Stars: Harry H. Corbett, Wilfrid Brambell

Summary: The best episodes from the classic TV comedy. 'Men Of Letters', 'A Star Is Born', 'Oh, What A Beautiful Mourning', 'The Desperate Hours' and 'Back In Fashion'.

This classic 1960s sitcom follows the misadventures of an elderly man (Wilfrid Brambell) and his middle-aged son (Harry H. Corbett) who run an unsuccessful junk business. The series was later given the American treatment as SANFORD AND SON. "You dirty old man!"

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

The Very Best of Steptoe and Son is wonderful collection of "Steptoe" moments...but not entirely what it claims to be. This selection, is in fact a collection of five episodes from the two surviving series of the four shot in colour in the 1970s--the four black and white series shot in the 1960s are neglected entirely. However by the 1970s, Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett had been playing Albert and Harold Steptoe for almost a decade and the parts of the greedy needy old man and his witty feeble son were second nature to them. One of the best episodes on show here is "The Desperate Hours", which sets the father and son duo off against a similar couple--Leonard Rossiter's escaped bank robber and the old lag who taught him everything he knows--both couples come to understand the shared dynamic of their relationships. The 1970s episodes included more external shots and opened the show out from its original two-hander format--"Oh What a Beautiful Mourning", for example, introduces us to a large selection of the Steptoe clan, played by a variety of well known character actors.

On the DVD: The DVD is presented in a standard television 4:3 aspect ratio and adds the luxury of Dolby Sound to the show's original mono; the Ron Grainger signature tune has never sounded so good. There are no subtitles, but the DVD includes a short account of the two stars' careers and an extended interview in which Galton and Simpson, the scriptwriters, talk about the history of the show from its origin as a one-off Comedy Playhouse episode through to the eventual decision that after the eighth series it was time to call it a day. --Roz Kaveny

Aspect Ratio:	4:3 Full Frame
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Exclusive Interview With Ray Galton And Alan Simpson, Scene Selection, Artist Profiles
Subtitles:	None
Year:	1962
Release Date:	October 1, 2001
Runtime:	147 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B B C D V D 1056
Keywords:	Comedy, Son, General, Steptoe, Best, Tv
Genre:	Comedy