Mr Aitch (ITV Sitcom, Harry H. Corbett)

ITV Sitcom telling of the exploits of Mr Aitch (Harry H. Corbett), the owner of a run down car park who had ideas above his station. The other regulars were Mr Aitch’s chauffeur Albie (Norman Chappell) and his right hand man Lefty (Gordon Gostelow).

Mr Aitch was a series with a great pedigree, created by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (hot on the heels of their big success with The Likely Lads) and written by them as well as Ray Galton and Alan Simpson who had given Corbett the role of a lifetime in Steptoe and Son. It was only the hiatus of that show (at the time it was assumed that it was finished for good but it returned in 1970) that gave Corbett the opportunity to star here. Speaking in the TV Times for the week of the show’s premiere (31 Dec 1966) Harry H. Corbett said (the article was supposedly written by Corbett himself) that Mr Aitch was much part of him.

Reviewing the series in The Stage (4 May 1967) under the headline Haunted by the ghost of Steptoe, Marjorie Bilbow was not overly positive about the production saying the players “inhabit a world of their own which might as well be a desert island for all the contact they have with reality.” Although she did admit “the show was amusing in it’s predictable way.” She may well have been right as the series only lasted for one season.

Cast: Harry H Corbett as Harry Aitch; Norman Chappell as Albie; Gordon Gostelow as Lefty

Creators: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais / Writers: Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais, Ray Galton & Alan Simpson, Dave Freeman, John Junkin / Theme Music: Glen Mason, Keith Miller / Producer: Peter Eton

UK / ITV – Associated Rediffusion / 15×30 minute episodes / 6 January – 21 April 1967 Fridays at 9.10pm