It's been over 40 years since rag and bone men Steptoe and Son first appeared on our TV screens and now they're being resurrected in a stage play. But, as Steve Pratt discovers, even death may not end the story.

It was a difficult birth - a comedy classic born out of desperation. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, Britain's most successful comedy writing partnership, had been given ten half-hour TV slots by the BBC to fill however they wanted.

"They said 'you can do what you like, direct it, produce it, be in it'," recalls Galton, now 75. "That was fine to begin with. We had to find a different show for each week and, by the fourth week, had completely dried up. We had nothing to fall back on. We were used to having a character and thinking, 'what are they going to do this week?'.

"I said to Alan, 'what about a couple of rag and bone men?'. But he didn't really take much notice because we were always saying 'what about doing this?'."

After a while, they became desperate enough to take up the idea and began writing The Offer. They were unsure in which direction in which the piece was heading. "We were halfway through writing and thought we'd better find out what their relationship was," says Galton. "We knew they were a young man and an old man. We didn't know whether they would be friends. Eventually we decided on father and son."

Steptoe and Son, starring Wilfrid Bramble and Harry H Corbett, debuted in 1962 in the Comedy Playhouse series and, as far as Galton and Simpson were concerned, that was the end of it.

"We didn't want to get back on that route again of writing for the same people week after week," explains Galton. "The writers had become the stars, the first time that had happened, and we were relieved to go back to being no-one. So we said no to a series. We made lots of excuses, all of which were shot down.

'Six months later, the BBC asked us again. We said if Harry and Willie wanted to do it, we would do it. We didn't think they would."

The writers were wrong. Steptoe and Son ran on and off for 12 years on TV, spawning two feature films and an US TV version, Sandford and Son. The series stands as one of the best of all British sitcoms, as funny today as it was 30 or 40 years ago.

And that should have been the end of it. The series lived on through repeats on TV, DVDs and audio tapes. With Corbett and Bramble both dead, a revival seemed unlikely.

Yet Harold and Albert Steptoe have been resurrected for one last outing. The pair reappear in a new stage comedy, opening at York Theatre Royal on Monday, written by Galton and John Antrobus.

Just as the writers were reluctant to do the TV series, there was a similar hesitation in reviving the popular characters for the stage. Simpson has retired, but Galton is still writing, sometimes with Antrobus who suggested putting Steptoe and Son on stage. The pair previously collaborated on the farce, When Did You Last See My Trousers?.

"I said, 'no way'," recalls Galton. "and that the only way I'd be interested in doing it was if the old man had been murdered by his son, as Harold had always threatened to do."

Antrobus persisted, turning up at Galton's house when he knew Simpson would be there and putting forward the idea. "I didn't have great hopes that they would say yes but thought it would be something very exciting to do. I popped the question. Ray said he'd do it if the old man was dead. Alan said if Ray wanted to do it, it was all right by him," he says.

The play finds Harold Steptoe, on the run and living abroad since his father's death, returning to the totters' yard in Oil Drum Lane and coming face-to-face with the ghost of Albert.

There were worries that the play would be viewed in the same way as recent nostalgia shows, Round The Horne Revisited and The Play What I Wrote. But everyone concerned is anxious to stress this is a proper play and not an extended episode of a sitcom.

"There's something completely timeless about Steptoe and Son. It's not just renovating some old TV series. Theirs is a relationship that exists in people's consciousness," says director Roger Smith.

For some, the idea of Steptoe and Son without Corbett and Bramble is unthinkable, a fact of which those behind the theatre production are well aware. They decided against using well-known actors or impersonators. "You have to be able to recognise elements and characteristics. You're treading a very narrow line," says Smith.

Harry Dickman's initial reaction to playing Albert Steptoe was to say "that's not for me", agreeing to audition because it was by Galton and Antrobus. Several meetings later, he got the part.

Jake Nightingale thought "oh my god" about playing Harold for a different reason. He's a big fan of Harry H Corbett and the thought of playing his most famous role was worrying. "I told my agent I wasn't good enough to do that kind of performance, but she said that I definitely had it in me," he recalls.

"I watched some old episodes and they gave me a piece of the script for the play which I learnt. I figured the only way to get the job was to show them I could do what Harry H Corbett does in the show.

"I wasn't sure whether they wanted me to be like him or approach it as if it was a new character. What they wanted was the essence of Harold Steptoe. I felt it was acting, I'm being asked to create a character not do a turn," he says.

Dickman began as a stand-up comic. Acting came his way via musicals, where he's understudied for the likes of Tommy Steele and Anthony Newley. "I was grateful for this play because I don't get the chance to do them much. They keep giving me funny men in musicals," he says.

Galton knew that the casting could be problematic for audiences to accept if they didn't get it right. "What we didn't want was someone to do a slavish imitation like Round The Horne, which was essentially people doing the voices of a well-known script.

"We wanted actors to give their own take on the roles, although we knew people wouldn't accept it if they looked like Laurel and Hardy. They would have to get near enough but not imitations."

Antrobus views it as recreating the characters for a stage play. "Steptoe and Son is essentially character-driven. I knew it would stand up that way when the public and critics started making comparisons with the original cast. You can't protect yourself from that, just cast it as well as you can.

"Something classic, which I take Steptoe to be, touches a chord with human experience and a lot of the rest is just dressing."

The play will, according to the production team, bring the Steptoe and Son saga to an end. They can't stop people wondering about a TV revival or films of the play. Perhaps even a recreation of the old scripts, as Paul Merton did with Hancock's Half Hour some years ago.

Galton doubts that will happen. "You should not say never again but I can't visualise them on TV again," he says. But when he and Simpson get together again at the Theatre Royal for Wednesday's press night, the future of Steptoe and Son is a subject that's certain to crop up.

* Steptoe And Son In Murder At Oil Drum Lane opens at York Theatre Royal on Monday and runs until November 12. Tickets (01904) 623568.