Last of the Summer Wine
Encyclopedia
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke
that was broadcast on BBC One
. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse
on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell
produced and directed all episodes of the show. The BBC confirmed on 2 June 2010 that Last of the Summer Wine would no longer be produced and the 31st series would be its last. Subsequently, the final episode was broadcast on 29 August 2010. Repeats of the show are broadcast in the UK on GOLD and Yesterday. It is also seen in more than twenty-five countries, including various PBS
stations in the United States and on VisionTV in Canada. Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in Britain and the longest-running sitcom in the world.
Last of the Summer Wine was set and filmed in and around Holmfirth
, West Yorkshire
, England and centred around a trio of old men whose line-up changed several times over the years. The original trio consisted of Bill Owen as the scruffy and child-like Compo, Peter Sallis
as deep-thinking, meek Norman Clegg and Michael Bates
as authoritarian and snobbish Blamire. When Bates dropped out through illness in 1976 after two series, the role of the third man of the trio was filled in various years up to the 30th series by the quirky war veteran
, Foggy (Brian Wilde
), the eccentric inventor, Seymour (Michael Aldridge
), and former police officer Truly (Frank Thornton
). The men never seem to grow up and develop a unique perspective on their equally eccentric fellow townspeople through their youthful stunts. The cast grew to include a variety of supporting characters, each contributing their own subplots to the show and often becoming unwillingly involved in the schemes of the trio.
After the death of Owen in 1999, Compo was replaced at various times by his real-life son, Tom Owen, as equally unkempt Tom, Keith Clifford
as Billy Hardcastle, a man who fancied himself a descendant of Robin Hood
, and Brian Murphy
as the childish Alvin. Due to the age of the main cast, a new trio was formed during the 30th series featuring somewhat younger actors, and this format was used for the final two instalments of the show. This group consisted of Russ Abbot
as a former milkman
who fancied himself a secret agent
, Hobbo, Burt Kwouk
as the electrical repairman, Entwistle, and Murphy as Alvin. Sallis and Thornton, both past members of the trio, continued in supporting roles alongside the new actors.
Although some feel the show's quality declined over the years, Last of the Summer Wine continued to receive large audiences for the BBC and was praised for its positive portrayal of older people and family-friendly
humour. Many members of the British Royal Family
enjoyed the show. The programme was nominated for numerous awards and won the National Television Award
for Most Popular Comedy Programme in 1999. There were many holiday specials
, two television films and a documentary film about the series. Last of the Summer Wine inspired other adaptations, including a television prequel
, several novelisations
, and stage adaptations.
, at that time the BBC's Head of Comedy, watched a drama on television called The Misfit
. Impressed by writer Roy Clarke
's ability to inject comedy into the drama, Wood offered Clarke the opportunity to write a sitcom. Clarke nearly turned the job down as he felt that the BBC's idea for a programme about three old men was a dull concept for a half-hour sitcom. Instead, Clarke proposed that the men should all be unmarried, widowed, or divorced and either unemployed or retired, leaving them free to roam around like adolescents in the prime of their lives, unfettered and uninhibited.
Clarke chose the original title, The Last of the Summer Wine, to convey the idea that the characters are not in the autumn of their lives but the summer, even though it may be "the last of the summer". BBC producers hated this at first and insisted that it remain a temporary working title
, while the cast worried that viewers would forget the name of the show. The working title was changed later to The Library Mob, a reference to one of the trio's regular haunts early in the show. Clarke switched back to his original preference shortly before production began, a title that was shortened to Last of the Summer Wine after the pilot show.
The Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of BBC's Comedy Playhouse
on 4 January 1973. The pilot, "Of Funerals and Fish", received enough positive response that a full series was commissioned to be broadcast before the end of the year. Although the initial series did not do well in the ratings, the BBC ordered a second series in 1975.
