So, in the depths of my subconscious, I’m sitting on a bus.
Now, that’s already a bit strange, because I haven’t been on a bus for years, not regularly, not since an encounter with some trollish passengers finally tipped me over the edge into learning to drive. But that’s not the best of it, oh no.
See, I was sitting on a bus, explaining to a friend why a remake of Steptoe and Son was a bad idea.
For younger readers, Steptoe and Son was a classic British sitcom about a pair of rag-and-bone men, trapped by life and aching with pathos. For American readers, I acknowledge that the show was already remade into Sanford and Son. I have no idea whether or not this was artistically successful, but it can’t be any worse than the concept my brain spat out. Because my dreamworld’s hypothetical cast for this misbegotten project was Elliott Gould and Ed Norton.
As casting goes, it’s brave, although as this was a dream I should be grateful that I cast people who are actually alive. And they’re good actors, so they could actually have a stab at this, although I struggle to imagine Norton saying “You dirty old man!” with the requisite disgust.
And as the Steptoe’s horses were named after religious and folkloric figures like Samson and Hercules, would the new horse be called Bunyan?
Aye caramba, I want to see this now.
I need less sleep.
