The interesting thing is that Harold has exactly the same prejudices as Albert.....but Harold thinks by using (or not using) certain language he can hide it.
Albert probably got on fine with all the ethnic people in his comunity.....Harold probably didn't because he would be too busy patronising them telling them "How marvellous their Cricket team is."
I'm only half Troll....on my mothers side.
There's an episode where Albert says something mildly offensive (by today's standards) but then says "There's good and bad everywhere". This is actually a good illustration of what things were like then - people felt more at ease saying something that might have sounded (and certainly today WOULD sound) racist, whereas their true feelings were genuinely that everyone who deserved it should be treated with equal kindness.
Today, people seem almost robotic in spouting PC rhetoric - if the shackles were taken off I think people could be trusted not to be gratuitously offensive or bigoted. of course, there's good and bad everywhere...
Awight we're The Daamned we're a punk baand and this is called Carn't Be Appy T'day!
I wonder how old people on here are?
I am 51 and saw some of these programmes when they first went out.
It is all about context,people were watching rubbish like CURRY AND CHIPS(with the talentless racist SPIKE MILLIGAN)and better known programmes like LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR,ON THE BUSES,IT AIN'T HALF HOT MUM and MIND YOUR LANGUAGE,in some of these programmes racist humour was the point of the programme,in comparison the racism in STEPTOE AND SUN is mild and is often aimed at our european neighbours.
STEPTOE AND SON was seen as a left wing programme,at one of the general elections in the 1970s,1974 I think,the Labour party forced the BBC to show the programme on another night ,not a Thursday which was election night.
I wonder how old people on here are?
I am 51 and saw some of these programmes when they first went out.
It is all about context,people were watching rubbish like CURRY AND CHIPS(with the talentless racist SPIKE MILLIGAN)and better known programmes like LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR,ON THE BUSES,IT AIN'T HALF HOT MUM and MIND YOUR LANGUAGE,in some of these programmes racist humour was the point of the programme,in comparison the racism in STEPTOE AND SUN is mild and is often aimed at our european neighbours.
STEPTOE AND SON was seen as a left wing programme,at one of the general elections in the 1970s,1974 I think,the Labour party forced the BBC to show the programme on another night ,not a Thursday which was election night.
good points,some of the views and words about race and sexuality in Steptoe might make us cringe today but it is a class programme and the views reflected real people at the time.
It makes me laugh watching EASTENDERS for example,hardly anybody is racist,gay people are cherished and nobody smokes or takes drugs.
Political Correctness is largely an invention of the Right, used to attack the Left - if socially unacceptable behaviour/language is less in evidence in popular culture than it was forty years ago, that's because society itself has changed and film, television etc merely reflects that. Certain sections of society still do use racist, homophobic and sexist language but the vast majority do not and not because of threat from some external force but because we've evolved - why anyone would think that the world was a better place when such things were acceptable is beyond me.
And your 'ultra clean' version of Eastenders bares scant resemblance to the real one.
Make you cringe maybe!
shareSpike Milligan was anything but talentless!
shareHarold has, to an extent, some of the racial prejudices of Albert, but he attempts to overcome them because he sees himself as a progressive socialist. Albert by contrast is an unashamed working-class Tory. This tension creates quite a lot of comedy.
Personally I don't see anything racist in Steptoe and Son or indeed most comedies of the period. Til Death Us Do Part, Love Thy Neighbour, Mind Your Language, It Ain't Half Hot Mum etc were all either making fun of racism or just having a laugh about different cultural characteristics. Sadly nowadays we live in a culture where ANY reference to race in comedy is considered a bit off-colour (no pun intended) just as the Victorians disliked any reference to sex.
'Monsters? We're British!'
'Personally I don't see anything racist in Steptoe and Son or indeed most comedies of the period. Til Death Us Do Part, Love Thy Neighbour, Mind Your Language, It Ain't Half Hot Mum etc were all either making fun of racism or just having a laugh about different cultural characteristics. Sadly nowadays we live in a culture where ANY reference to race in comedy is considered a bit off-colour (no pun intended) just as the Victorians disliked any reference to sex. '
Obviously a subjective point of view.
The trouble is Mind your Language and Love thy Neighbour whatever their honourable intentions at the time, it fell down on the execution. Today and really some years ago you winced at the crude attempts to tackle racism. Even some of the television executives who made the programmes admitted they did not succeed.
It's that man again!!
'Racism' is nothing I'd ever associate with Steptoe.
I was born in 1948 and like thousands of other folks at the time found it compulsive viewing.
I find the example chosen interesting, but scarcely indicative of Steptoe being 'Racist'. Is this the only example you can muster?
Have you seen any other episodes?
Interestingly, I watched an episode yesterday from 1970 on the UK Drama channel entitled "The Colour Problem".
The content of course had nothing to do with race, merely Albert's desire to own a colour TV set, however the phrase was not uncommon at the time in relation to immigration and the choice of title is clearly a less than subtle allusion to it.
The BBC was certainly a very different animal in those days.
"The Colour Problem"
That is just a clever play on words, something you can gather with other Steptoe & Sons episode titles.
Just look at what the final series had to offer. The Seven Steptoerai, Porn Yesterday, Upstairs Downstairs, Upstairs Downstairs.
It's that man again!!
With respect, it seems just a little too specific for me to be simply "a play on words". Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean?
share