I'd heard of it but, believe if or not, I'd never watched it before. "The Desperate Hours" with just four guys sitting around talking, and it worked really well. Most modern comedy tries too hard but this was classic.

Sorry if it's old news for most of you. I enjoyed it.

Great performances from Harold H Corbett and Wilfred Bramble. The two actors didn't get along off the set and much was made of Bramble's private life, but hey, it simply makes it that bit more intriguing to watch them now working together, and they worked together very very well indeed. The British sitcom is officially dead, and it began with those crass American imports and the men in suits believing we should follow suit and have teams of writers sat around a table scribbling down wisecracks and forgetting that the best comedy depends so much on strong characterisation and a little pathos.

That's the one they seem to show most often. My favourite is the one where they divide the house into two from series seven which is the only series to survive wholly in colour.

two great actors who today would receive Baftas, Emmys..Oscars !!

I think I'm right in saying that S&S was (one of) the first TV series to make a "comeback" after a long break. After 4 series in as many years from 1962-65, it was thought to be gone forever, but all parties were talked into coming back for a new series in 1970, partly spurred on by the BBC's need to produce popular colour programming... I remain convinced that without the audience laughter, many episodes, especially some of the early ones, would been seen "cold" today as drama rather than comedy.

Well the pilot edition ended with a despondent Harold breaking down in tears. I don't think anything so bleak has ever been seen in a debut sitcom.

Actually FC Wilfred and Harry did get on very well of set, they both had different views of the show. Wilfred treated it as work easy money in his pocket, Harold didn't like the show that much as it made him a typecast actor.

Harry was spoken about becoming the Marlon Brando by theater critics but when he did stage work, and when he did Henry V people shouted from the rafters and called out 'Harold.' This when he knew that he never be the actor he wanted to be or be a serious actor. Sad story

Get the Steptoe and Son box set I got my set about 5 years ago and love it seen all 4 times or more now, and there some episodes that will never be repeated due to domestic and racial abuse.

It's more than a comedy some scenes are like watching a serious drama, others are rip roaring funny and others are sad.

A true classic of British comedy.
My favourite episode being when Leonard Rossiter (Rigsby from Rising Damp) turns up at Steptoes house with his accomplice after they have escaped from prison.
They go in with the intention of robbing them but end up out of pocket when they have to put money into the electricity meter, brilliant!

andrew wrote:
Actually FC Wilfred and Harry did get on very well of set


Quite right. Every time Ray and Alan are interviewed about this they stress that's true, but the interviewers then repeat the myth. The two actors only really fell out after the TV series had finished, when they did their Australian tour, during which Brambell mainly got drunk, ruined some theatre appearances, swore on live radio, chased blokes and insulted various dignitaries. I'm sure veritas can list the incidents.

Interviewers tend to get deeply confused with fan fiction. Another big example of this in Only Fools & Horses Del never married Raquel they were common in law. A lot of people get confused when Del says I got a wife and kid to Rodney I think the episode was Fatal Extraction.

I'm sure he got busted in the cottage at Rushcutter's Bay Park.

he and Rudolf Nureyev