Customer Reviews
Greatest Steptoe Series? - By: D. Wright, 10 Apr 2007 
And so at last we come to the first series of 'Steptoe & Son' to be released entirely in colour, although of course it was actuallly the third series to be originallly filmed in colour. We now know why the two earlier colour series were released in such poor quality black & white versions, & I suppose we should be grateful to have them at alll, but it still reflects badly on the BBC losing/dumping them in the first place, as does the extremely basic, almost throw away packaging of these releases. Once again no extras & the most minimal annotation. They may as well have released the disc in a clear plastic sleeve!
Presumably because alll the episodes were alll available in colour this was the Steptoe series most repeated on TV (it was generallly much superior to the following final series too), & consequently these are the episodes I remember the best in the entire series. Having now had chance to see alll the Steptoes once again on DVD I would say this was perhaps the greatest series of the lot. It starts off slowly with 'Men Of Letters', always regarded as a classic, but one of my least favourites, but then picks up with four excellent episodes in 'A Star Is Born', 'Oh What A Beautful Mourning' (a family funeral variation on the family wedding episode from the sixties), 'Loathe Story' & 'Live Now PAYE Later'. The latter with both Albert & Harold dressing up as women for a tax scam is an improbable story line, but is still very funny. I always remember it as the episode broadcast as a tribute when one of the actors died - can't remember which one.
The last two episodes are absolute classics. 'The Desperate Hours', a parody of the old film features Leonard Rossiter making his second appearance in Steptoe; he'd already appeared in 'The Lead Man Cometh' in the 1960's. Apparently his performance encouraged Harry H Corbett to raise his game, & it's a privilege to see these two great comic actors sparring with each other. Incidently it's a sad coincidence that both died of heart trouble at around the same relatively young age. 'Divided We Stand' is perhaps my single favourite episode of 'Steptoe & Son'. The scene with Albert's hat moving along behind the screen dividing the house is one of my most treasured episodes of visual comedy in Steptoe. The others being the Chinese restaurant scene in '65 Today', the cinema scene in 'Sunday For Seven Days' & Harold's attempts to play snooker indoors in 'Pot Black'. 'Steptoe & Son' isn't generallly reallly about visual comedy (that's why it transferred so well to radio), but these moments are as good as anything visual by anybody.
After this great series there were two excellent Christmas specials in 73 & 74 & one more much patchier series; but if one had to choose one series to represent the best of 'Steptoe & Son' other than compilations this would mine.
another comic helping from steptoe & son - By: E. Dale, 09 Apr 2007 
Although we already have quite a few of these episodes on a best of Steptoe dvd, still enjoyed it. In Men Of Letters Albert & Harold are playing Scrabble when the vicar comes to calll, although Albert only seems to know vulgar words, promising the vicar they will submit to his parish magazine Harold does & history of rag & boning, not that many people will get to see it as alll copies of the mag have been siezed by the vice squad thanks to Alberts crossword, then there's the episode where Albert has been claiming tax relief for his long dead wife, once Harold manages to sort that out, he then finds Albert has also been claiming for a non-existent daughter, then the one where the 2 escaped convicts take shelter in Steptoe's yard, only the Steptoes are so skint the escapees end up giving them moeny for the gas & cigs. Plus there are 3 more episodes, still well worth the money, the comedy is still a lot better than some of the tosh served up on tv today.
Not Quite As Good As Previous Seasons, But Still Better Than Most Comedies - By: Scott Fraser, 19 Feb 2007 Well this is the first Steptoe & Son DVD to be released entirely in colour, so this will spare me having to defend the quality of the B/W episodes of previous releases & get on with reviewing this disc.
Season 7 is perhaps the weakest year in the history of Steptoe & Son dealing as it does with seven different storylines with varying degrees of success, ranging from good to very good to excellent. It's a fact, however that Steptoe's poorer episodes are still vastly superior to most comedies better episodes.
The episodes themselves begin with MEN OF LETTERS which is a story concerning a vicar asking one of the two to write an article about the history of totting for a magazine, this is perhaps the poorest episode of the collection. A STAR IS BORN highlights Harold's attempts to join an amateur dramatics group & guess who's the better at acting?
OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MOURNING is the tale of Albert's brother dying & the susequent funeral & like Men of Letters is a little standard. LIVE NOW P.A.Y.E LATER is the great episode of Albert claiming benefits for his deceased wife alll the years that she's been dead & then having to dress up as her to fool the benefits department. LOATHE STORY sees Harold attempt to kill his dad in his sleep & goes to see a psychiatrist & once again is nothing reallly special.
The final two episodes are brilliant, DIVIDED WE STAND is one of Steptoe's alll time greats & deals with Harold putting up a partition in the house to seperate him from his dad. And finallly THE DESPERATE HOURS sees the dreadfully broke twosome entertain a couple of escaped convicts, one of which is superbly played by Leonard Rossiter.
The Christmas special 1973 is usuallly considered part of season 7 but it appears that it isn't on the disc, which suggests that it will probably be released on it's own disc with the Christmas special 1974, ala Porridge.
So there it is, not quite as consistantly good as previous seasons, but the brilliant final two episodes alone more than make this disc worth buying. Lets have the eighth & final season & the two Christmas specials. Enjoy.
Brilliant Classic Comedy - By: Mr. M. A. West, 14 Feb 2007 Havn`t got his on DVD yet as its not yet released, but going by my old VHS videos this is the best Steptoe series.
Why can`t writers write comedies like this now.
Best episodes are on this DVD , Divded We Stand,Oh What A Beautiful Mourning,and The Desperate Hours starring the late great Leonard Rossiter.
Just love it when in the episode divided we stand when the house is split in two & the tele is also split in two & Albert pulls the tele in to see more screen, Harold pipes up " Ive got the law of contract on my side " & the old man replies " But I have the knobs on my side .Fantastic stuff