, who had produced a series of ultimately unsuccessful documentaries for the BBC about working men's club
s, was partially responsible for the choice of location for the exterior shots. The programme which drew the highest ratings of the series focused on Burnlee Working Men's Club, a club in the small West Yorkshire
town of Holmfirth
and Took saw Holmfirth's potential as the backdrop of a television show. Took's idea was passed to James Gilbert and Roy Clarke via Duncan Wood, who was at that time filming Comedy Playhouse
. Gilbert and Clarke then travelled to Holmfirth and decided to use it as the setting for the pilot of Last of the Summer Wine.
Though the exterior shots were always filmed on location in Holmfirth and the surrounding countryside, the interior shots were, until the early 1990s, filmed in front of a live studio audience at BBC Television Centre
in London. The amount of location work increased, however, as studio work became a drain on time and money. Under Alan J. W. Bell, Last of the Summer Wine became the first comedy series to do away with the live studio audience, moving all of the filming to Holmfirth. The episodes were filmed and then shown to preview audiences, whose laughter was recorded and then mixed into each episode's soundtrack to provide a laugh track and avoid the use of canned laughter
.
The show used actual businesses and homes in and around Holmfirth, including Sid's Café and Nora Batty's house, a real Holmfirth residence owned by Sonia Whitehead. Although this has helped the Holmfirth economy and made it a tourist destination
, tensions have occasionally surfaced between Holmfirth residents and the crew. One such incident, regarding compensation to local residents, prompted producer Alan J. W. Bell
to consider not filming in Holmfirth any more. The situation escalated to the point that Bell filmed a scene in which Nora Batty put her house up for sale.
and every episode featured Peter Sallis
as Clegg. The Comedy Playhouse
pilot and all episodes of the first series were produced and directed by James Gilbert. Bernard Thompson
produced and directed the second series of episodes in 1975. In 1976, Sydney Lotterby
took over as producer and director. He directed all but two episodes of the third series – Ray Butt
directed "The Great Boarding House Bathroom Caper" and "Cheering up Gordon". Lotterby directed two further series before departing the show in 1979. In 1981, Alan J. W. Bell took over as producer and director. Bell, in an effort to get each scene exactly right, was known for his use of more film and more takes than his predecessors and for using wider angles that feature more of the local Holmfirth landscape.
In 1983, Lotterby returned to the show at the insistence of Brian Wilde
, who preferred Lotterby's use of tight shots focused on the trio as they talked rather than Bell's wide-angle scenes. Lotterby produced and directed one additional series before departing again the same year. Bell then returned to the show beginning with the 1983 Christmas special and produced and directed all episodes of the show to the end of the 31st series.
In 2008, Bell announced that he had quit as producer of Last of the Summer Wine. Citing differences with the BBC and his dislike of their indifference towards the series, Bell said, "I have now decided I will not do it again. I have had enough of the BBC’s attitude." The announcement came following rumours initiated by Bell that the network would not commission another series of episodes following the 30th series and their indecision regarding a possible one-off special. However, on 26 June 2009, the BBC announced that it had recommissioned the show for a 31st series with Bell continuing as producer and director.
, who had also produced themes for such series as Are You Being Served?
, Yes Minister
and Only Fools and Horses
created the theme for the show. The BBC initially disliked Hazlehurst's theme, feeling it was not proper for a comedy programme to have such mellow music. He was asked to play the music faster for more comedic effect but eventually his original slower version was accepted.
The theme, an instrumental work, featured lyrics three times. The 1981 Christmas special, "Whoops", had two verses of lyrics written by Roy Clarke that were performed over the closing credits. The 1983 film, "Getting Sam Home", used those two verses, with an additional two and played them over the opening credits. Another altered version was sung during Compo's funeral in the 2000 episode "Just a Small Funeral". Bill Owen also wrote a different version of the lyrics but this version was never used during an episode of the show.
Composing the score for each episode until his death in 2007, Hazlehurst spent an average of ten hours per episode watching scenes and making notes for music synchronisation. Hazlehurst then recorded the music using an orchestra consisting of a guitar, harmonica
, two violins, a viola
, cello, accordion
, horn
, bass
, flute
and percussion. The distinctive harmonica was played by Harry Pitch, who had featured in the 1970 one-hit-wonder "Groovin With Mr Bloe
.
