The Curse of Steptoe

Following the broadcast, Harry H. Corbett's nephew from his second marriage released a statement which claimed the drama was inaccurate and defamatory.[9][10] In addition to numerous factual errors, he claimed that the two actors did not hate each other, and that the suggestion that Steptoe and Son ruined either actor's career was nonsense.

The writers of Steptoe and Son, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, also distanced themselves from the drama, stating in a letter to The Times published shortly before the drama was aired that "during this entire [12 year] period we were unaware of any conflict between the actors save from the occasional gritting of Wilfrid's false teeth when Harry had the perceived audacity to give him a little direction. At all other times they were the acme of professionalism."[11] In a radio interview on 15 January 2009 Alan Simpson stated that the drama was "not at all accurate", while Ray Galton claimed, "We didn't recognise any of that. Really didn't." Both agreed that any notion of friction or hatred between Corbett and Brambell was inaccurate, stating, "They worked beautifully together."[12]

On 1 October 2008, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit upheld a complaint by the brother-in-law of Harry H. Corbett, regarding comments made by Phil Davis in an interview on BBC Breakfast. Davis gave the impression that The Curse of Steptoe was entirely factual and claimed that Brambell and Corbett loathed each other, whereas the balance of first-hand evidence is that this was by no means the case.[13]

On 24 November 2008, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit upheld another complaint by Corbett's brother-in-law regarding the drama itself. It ruled that the drama gave the impression that Corbett's relationship with his second wife (Maureen 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. 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. 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 drama would not be re-broadcast without appropriate editing and content information.[14]

A revised version of the drama was broadcast on 28 and 29 December 2008 on BBC Four, running 23 seconds shorter than the original, and preceded by an on-screen disclaimer: "The following drama is inspired by the lives of real people. For the purpose of the narrative some events have been invented or conflated."

The BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee partially upheld a complaints appeal by Corbett's brother-in-law, stating on 30 June 2009 that "the essential elements of unfairness to Maureen Corbett were still present in the revised version of the programme, and that this constituted a breach of the Fairness and Accuracy guidelines". In particular, "the timeline of the drama with regard to the relationship between Maureen and Harry, and Harry's separation from his first wife, did not correlate with the facts", and "the implication in the drama that the child of Maureen and Harry had been conceived as a result of a casual relationship between the two was inaccurate and unfair". The Trust also warned the BBC that, "while it was the right of dramatists to change events for dramatic purposes, the basic facts should remain as a framework on which to build the drama". The Trust also thought the on-screen caption could have been clearer, and warned that "the use of captions such as this should not be regarded as a 'blank cheque' for the indiscriminate and excessive use of dramatic licence".[15] Once again, the drama would not be shown again until further editing had taken place.

A third, re-revised version of the drama was broadcast on 2 December 2009 on BBC HD, now running 69 seconds shorter than the original. The same version was released on a BBC DVD, Legends of Comedy, on 14 June 2010, together with two other episodes from the drama series, Frankie Howerd Rather You Than Me and Hughie Green Most Sincerely.

On 22 December 2010 the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee upheld a further appeal by Corbett's brother-in-law. The ruling stated that the revised portrayal in The Curse of Steptoe was still "unfair and inaccurate", and, "despite the edits made, further action was required by the BBC to remove the impression of a casual relationship between Maureen and Harry".[16] The BBC Trust subsequently ordered that DVDs of the drama should be recalled.[17][18]

On 23 March 2011 the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee published a report into the withdrawal of the DVDs. Evidently the publisher 2Entertain had failed to inform the BBC Shop that the DVD should be withdrawn, and sales had continued until 3 January 2011. 2Entertain subsequently instructed its lawyers to perform a worldwide trawl to ensure that no other retailers were still selling the DVD. The Committee was concerned by the failure to withdraw The Curse of Steptoe from sale in a timely manner, but was satisfied that the problem had been treated seriously and that steps had been taken to prevent similar issues in the future. It also "wished to apologise on behalf of the BBC for the original editorial breaches in The Curse of Steptoe and the fact that subsequent remedial action had been ineffective in removing the unfairness."[19]

After complaints about The Curse of Steptoe were upheld, the BBC Trust said that it would write to the BBC Executive requesting that the BBC Editorial Guidelines be revised to address dramatised biopics (also termed "docudrama") with regard to the presentation of fact and the use of dramatic licence.[20] The new guidelines were published on 12 October 2010, with Section 6.4.29 specifically addressing "Portrayal of Real People in Drama". Where the drama goes against the wishes of the individual portrayed or their surviving near relatives, approval must be sought from the BBC's Director of Editorial Policy and Standards, and will be given only if three criteria are met: (1) the portrayal is fair; (2) the portrayal is based on a substantial and well-sourced body of evidence whenever practicable; and (3) there is a clear public interest.[21]

Shortly after the BBC Trust upheld the further appeal by Corbett's brother-in-law on 22 December 2010, it was announced that the drama's Executive Producer, Ben Evans, had been made redundant by the BBC, along with 21 other holders of drama production posts. Evans confirmed to The Stage newspaper that he was leaving the BBC, but refused to comment on whether his redundancy was compulsory or voluntary.[22]