is owned by the National Trust as the last remaining example of a typical salvage yard. But then Harold returns, expressing a deep interest in the scene of the crime.

The theatre has not yet announced which actors will take the parts of the Steptoes, but they are said to be physically similar to original stars Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett, but not direct impersonations.

Steptoe And Son first aired as a one-off on the BBC's Comedy Playhouse season in 1962, and eventually ran until 1974.

Published: 23 Jul 2005