Grandson Paul McCartney may have insisted he was ‘very clean’, but no-one ‘did’ shabby like Wilfrid B. Drunks, minor tradesmen, tinkers in several films before and after Steptoe, and shifty, unwelcome dads and grandads in general were the stomping ground of an actor who only started to come to filmic notoriety in his late ’40s, although by then casting directors were already adding a good couple of decades to that innings. A dirty old man, then. But what a dirty old man!
FINEST HOUR: Sacrilegiously setting the Steptoes aside, the best thing in iffy Walt Disney Jules Verne adaptation In Search of the Castaways is easily Brambell’s demented performance as a crazy-eyed, Bible-bashing loon.
paulus
May 28, 2010 at 2:36 pm
One of the few greats!
Steptoe remains some of Britain’s finest comedy… ever
he was skank-tastic!
Richardpd
March 29, 2024 at 5:14 pm
Interestingly born in Dublin of all places.
Rudolph Cartier cast him in both 1984 & Quatermass II, playing shabby parts in both.
In real life he was a lot smarter than most of the parts he played, after a shave & his regular dentures in he was hardly recognisable!