I watched it again last night as it was broadcast on BBC2. I hadn't seen it for quite a while although the earlier film was on a few months ago. They never fail to make me laugh. Whether some of the comedy is lost in time and translation - both the series and the films possess a good deal of London humour, west London in particular - I don't know but there are a good many gems to be found in the film.

Diana Dors' character makes only a brief appearance near the start of the film. It's when she pulls Harold onto her bed after offering him both her dead husband's clothes (and then herself!), that it's revealed that her old man is only freshly deceased beside them! The return trip from York put paid to poor old Hercules the horse. Two hundred miles and three days on the road would tire any horse so a replacement is needed. Unfortunately Harold gets conned at Southall (horse) market and Frankie Barrett - brilliantly played with menace by Henry Woolfe - fleeces him for his cash and sells him a blind greyhound instead! Barrett fleeces him again later in the film but I won't spoil it. Let's just say his embezzlement became more ambitious!

Look out for the location shots of White City stadium. It was one of the biggest stadiums in the UK, was built for the London Olympics of 1908 and hosted all manner of sports including speedway, greyhounds and rugby league (in the 1930s, being the home of the short-lived London Highfield) before being torn down in the mid-1980s. The site is now occupied by the massive extension to BBC Television Centre. The local tube station is still called White City.

This is a colossal improvement over the first movie. It restores what STEPTOE AND SON is about - comedy in a depressing set of situations (poverty, down-on-luck, hopelessness, etc). This movie is much more faithful to the TV series and just demonstrates why the first movie should never have been made. The first movie was perhaps the worst spin-off movie ever, even worse than GEORGE AND MILDRED, and certainly one of the most painful movies I've ever sat through.

The STEPTOE AND SON series was not only the pride and joy of its creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, but also the BBC (for whom this was perhaps the best comedy at the time, rivalled only by DAD'S ARMY). The TV series has and always will have my 10 out of 10 rating without any reservation. A wise decision by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson to write the script ensures we have a movie that matches up to the TV series to at least some extent.

The plot is something along the following lines - the horse becomes ill and has to be taken away, and Harold is conned by local gangster Frankie Barrow (one of the best comic villains of all time) into buying a greyhound! Harold sees a money-making opportunity to be had, but the Steptoes have their work cut out! Later Harold has to pay off his debts to Frankie Barrow and finds the only way to do this is by faking Albert's death!

The mix of comedy and drama is handled well here, the touching scene where Albert and Harold say goodbye to the horse is a very good example of this. In the first movie, the comedy and drama did not mix well and the audience was left with something dreary and depressing, as well as being unfunny to the extreme. In this movie, they are left with something uplifting that sets the standard for the rest of the movie.

The mixture of jokes and slapstick normally seen in British sitcom movie adaptations of this kind is also handled well here. My favourite is during a scene where the locals are invited to a sale at the Steptoes' yard. Albert falls over and shouts to someone, "that's my tea, you silly old cow" or something like that. Side-splitting hilarity. Equally funny is a scene where Albert goes into a butchers and cons the butcher into selling him a joint of meat cheap. How does he do it? He coughs all over it. The expression on the butcher's face when Albert tries to hand the infected meat back is priceless.

The usual excellent performances by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett are delivered here. The movie also boasts a hilarious cameo from Milo O'Shea, in what is perhaps this actor's best comic moment. Henry Woolf also has a good time playing the local villain Frankie Barrow, a role he later reprised in the TV series. On the downside, Diana Dors is wasted in a pointless role as a widow whose husband's clothes she wishes to sell.

Overall, this is a genuinely funny movie (unlike the first). The light-hearted nature of the TV series that was stripped away by the previous movie is restored. This movie is not as good as the TV series, but it is a harmless way to pass 90 minutes of a weekend afternoon and it looks like Oscar-worthy material compared to the first movie.

Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973) is the best of the two films featuring the duo of Albert and Harold. Harold is on his rounds one day and runs into a harried housewife and somehow winds up in York. By the time he comes back home, the business work horse is stressed out from the long trip back to Shepard's Bush. Without a horse to pull the carriage, Albert dips into his family savings to buy a "new" one. But Harold feels he's a better business man than his father so he takes it upon himself to buy the animal. Hours later, Harold comes home with something Albert's not quite looking for. Will everything work out? Remember these are the Steptoes!

Unlike the last film which was like the series, a melodramatic comedy this film is more of a farce. It's highly entertaining and and pretty far out the lengths the Steptoes will go to get themselves out of hock. If you like British comedies or farcical humor then this movies just for you.

I enjoyed this film a bit more than the first film. They're both funny and pretty amusing. I have to strongly recommend this movie.