Reception
The 19 March 2008, broadcast of The Curse of Steptoe brought BBC Four its highest audience figures, estimated as 1.41 million viewers, a 7 percent share of multichannel audiences between 9.00pm and 10.05pm, based on overnight returns. Reviews were good. The Guardian described the two stars as "striking, like Walter Matthau and George Burns in The Odd Couple " (cf. The Sunshine Boys), and The Times praised "the tough, funny, sad script... and the subtly glorious performances". The Independent's reviewer said, "Anyone who remembers David Barrie's Channel 4 documentary When Steptoe Met Son, broadcast in 2002, won't have found all this particularly revelatory, but Isaacs and Davis played it so well that it had a fresh life."
The drama won the Royal Television Society Award 2008 for "Single Drama", beating Margaret Thatcher - The Long Walk To Finchley and The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall. However, the Royal Television Society have since added a caveat to the award that "since the award presentation to The Curse of Steptoe, complaints about the programme were made to the BBC Trust which found it to be 'unfair and inaccurate'".
Read more about this topic: The Curse Of Steptoe
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