Steptoe and Son Season 5 Episode 6
"T.B. or Not T.B.?"
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What resonates throughout the series of Steptoe and Son,is that the writers strives to look at issues that were effecting them at the time whether it was politics,religion or sex,In this case its tuberculosis,something close to the hearts or lungs of the writers as both Galton and Simpson both contracted the illness,and basically met because they in the same hospital together with the illness.So it comes as know surprise they would use this for one of there stories later on in life. TB also had a stigma attached to it,as it was seen as a disease that only poor people got,so it fit's in well with the whole class issue that also ran throughout the series. The story itself is fairly simple premise,Harold is going to have and xray at a local mobile center to have his lungs checked for tuberculosis,and suggests to Albert he might want to do the same,especially considering that he has smoked a cigarette the length of 45 miles and left dog ends about 5 miles long throughout his life,some good ,maths by Harold there. Of course Albert rejects the idea believing that ignorance is bliss and its better not to know any way. Of course whenever Harold suggests anything then Albert will automatically refuse point blank. Eventually Harold manages to convince Albert to go with him to the clinic,although not without some coercion and some scare tactics,mainly to do with wearing some clean underwear .When finally they get to the clinic and are greeted by the nurse on reception,there are couple of great gags as both Albert and Harold both try to pull the poor woman. Albert has great lines in this sequence of events as he basically humiliates Harold in front of the nurse.When the nurse asks whether Harold has been x-rayed before,Albert buts in and reminds Harold that he has when the horse accidentally kicked him in the cobblers ,and follows with x-ray of the gentiles ( a lovely bit of mixing your words up ) and that he is ok and can still have kids,of course this is all done to belittle Harold as Albert thinks that he can impress the nurse.Another great piece of dialogue comes after wards when Albert says he loves nurses because "there stone cold bonkers" ,where upon Harold replies "they would have to be, to go out with you" which is a great response from the now deflated Harold. Tb or not Tb is a marvellous episode,although the mix up with the results was a bit obvious to say the least,but there is some great scenes that both show how great the acting talents of Corbet and Brambell were,Wilfred Brambell shows some true emotion of grief when he thinks Harold might die,only to start squirting the room hoping to kill any germs Harold might of left.Harry H Corbet does some great faux illness as believes he is at deaths door. Again this is in black and white,not sure if it was filmed so or the dim heads at the BBC wiped the original colour copies.