In December 2008, Alan J. W. Bell stated in an interview with The Daily Telegraph
that the BBC had not yet commissioned a new series and that bosses at the network told him one would not be produced. Bell criticised this decision, stating that "millions still enjoy the series and the actors love being involved" and that it would be a terrible blow to the shops and businesses in Holmfirth who have come to depend on tourist revenue. The BBC denied these claims, saying that a decision had not yet been reached whether to commission another series or not.
It was confirmed on 26 June 2009 that a 31st series of 6 episodes had been commissioned for transmission in 2010. However, on 2 June 2010, the BBC announced that it would not renew Last of the Summer Wine after its thirty-first series was broadcast during the summer of 2010. The final episode of the show, "How Not to Cry at Weddings", was subsequently broadcast on 29 August 2010.
. Clarke had already collaborated on a few scripts with him and the character of Norman Clegg was created especially for Sallis, who liked the character and agreed to play him. He was soon joined by an actor he had previously worked with, comedy actor Michael Bates
as Cyril Blamire.
James Gilbert had seen film actor Bill Owen playing northern characters in the Royal Court Theatre
and proposed to cast him as Compo Simmonite. Clarke, who initially saw Owen as an archetypal cockney
who could not play as solid a northern character as Compo was meant to be, only recognised Owen's potential after going to London for a read-through
with him.
On-screen chemistry with existing players determined the later changes to the cast. Brian Wilde
, Michael Aldridge
and Frank Thornton
each brought a sense of completion to the trio after the departure of the preceding third man. Tom Owen provided a direct link between his father and himself after the death of Bill Owen. Keith Clifford
was added following three popular guest appearances on the show. Brian Murphy
was chosen as Nora Batty's neighbour because of his work on George and Mildred
, where he played the hen-pecked husband to a strong-willed woman.
In 2008, the BBC announced that Russ Abbot
would join the cast as a relatively more youthful actor in series 30. Abbot was cast to allow Sallis and Thornton to reduce their role on the show to only indoor scenes. Abbot portrayed Luther "Hobbo" Hobdyke, who formed a new trio with Entwistle and Alvin. Entwistle, played by Burt Kwouk
, was formerly a supporting character brought in to replace Wesley Pegden after the death of actor Gordon Wharmby
, but whose role on the show steadily increased in the previous two series.
The original cast of Last of the Summer Wine also included a handful of characters with whom the trio regularly interacted. Kathy Staff
was chosen to play Compo's neighbour, Nora Batty. Gilbert was initially sceptical about casting Staff but changed his mind after she padded herself to look bigger and read from a scene between her character and Owen's. This group was rounded out by characters at two locations frequented by the trio: John Comer
and Jane Freeman as Sid and Ivy, the quarrelling husband-and-wife owners of the local café; and Blake Butler
and Rosemary Martin
as Mr. Wainwright and Mrs. Partridge, the librarians having a not-so-secret affair. Butler and Martin, however, were dropped as major characters after the first series. According to Peter Sallis, Roy Clarke felt there was little more he could do with them.
Supporting cast members were added throughout the run of the show. The only addition with no professional acting experience was the Holmfirth resident Gordon Wharmby, who performed so well during his audition as mechanic Wesley Pegden that Alan J. W. Bell cast him in one episode. Pegden became a regular character after a positive audience reception.
When Alan J. W. Bell took over as producer, the plots of Last of the Summer Wine moved away from the original dialogue-packed scenes in the pub and the library; guest actors were brought in to interact with the trio in new situations. Although many of these guest appearances would last for only one episode, some led to a permanent role on the show, as in the cases of Gordon Wharmby, Thora Hird
, Jean Alexander
, Stephen Lewis
, Dora Bryan
, Keith Clifford, Brian Murphy, Josephine Tewson
, June Whitfield
, Barbara Young
, and Trevor Bannister
. Other noted guests on the programme included John Cleese
, Ron Moody
, Sir Norman Wisdom
, Eric Sykes
, Liz Fraser
, Stanley Lebor
, and Philip Jackson
.
with ties to MI5
, to form a new trio of volunteers who respond to any emergency.
