Steptoe TV drama complaint upheld

Jason Isaacs and Phil Davis starred in the drama.

The BBC has upheld a complaint about docu-drama The Curse of Steptoe after a family member claimed it was unfair.

The brother of Harry H Corbett's late second wife, Maureen Blott, complained there were "numerous specific inaccuracies" in the drama.

The BBC's editorial complaints unit upheld part of the complaint, saying it was wrong to join two bits of Corbett's life which happened eight years apart.

It added the programme would not be repeated "without appropriate editing".

The one-off BBC Four programme examined how the success of the 1960s sitcom came at a price for its two stars, Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell.

The editorial complaints unit said that most of the departures from ascertainable fact were "legitimate exercises of dramatic license in the context of a drama featuring living or well-remembered people".

However, it also ruled that the drama gave the impression that Maureen Blott's relationship with Corbett preceded, and might have contributed to, the breakdown of his first marriage to Sheila Steafel, whereas the chronology it had established did not support this.

Corbett and Brambell had an often fractious relationship off-screen.

The complaints unit added that the drama also gave the impression that the end of Steptoe and Son was immediately preceded, if not precipitated, by the birth of Corbett's first child.

"This was a dramatic device which had the legitimate intention of illustrating the change in Corbett's attitudes and priorities brought about by family life," the finding said.

"However, the two events were separated by eight years, so the device tended to mislead viewers significantly on an aspect of the narrative central to their interest in the drama. The complaint was upheld on these two points."

The Curse of Steptoe, which starred Jason Isaacs and Phil Davis, was watched by 1.4 million viewers - which was then BBC Four's biggest ever audience - when it aired in March this year.