Steptoe and Son Ride Again

Wilfrid Brambell - Albert Steptoe
Harry H. Corbett - Harold Steptoe
Milo O'Shea - Dr. Popplewell
Neil McCarthy - Lennie
Bill Maynard - George
Yootha Joyce - Lennie's wife
Diana Dors - Woman in Flat

Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell star as the father-and-son rag-and-bone men in this second feature-length film based on Galton and Simpson's classic television sitcom series. The transition to big screen isn't entirely convincing, but perhaps an improvement on the first Steptoe and Son movie, as this time father-and-son are predominantly on their own turf and once again on the fiddle.

After a memorable day on the rag-and-bone cart, that involves being seduced by a desperate widow (Diana Dors) and a trip North in the back of a Pickford's removal truck - Harold (Harry H. Corbett) returns to Oil Drum Lane with a lame horse. Albert (Wilfred Brambell) and Harold decide to retire their ageing nag and head for the market to acquire a replacement. Harold sends his nagging father home and resolves to choose the horse himself.

Harold meets local villain Frankie Barrow (Henry Woolf) at the market and is conned into putting his father's life-savings into a dodgy greyhound. When the dog, Hercules II, loses it's first race, or rather the dog doesn't even leave the traps, Harold must pay off his debts or fall foul of Barrow's strong-arm tactics. After the initial disappointment of Hercules' debut, Harold takes it upon himself to train the dog before eventually realising it needs contact lenses to see! The Steptoe's flog all their possessions and put every penny on Hercules' second race in which he'll be fitted with eyesight aids - but once again the myopic mutt has ideas of his own and they lose their money.

Things get so bad that Harold is convinced that Albert must die so he can collect the old man's life insurance. So they phone Dr. Popplewell (Milo O'Shea), an incompetent drunk fresh from an evening's boozing, and request that he examine a feigning-dead Albert. Convinced that the old man has died of a heart attack, Dr. Popplewell hands over a death certificate enabling Harold to cash-in his Dad's insurance policy. As is to be expected, things don't run entirely to plan.