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Films: S is for...

Steptoe And Son Ride Again

The second outing for the lads is more of a straight out farce. Harold cripples their horse Hercules by driving his cart into the back of a Pickfords van bound for York, from which exotic destination he then has to return to London. There follows a series of vignettes involving alcoholic doctor Milo O’Shea, washed out nympho housewife Diana Dors (that’d be a cameo part then) and disgusted insurance agent Frank Thornton, at one point unaccountably refusing from Harold some champagne delightfully chilled in a toilet pan. Both the Steptoe films are not only as funny and moving as the series, but also fantastically contemporaneous, stuffed to the gills with achingly 1970s set-ups, from mosaiced Burton the Tailor shopfronts to desperately tatty parks. Furthermore, the latter production remains the best example ever of a follow-up as an improvement on the original.

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