Best movie ever!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This show is extremely slow, it takes almost half an hour before something is actually funny. The characters and setting is bland and unimaginative. BBC is renowned for some of the best comedies of all time such as Fawlty towers to Blackadder but Steptoe and Son is definitely not part of its golden age.

Starting with the films, I was hooked on Steptoe & Son from the age of 7 or 8. Two rag and bone men in London constantly arguing, stopping the other living their life. I couldn't get enough of it. First saw the series in 1991 on the Comedy Channel, the episode Divided We Stand and i was even more hooked. These episodes were based on the most simplest of things. The issue would be there, say in Divided We Stand, Harold wants to improve the house. Albert doesn't. They talk over the problem and a solution is found, in this case they divide the house (rather badly). The comical part is everything including the toilet is divided with a turnstile in the hallway. Then the crunch happens and they are back together again. Each episode followed this principal and, even though topics were repeated (ie going on holiday was used at least 5 times!) it was always fresh. This is definitely a sitcom to collect on DVD as it is so well acted, so well scripted and put together. There is no way you'd fail to laugh at Steptoe & Son. Knighthoods for Mr Galton & Mr Simpson for this alone.

One of the saddest sights I ever saw on television was Wilfrid Brambell, close to tears on 'Nationwide' in 1982 following the sudden death of his 'Steptoe & Son' co-star Harry H.Corbett. The pairing of these great actors, combined with some wonderful scripts by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, made 'Steptoe' a classic. I think viewers recognised the truthfulness of the situation; rag and bone man Harold desperately wanted to escape from his father's domination to begin a new life on his own, but couldn't because he loved the old man too much. When searching for comedy ideas, today's writers fall into the trap of thinking: "How can I shock the public?". 'Steptoe' did not set out to shock, yet did because it was so real. After a successful run in the '60's, it was revived in the '70's in colour, and these episodes are my favourites, particularly 'Divided We Stand' in which Harold and Albert tried to lead separate lives in the same house. The word 'timeless' is overused these days, but it definitely applies here.

A brilliant exercise in British comedy from the sixties and seventies ! Not one episode fails to please and the dialogues were extremely savoury. A certain number of episodes are available on BBC dvds in the UK region 2. The picture quality of the latter episodes is so good that you'd swear they'd been made yesterday. It is hard to believe that both of these characters have sadly left us but thanks to this series they will live on forever in our hearts and minds ! It appears that in real life, Wilfred Brambell was an exceedingly well-spoken man and didn't have a common accent at all. In one of the episodes involving Harold acting in a play, we do in fact hear Albert speak in a very posh voice albeit very briefly.