Steptoe+Son errors

[steptoe and son scrap]

stuff i noticed in the series Series 7 and films episode 48, "Divided We Stand," when Harold and Albert are watching football on TV if you look through the vents in the back of the TV set you can see straight through it. It has no screen.
Christmas 1973: When Harold comes into the house after sitting on the holly ring in the outside loo, the house walls wobble when the front door is shut
In the 1973 Christmas special, when Albert and Harold are fighting over the cracker Albert's face goes into the trifle, and if you look carefully we can see that he just lets go of the cracker and puts his head in the trifle deliberately.

(boom mic visible): As Harold learns his father is to remarry, the boom mic can be seen, angling and lowering towards Albert, reflected in the mirror behind him.
(revealing mistake): At the close Harold tips a jug of orange juice over Albert. This dislodges the cotton wool plaster on Wilfrid Brambell's forehead, making clear there is no cut or contusion added by the Make-Up department underneath.

[PhilGlass]

There are already 3 or 4 threads on here about the errors, no one minds users bumping old threads here!. Most of the boom mics aren't technically errors, as CRT TV's in those days had what we call 'TV Safe' where you lose a part of the picture to the 'border', so the viewers and director watching his screen would not have seen these, only using modern tv's and computers that show the entire picture do we see them - though there are some that we're visible.

My favourite as I have said before is the fact that the bear grows in size, obviously 2 or 3 different ones were used. Starts off smaller than WIlfrid, ends up much bigger than Harry.

In 'Cuckoo In The Nest ' Arthur is introduced as his 'step' brother. I don't know whether this was a mistake by Galton and Simpson in the script, or Wilfrid messed up 'half brother' and Harry just went along with it, but Arthur is not his step brother.

[Ben Rigsby]

couldn't find it when i site-searched so hows about this for Pedants corner no. 3:

another mistake is the "filth"-completed Scrabble board in the classic "Men Of Letters" episode.

the game of Scrabble has been made available in 36 languages.
namely: English, Afrikaans, Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malaysian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Welsh.
of course, some of these languages use a completely different alphabet.

its possible that Harold totted a foreign issue box from an expatriate householder on the rounds, but even then, assuming a standard Scrabble set from any of these countries was used - and no cheating by Harold or Albert hiding extra letters up their sleeves - the board as we see it (in 1972), is impossible.

the Portuguese and Romanian editions of the game have the most letter "P"s (4) (English only 2) and yet, there are 5 shown on the board.
to wit;
Pet, raPe, niPPle, and Pox.

further, the letter "S" is seen deployed on 5 occasions in 4 words: briStolS, Spunk, So and vibratorS - despite the fact that said letter is represented by only 4 tiles in the English Language edition of Scrabble - although the Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Latvian, Latin, Italian, Irish, Icelandic, French, Finnish, German, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish versions all number 5 or more letter "S tiles.

[bob]

Welcome to the board Ben

It's nice to meet someone with a lot of time on their hands !!!!

Regards

Bob

[Ben Rigsby]

thanks for the welcome Bob.

i wont know as much about S & S as many of you but nevertheless, if pushed by Kirsty Young on Radio 4, id say my Desert Island DVD Box Set would be "The Complete S & S". altho' other classics such as The Young Ones, Dads Army, OFAH, The Simpsons and Family Guy wouldn't be far behind.

oh and full marks for spotting Onslow's copy of the VHS "The 7 Steptoerai" copy in Keeping Up Appearances by the way!!!

of course ive got the VHS Steptoes myself (safely stored in the attic) but by todays standards, they were a bit of a rip-off (pricewise) werent they ? only 3 episodes on each and (usually) no 'extras' for 10 or 12 quid

cheers!

[harryfaversham]

One error that has always bugged me occurs at the end of "T.B. Or Not T.B." when Albert informs Harold that he has burnt his bed. Harold obviously had to come past the bed in the yard into the house so how the hell did he not see it? Or am I just being pedantic?

[PhilGlass]

One error that has always bugged me occurs at the end of "T.B. Or Not T.B." when Albert informs Harold that he has burnt his bed. Harold obviously had to come past the bed in the yard into the house so how the hell did he not see it? Or am I just being pedantic?

As rag and bone men they would burn manky old beds all the time so Harold would have seen the bed burning but thought nothing of it, he just wouldn't have guessed it was his. That has always been my understanding of that scene, but then it could also just be dramatic license.

Welcome Ben Rigsby, I'm loving the scrabble board post, very well spotted and very interesting.

[steptoe and son scrap]

in the Christmas Special 1974 When Harold is playing with the toy bus you can see the camera reflected in its windows
In the 1973 Christmas special, when Albert and Harold are fighting over the cracker Albert's face goes into the trifle, and if you look carefully we can see that he just lets go of the cracker and puts his head in the trifle deliberately

[harryfaversham]

I think the errors add to the charm of the show in a way

[steptoe and son scrap]

yes agree with you there harry

[harryfaversham]

Thanx mate

[PhilGlass]

I noticed another one today while researching for something in the Members section which has not been mentioned:

In "Men of Property" the scene in the bank ends with the BANK MANAGER suggesting somewhere to eat, and Harold asking "Where?", obviously somewhere expensive that the Manager likes. However, in the restaurant, the manager says to Harold "What a nice place you brought us to, do you come here often?". Why would he ask that if he chose the restaurant? In that scene he is under the impression that Harold has chosen it.

[Dirty Old Yank]

This may have been mentioned already in other error threads, I don't recall. But in the first movie, Harold is bathing in front of the telly (footie & yoga lol) in preparation for an evening's lechery. How Harry fit in that tub remains a mystery. Anyway, when Albert bathes in the kitchen sink he's clean shaven, but when they arrive at the football club he's got a face full of stubble. Bit of a facial hair continuity flaw there. "Evening Mrs. Hobbs!"

[steptoe and son scrap]

steptoe and son movie errors 1st film
When Albert visits Harland butchers, the lady in the hat jumps forward in her queue position between exterior and interior shots.
When Harold tells his dad that Hercules The Second ran away at Acton Park, Albert's pigeon-chewing varies from shot-to-shot.
2nd film
Baby Albert is wearing a blue babygrow when he's carried across the yard by Harold. He's not wearing it when Harold enters the house with him, and he hasn't got it on when he's discovered in the barn by Albert and Harold in the first place.
During Steptoe and Son's night out watching the stripper, Albert's hair changes from ruffled to neatly combed and back to ruffled within a few frames.
The morning after the night out seeing the stripper, after Albert has slept in the stable, as he picks up the milk on the doorstep he has rough facial hair. When he takes the milk into the house he is clean shaven.

[steptoe and son scrap]

some from the episodes
As can be glimpsed through the sets' slatted back, particularly during the battle for control, the Steptoe's TV is an empty shell with no innards or screen.
At the close Harold tips a jug of orange juice over Albert. This dislodges the cotton wool plaster on Wilfrid Brambell's forehead, making clear there is no cut or contusion added by the Make-Up department underneath