Galton and Simpson’s ‘Steptoe & Son’ is one of the greatest of all TV sitcoms, and the well-received stage show, which is based on four classic episodes, is playing Alnwick, Gateshead and Billingham this January.

Harold to Albert: “You are a dyed-in-the-wool, fascist, reactionary, squalid little, ‘know your place’, ‘don’t rise above yourself’, ‘don’t get out of your hole’ - complacent little turd. You are morally, spiritually and physically a festering fly-blown heap of accumulated filth.”

Albert: “What do you want for your tea?” Galton and Simpson’s dialogue in ‘Steptoe & Son’ remains a thing of beauty, Harold’s extraordinary flights-of-linguistic fancy constantly being undercut by Albert’s coarseness. But the pair – locked together in a death spiral in a junkyard on Oil Drum Lane – are two of the greatest comic characters to emerge from the golden age of British sitcoms. There is a bleakness to ‘Steptoe & Son’, which would be unbearable if it wasn’t so damn funny. And it’s those big laughs that are pushed to the fore in this touring production, which has three north-east dates this January. RM

Steptoe & Son: Thursday 23 & Friday 24 January, The Alnwick Playhouse, 7.30pm (2.30pm on Friday), from £20; Saturday 25 January, The Little Theatre, Gateshead, 7.30pm, £18; Sunday 26 January, Forum Theatre, Billingham, 7.30pm, £22.50. steptoeandsontour.co.uk