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Ahem:

Harry Corbett was well known for his role as Harold in Steptoe and Son – a show that attracted millions over the years. He also created the famous puppet Sooty back in 1952 and performed with it until 1975, when he reportedly suffered one of his many heart attacks. Sooty was then passed down to Harry’s son Matthew Corbett and then Richard Cadell in 1998 who has recently finished a Sooty and Friends tour.

The star’s daughter Savannah, who was only 14 when he died, has opened up about the puppet master’s final moments.

The perils of churnalism. The Express ran a piece about the daughter opening up etc. Which was then picked up and re-written by Luke Whelan. Who added the bit about Sooty because Mr. Whelan is a kno-nothing – or has just made a ghastly error, your choice.

Tee Hee.

19 thoughts on “Oh joyous”

  1. FFS. Wikipedia has a “Harry Corbett (disambiguation)” page to clear this up. Don’t journalists even look at Wikipedia these days?

  2. I’ve just noticed this wonderful bit in the Wiki. It appears it’s not only journos who get it wrong.

    OBE
    When Prime minister Harold Wilson wished to have Steptoe and Son actor Harry H. Corbett awarded an OBE, the middle initial “H” was lost in the bureaucratic process, and the award went to Harry Corbett instead.

  3. An easy mistake to make. After his first heart attack, though, Harry married an American soap actress and went to live in America.

  4. O/T
    I just got e-mail from the Tax Payers Alliance about a public consultation your government’s running on putting a levy on home deliveries. You know about this? They reckon there’s only until Friday to contribute. You knew about this? Or is this one of these “consultations” that local authorities run from the locked office in the basement with the “Beware the Leopard” sign on the door, where only those in favour get to hear about it?

    https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/you_click_taxman_collects

  5. Harry married an American soap actress and went to live in America

    Which Harry ?

    Wave goodbye to the boys and girls Albert

  6. @BiS
    Bricks’n mortar shops have an unfair advantage, because their customers cart the stuff home themselves, whereas online dealers have to pay for delivery.
    So I propose a levy on all real shops to support the online dealers.
    🙂

  7. Bloke in North Dorset

    bis,

    The link doesn’t help but its referring to this:

    This is an open consultation, exploring the proposal for an online sales tax (OST) as a means to rebalance the taxation of the retail sector between online and in-store retail. Questions exist over many areas of any potential OST. These include the different forms an OST could take and how to define an online sale reflecting the range of transaction, delivery, and collection options.

    This consultation explores these issues and the potential impacts of an OST to help the government assess the case for and against implementing such a tax.

    I think the simple answer to that is: “We don’t want the government levelling the playing field at our expense and to the benefit of shopkeepers like Tesco, thank you.”

  8. The government should impose the same tax on on-line sales as was imposed on supermarkets when they were putting small retailers out of business.

  9. Incidentally Tim – might be a case of retreading old ground criticising the Spud as apparently all Andrew Bailey needed to do was adopt his policies in totalis and the cost of living crisis would dissipate. However, both his post on Labour shortages and the one on the lack of demand pull inflation are tasty morsels however. Apparently, it’s all caused by COVID and Brexit and shortages don’t create demand pull inflation…

    I still maintain we could be seeing the onset of dementia….

  10. Re: the online tax thing. HM Government imposed taxes on shops a big reason for the woes of shop owners and the explosion of online retailers.
    HM government solution = tax the online retailers, increasing the cost to the consumer / staff /shareholder.

    Not for one second do they consider reducing the burden on shops (i’m not getting into the ‘it’s incident on the landlord’ stuff), they simply want “moar tax”!

    p.s. Sooty is five years old. And always has been.

    p.p.s I preferred Sweep.

  11. Sooty emerging from David Copperfield’s chest in the Three Of A Kind spoof of John Hurt’s horrific scene from Alien is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

  12. Chap at my school was white but had a dark member, hence got called “Sooty Cock”. Provoked quite a few fights.

  13. I liked Steptoe when a child, still like watching now

    Harry Corbett in Carry On Screaming – my favourite Carry On movie

    Also liked totally unrelated Sooty & Sweep – idiot, and I do mean idiot, journo should be sacked

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