Steptoe and Son Radio Show
Galton & Simpson
Hambledon Productions & Apollo Theatre Company
Central Hall Grimsby
07 September 2022
Hambledon Productions, led by John Hewer, recently celebrated its fifteenth year in existence with a gala show at the Riverhead Theatre in Louth and it continues the celebrations with its biggest national tour to date returning to the classic works of Galton & Simpson. It is not the first time Hambledon has toured Steptoe and Son as a radio show but it gets bigger and better each time they do so. The cast of four actors includes Hambledon's co-founder John Hewer (who started the company with sister Rachel), Jeremy Smith, Lucy Sherre Cooper and Joel Howard. Anyone familiar with the work of Hambledon will recognise each performer as they have all performed in previous shows before. The show is produced in collaboration with Apollo Theatre Company, a professional theatre company based in Guildford, Surrey, which aims to produce brand new productions of classic plays.
The evening's offerings come in the form of three scripts from the pens of Galton and Simpson as adapted for radio and subsequently adapted for performance as a radio show complete with Foley desk providing live sound fx. The conceit is that Harry H Corbett (Hewer) and Wilfred Bramble (Smith) are performing the shows live on air at the BBC assisted by Howard as the announcer and sound man, and Cooper portraying each of the female characters who supplement the stories. It is a simple idea performed exceptionally well.
The rich, plummy tones of early BBC radio comedy are present with Howard and Cooper employing their best RP also setting the tone through dress which would suggest this evening's show is set in the early 1960s. Howard in a tuxedo with hair slicked back is the continuity man whose request that all mobile phones should be switched to silent or switched off "as they haven't been invented yet" raised a smile and reminded the audience in a light-hearted manner of the etiquette expected when one visits the theatre. Lucy Sherre Cooper with hair piled high into a stylish beehive and a beautifully fitted blue dress injected teh necessary glamour in contrast to the two shabby rag 'n' bone men everyone had come to see. She opened proceedings by introducing the first episode and the familiar theme tune, "Old Ned" by Ron Grainer.
It is undeniable that the stars of the show are Hewer and Smith with their note-perfect impressions of the father and son duo who graced the television screens from 1963 - 1974. Hewer's Harold is a downtrodden, over-burdened and yet surprisingly optimistic dreamer who believes he has the power to woo the woman of his dreams - or "birds" as the euphemistically refer to women throughout. He is a shambling, scruffy individual to whom life has not been kind, raised in the profession of rag 'n' bone, driving a horse and cart around London whilst dreaming of the finer things in life. Hewer manages to convey every one of those character traits in his recreation of Harold and the audience love him for it, even forgiving the fact that his physical resemblance to Harry H Corbett is barely even passing. He does convey the joy and the glee that Harold enjoys as he catches his seedy father out time and time again and also manages to display the grudging affection and loyalty to father, Albert.
Jeremy Smith, to put it simply, is the living embodiment of Wilfred Bramble's Albert Steptoe. Everything about Smith's performance calls to mind the subtlety employed by Bramble in his heyday in his career-defining role. His shuffling movement, his facial ticks and twitches, his vocal delivery are all superb. The ways in which he presents the mean-spiritedness and disappointment Albert so often has for Harold in each story, combines with the genuine affection of father for son as the underlying tone and the co-dependent relationship between on parent and child is played with bittersweet relish as the show progresses.
The chemistry between Hewer and Smith is electric. They know each other so well and complement each other perfectly. The audience lap up the relationship believing it from the very moment the cast take to the stage. Even when Smith inadvertently turns two pages instead of one in the radio script each actor carries, the duo are able to milk the moment for comedy with some good-natured ribbing that the audience roared in approval of. To see the Albert's face after he followed Harold on an "assignation" with a potential female client Harold met on his rounds was hilarious. The scheming son lying to his father who gave the son more than enough rope to hang himself, and Smith letting the audience in on what was happening was magical. The duo simply have funny bones. Cut them open and they have comedy running through them like a stick of rock. They are exceptionally well-suited to deliver these classic scripts.
Lucy Sherre Cooper provides a wonderful contrast to the two scrap men. Her impeccable appearance and magnificently clipped tones demonstrate the class divide at play perfectly. Her dry, comic timing offers the chance for her to shine in the (frankly, thankless) roles she covers. She symbolises the epitome of early-sixties femininity, oozes class, and would not look out of place in films such as Last Night in Soho. She is a pleasure to watch, it is just a shame that there is little scope to build the role given the nature of the source material - after all we are there to see the rag 'n' bone merchants really.
The chosen scripts recount the day in which Harold met the woman of his dreams who encourages his indiscretion but clearly on sees the scrap an as a bit of rough. Then we have the tale of the bed-bound Albert whose bad back means that Harold has to suffer at the beck and call of his mean-spirited father determined to exploit his condition and to taunt his son in the process. My favourite script however, was reserved for the second act. After many, many years of faithful service, the Steptoe's faithful cart horse, Hercules, passes away in the street and an alternative must be found. This story was played with gentle reverence for the source material and really allowed Smith and Hewer to find the soul of their respective characters in a bittersweet tale that showed how both men regarded their horse as one of the family.
The Steptoe and Son Radio Show has only just begun its national tour and all dates are featured below. We thoroughly recommend it to anyone who needs a good old, nostalgic night out roaring with laughter to the humour of a bygone age. Long may Hambledon Productions continue to remind us of classic comedies of yore.
Andy Evans
08 September 2022
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