The Very Best of Steptoe and Son - Volume Two [1962] [DVD]

• Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.

Amazon.co.uk Review The second volume of The Very Best of Steptoe and Son contains five excellent episodes from the classic sitcom scripted by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, who created Steptoe when Tony Hancock dispensed with their services in the early 1960s. The story of the acerbic but hopelessly pretentious Harold, would-be man about town longing in vain to escape from his rag-and-bone yard existence and his "dirty old man" of a father, is one of Britain's greatest sitcoms. Its underlying sadness somehow makes it all the funnier. "The Bath" is in black and white and features a wonderfully disgusting sequence of old man Albert retrieving pickled onions from his bathwater and putting them back in the jar. The other four episodes are from the 1970s and in colour: "Séance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard" features a young Patricia Routledge as a bogus medium. "Porn Yesterday" has Harold outraged to discover that the young Albert once starred in a "What the Butler Saw" feature. "And So to Bed" has Harold buying a waterbed to impress a new "bird" and having his romantic hopes literally punctured by his old man. The wonderful "Upstairs Downstairs, Upstairs, Downstairs" has the put-upon Harold getting the better of his dad for once when he discovers that the "perpendicular ponce" is feigning a back injury to keep Harold at his beck and call and plans an excruciating revenge--a bed bath. There's only one shortcoming: completists would prefer these old episodes to be issued chronologically and in full rather than in selective "Best of" compilations. On the DVD: The Very Best of Steptoe and Son episodes are presented in the format in which they were originally shown and all hold up well without any great efforts at enhancement. There are no extras. --David Stubbs Product Description Five of the best episodes from the classic BBC sitcom. In 'Upstairs, Downstairs, Upstairs, Downstairs', Harold (Harry H. Corbett) has to look after Albert (Wilfrid Brambell) when the old man slips a disc. 'The Bath' sees Harold's romantic date ruined by his father eating pickles in the bath in the living room. In 'Porn Yesterday', Harold picks up an old 'What the Butler Saw' machine on his round, while 'Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard' sees Albert talking to the spirits. In 'And So to Bed', Harold buys a waterbed to ensure success with his girlfriend Marcia.