Harold has fallen asleep while waiting for his father to come home. An unusually well dressed Albert steps in out of the pouring rain, and reveals he has been to see a spiritualist called Madame Fontana. Harold laughs at his father's gullibility: "Its some old boiler doing a Mike Yarwood!".
To prove it is all true, Harold agrees to a little experiment involving a Ouija board and a glass. But Harold decides to have a bit of fun by pretending that Hitler wishes to speak to the old man.
Albert wants to stage a séance in the Steptoe house in the hope that it might enable him to contact his late wife. Albert has been getting friendly with a widow named Dorothy, and wants to ask for permission to remarry...
Another 'Steptoe' movie spoof, this time of Bryan Forbes' 1964 film 'Seance On A Wet Afternoon' which starred Richard Attenborough. Only the séance aspect of the plot is used, however.
Patricia Routledge is 'Madame Fontana', a role she plays in much the same way as 'Audrey Watt', the white witch in the 'Doctor At Large' episode 'Its All In The Mind' from 1971. Her vocal talents are put to good use here. She openly fancies Harold, causing him to refer to her as 'Fiona Richmond', named after the '70's porn star.
Its an okay episode, but did not deserve to be the very last one of all, which it sadly was ( apart from that year's Christmas Special and another movie ).
The '70's revival of 'Steptoe & Son' proved an unqualified success, but the time had arrived to bring it to a close. It is alarming to think that, had it never happened, 'Steptoe' would most likely have been forgotten as black and white shows were rarely repeated after the introduction of colour.
Funniest moment - Harold using the Ouija board to spell out the following message for his father; 'You Are A Silly Turd!'
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