Steptoe and Son Ride Again ** (1973, Wilfrid Brambell Harry H Corbett, Diana Dors, Milo O’Shea, Yootha Joyce, Neil McCarthy, Bill Maynard) – Classic Movie Review 6880

With the 1972 spin-off film Steptoe and Son of the BBC’s series such a profitable hit, EMI re-teamed the quarrelling father and son rag-and-bone junk yard men in director Peter Sykes’s 1973 sequel with a new yarn from writer/creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about Harold Steptoe (Corbett) spending his dad Albert (Brambell)’s savings on a deaf, short-sighted greyhound who can’t see the hare. Naturally, loses a fortune and decides to fake his father’s death to claim on the insurance money.

Steptoe and Son Ride Again is a broad knockabout comedy, straying into Carry On innuendo-laden farce territory this time, with some clumsy jokes and much crass humour.

But Brambell and Corbett re-create their classic performances enjoyably, and character stars like Diana Dors (especially amusing as a lusty widow who tries to seduce Harold), Milo O’Shea (as an alcoholic doctor, Dr Popplewell), and Yootha Joyce as Lennie’s wife Freda ride to the rescue of the junky script again.

Also notable among the character actor stars are Neil McCarthy as Lennie, Bill Maynard as George, Sam Kydd as Claude, Frank Thornton as Mr Russell, Henry Woolf as Frankie Barrow, Geoffrey Bayldon as the vicar, Richard Davies as the butcher, George Tovey as Percy and Olga Lowe as Percy’s wife.

Also in the cast are Joyce Hemson, Eamonn Boyce, Hilda Barrie, Joan Ingram, Peter Thornton and Peter Newby.

Steptoe and Son Ride Again is directed by Peter Sykes, runs 99 minutes, is produced by Associated London, is released by MGM-EMI, is written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, is shot by Ernest Steward, is produced by Aida Young, is scored by Roy Budd and Jack Fishman, and is designed by Bernard Sarron. The Steptoe theme is by Ron Grainer.

Steptoe and Son and Steptoe and Son Ride Again are available on a double DVD.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6880

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