Steptoe and Son

- Season 5

(1970)

When Hercules the horse dies Albert takes to his bed. Harold buys another horse which he names Samson, but then this horse also appears to fall ill. When Albert gets up to tend to the horse he finds out that the illness is actually a pregnancy and Samson is a mare after all. Rather than call her Delilah, the name Hercules II is chosen.

Harold is planning a skiing holiday in Austria, but Albert objects as per usual.

Timothy Stanhope, an elderly antique dealer, comes to the Steptoes' yard. He is a cultured man and Harold sees the opportunity to make a friend with whom he can converse about the finer points in life. Unfortunately, he has not twigged that Timothy is gay and wants him for more than erudite conversation. Albert has but Harold ignores his father's warning and goes to Timothy's flat. He soon comes back again.

When heavily pregnant Daphne comes to the yard looking for Harold, whom she suspects is the father of her baby following a one night stand at a party, Albert tries to get rid of her. But Harold warms to the idea of being a father and Albert becomes proud for his son. Unfortunately it turns out that Harold is not the father after all, another party-goer called George is, and he asks Harold to be best man at his wedding to Daphne. Albert does his best to comfort his disappointed son.

Sick of watching his old monochrome television through a magnifying glass, Albert wants a colour set but Harold uses the money to buy a sports car to take new girl-friend Muriel to Brighton. When Albert wanders off and ends up in hospital suffering from amnesia, Harold sells the car and buys a colour television instead to jog Albert's memory when he takes him home. But Albert seems to remember quite a lot as it is.

Albert has been coughing a lot and Harold accompanies him to the hospital where they both submit to having X-rays taken. Whilst Albert gets the all clear there is an unusual growth on Harold's X-ray and tuberculosis is suspected. However it turns out to be a necklace that Harold was wearing that showed up on the X-ray and he is cleared.

With the lease on their house about to run out Steptoe and Son visit their local bank manager to arrange a loan and over-draft facilities. He is quite agreeable but insists they wine and dine him and his wife at an expensive local restaurant. Harold gets ever so slightly overdrawn as a result of buying the food but unfortunately Albert's usual lucky touch deserts him at the gaming tables when he tries to recoup the rest.