Men of Letters

The penultimate series of Steptoe and Son kicks off with a classic. The pair never did well playing against one another, be it badminton, or monopoly. So of course a game of Scrabble was always going to be a disaster. Albert shows his talent for using dirty words, much to Harold's annoyance.

The Vicar is a great character, so straight laced, but the delivery is excellent. It's beautifully written, and includes some wonderful lines, the look on Harold's face when he tells the Vicar he'd crucify them in a game of Scrabble, hilarious.

Once again, Harold's chances of success are dashed by his father, this time with a pornographic crossword, hilarious. 9/10

Men of Letters is an absolute classic episode of Steptoe and Sons, with the vicar being a wonderful addition to the family saga.

Albert Steptoe's language during their scrabble games, is such that it was painfully obvious what his crossword puzzle would be like.

Harold complained vociferously, about Albert's use of bad language, finally realising why his dad did it.

But in the end Albert came out, on top of that argument, when he challenged Harold, to spell the names of, horses used by local totters.

But it of course Harold became so caught up, with his perennial struggle, against his father's desire to top everything, being better at anything his son, ever wanted to accomplish.

Harold simply couldn't countenance, the consideration that his dad, did actually know the business of totting, or at the least its history in their own, neighbourhood better than himself.

So when Harold actually got the article to compose, his joy was so overwhelming that he had no chance, of even considering let alone caring, what his dad's contribution might be.

I very rarely award the maximum of 10 points, to individual episodes of anything, but I honestly feel that this particular episode, really and truly deserves this accolade.

Because it's such an incredibly perfect, performance by all three actors, contributing equally to the show's, pitch perfect comedy timing.

Scrabble is I find a particularly, hard game to play, and especially for me to hope to win, against my son Jamie because he is, particularly good at spotting, multiple word options.

Neither of us resort to the crudities that Albert uses, but try as I might I rarely manage, to use words of any real literacy.

It starts out with a game of Scrabble and although Harold is a man of letters he is struggling against Albert and his short filthy words that wins all the points. Words like bum or knickers.

Harold might be a sore loser but when the vicar comes knocking asking for an article on rag and bone men for the church magazine, Harold sees this as a beginnings of a journalistic career and even persuades Albert to reluctantly to part with a few stories.

The vicar loves the article that Harold has written but he never did compete the crossword which was Albert's main contribution to the magazine. It could had been another Oz trial.

Well that was an enjoyable episode, the Scrabble segment was predictable but fun, the vicar put up a good turn with his milking of the increment weather and how it would affect sailors and fishermen. The writers hit bulls eye with the the magazine twist as we think Harold is heading for literary success.