Steptoe and Son

- Season 2

(1963)

When Hercules the horse seems to be ill, an initially depressed Harold is much cheered when the other rag and bone men bring good quality goods for him to sell since he can't go out totting himself. And when the vet explains that Hercules is merely suffering from insomnia and not destined to become Wallah-Wallah cats meat, Harold uses the situation to his advantage.

Harold's plan for a bathroom upsets Albert.

Harold is not happy when Albert announces that he intends to marry widowed sweet-shop owner Emma Marshall, especially as he will be kicked out of the house if the wedding goes ahead. When Emma comes to visit he deliberately gets his father annoyed so that Emma sees his nasty side and calls off the wedding.

It's Albert's sixty-fifth birthday and, after pretending he has forgotten, Harold buys him a pair of gloves. He takes him to the theatre and to a Chinese restaurant for a birthday treat but these are alien to Albert and the evening ends in disaster.

Harold plans a musical evening with some old 78rpm records, while Steptoe Sr. insists on noisily mending his shoes.

Albert is unhappy when Harold brings three new friends round to play cards, suspecting, rightly, that they are cheats taking advantage of Harold's gullibility. So he sends Harold out to buy a jug of beer and takes his place at the card table. When Harold returns he finds that his father - who has said that gambling is a sin - is a better cheat than the card-sharps and has won all their money back.

Harold meets and falls for Dorothia, a wealthy woman who has been separated from her husband for five years. He thinks they have a future together. His father thinks that she is merely amusing herself with a bit of rough. Sadly for Harold he discovers that Albert is right when he goes to the house and finds the coalman's lorry outside.