Mike Shepherd is emphatic about one aspect of his portrayal of rag-and-bone man Albert Steptoe in a new stage version of the celebrated television sitcom Steptoe and Son. It is that he will not — repeat: not — be giving an impersonation of Wilfrid Brambell. “Yes, I am playing a dirty old man,” says Mike, “and of course he gets called that by his son Harold. His clothes are what you would expect if you remember the show [which ran on BBC between 1962 and 1974]. “But I will not be pulling the faces that Brambell made famous during all his years as Albert. I will not take my false teeth out either — and I couldn’t anyway as I have still got my own.” At 59, Mike well remembers the sitcom, which was a top television attraction in its day, with both its stars household names. All three of them, if you add to Brambell and Harry H. Corbett (who played Harold) the character of Hercules the horse, which in the version from Kneehigh is represented by a steed from a fairground carousel. “I used to watch it sitting on my dad’s lap,” says Mike, founder, joint artistic director and principal performer with Cornwall-based Kneehigh. “I was fascinated by it. Dad was chuckling away. Mother sat knitting. She didn’t think it quite so funny.” Mike has brought to his portrayal of Albert, he says, touches of Edwardian villainy, elements of a Hogarth cartoon and something of the clown Grimaldi. “When Brambell created the role he was 10 years younger than I am now, but he made a bit of career of playing old men. What I will show, as he did, was how manipulative Albert could be. But in the scripts there is also a tenderness. You see this in Albert’s trauma from serving in the First World War, which he says to Harold ‘was not the picnic yours was’. There is a lot about both wars, in fact, and an exploration of the relationship between father and son [Harold played by Kneehigh newcomer Dean Nolan]” The script, by Kneehigh’s joint artistic director Emma Rice, brings together four episodes of the show. One pre-dates the first run. “The Offer,” says Mike, “is rather dark, a bit like Samuel Becket in Waiting for Godot.” Steptoe and Son’s creators, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, were prime movers in getting the show on stage and their agents approached Kneehigh following the success of its version of Brief Encounter. They have seen the production twice so far and, says Mike, greatly enjoyed it. Phew! Initially, the idea of putting a TV show on stage did not hugely appeal, but then Kneehigh came to appreciate something very special in the scripts. Emma says: “I laughed and wept in equal measure. I am so lucky to have read them. I felt I was walking through history: my grandparents’ and my own. She added: “The work is deeper, darker and more intricate than I ever realised watching as a child.” There are, of course, whole generations of potential theatregoers who will know nothing of the television show. Mike says: “We do attract a young audience, so this was a worry. But their reaction has been positive. People are fascinated, which has surprised and pleased us. “As for the people who did remember the show, they are telling us that this is a terrific version.” Kneehigh is happy then, on both counts. For a company that has, over nearly 30 years, astonished with the variety of its productions — including Shakespeare, fairy stories, puppet shows — this innovative entertainment appears to be another goal achieved.