The trio explored the world around them, experiencing a second childhood with no wives, jobs or responsibilities. They passed the time by speculating about their fellow townspeople and testing inventions. Regular subplots in the first decade of the show included: Sid and Ivy bickering over the management of the café, Mr Wainwright and Mrs Partridge having a secret love affair that everyone knows about, Wally trying to get away from Nora's watchful eye, Foggy's exaggerated war stories, and Compo's schemes to win the affections of Nora Batty.
The number of subplots on the show grew as more cast members were added. Regular subplots since the 1980s included: Howard and Marina trying to have an affair without Howard's wife finding out (a variation of the Wainwright-Partridge subplot of the 1970s), the older women meeting for tea and discussing their theories about men and life, Auntie Wainwright trying to sell unwanted merchandise to unsuspecting customers, Smiler trying to find a woman, Barry trying to better himself (at the insistence of Glenda), and Tom trying to stay one step ahead of the repo man
.
instead of a new series. Titled "Small Tune on a Penny Wassail", it was broadcast on 26 December 1978. Other Christmas programmes followed in 1979 and 1981. The 1981 special, "Whoops", gained 17 million viewers and was beaten only by Coronation Street
for the number one spot. Christmas shows were produced infrequently thereafter and sometimes were the only new episodes in years without an order for a new series. This happened often during the 1980s when Roy Clarke's commitment to Open All Hours
prevented the production of a full series every year. The specials often included well-known guest stars such as John Cleese and June Whitfield.
The first New Year special, "The Man who Nearly Knew Pavarotti", was commissioned in 1994. The hour-long show was broadcast on 1 January 1995 and featured Norman Wisdom
as a piano player who had lost the confidence to play. A second New Year programme was produced and broadcast in 2000 to celebrate the new millennium
. It featured the second guest appearance by Keith Clifford
and a guest appearance by Dora Bryan
. Titled "Last Post and Pigeon", the show ran for sixty minutes and dealt with the trio's pilgrimage
to visit World War II graves in France. Part of this special was shot on location in France. A third New Year show, titled "I Was a Hitman for Primrose Dairies", was broadcast on 31 December 2008 and introduced Hobbo and the new trio he formed with Entwistle and Alvin.
s such as Steptoe and Son
and Dad's Army
had previously produced films made for the cinema, but the BBC were initially sceptical as they had never before commissioned a film based on a comedy programme for original broadcast on television. They nevertheless commissioned a ninety minute film named "Getting Sam Home", which was broadcast on 27 December 1983, and started a trend which would continue with other British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses
.
After the success of "Getting Sam Home", a second film was made in 1986. Titled "Uncle of the Bride", the film featured the introduction of Michael Aldridge as Seymour, the new third man of the trio. The plot centred around the marriage of Seymour's niece, Glenda (Sarah Thomas), to Barry (Mike Grady). Also making her first appearance in the film was Thora Hird
as Seymour's sister and Glenda's mother, Edie, as well as re-introducing Gordon Wharmby as Edie's husband Wesley, previously seen in a popular one-off appearance. The second film proved a success and all four new characters (five including Wesley) were carried over to the show beginning with the ninth series in 1986.
and Barry Took
explained the origins of the show and how it came to be filmed in Holmfirth. The documentary was broadcast on 30 March 1997.
An updated version of the documentary was commissioned for the 30th anniversary of the series. Broadcast on 13 April 2003, this version featured an expanded interview with Brian Wilde
and new interviews with Brian Murphy
and Burt Kwouk
.
. Each set contains two consecutive full series of episodes. Three "best of" collections as well as four sets devoted to individual series have been released for region one
. The first, simply titled Last of the Summer Wine, was released in 2003 and includes early episodes from the 1970s and 1980s. The second collection, titled Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1995, followed in 2004 and includes episodes from series seventeen and the 30th anniversary documentary. A 2008 release named Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1976 focuses on the third series of the show and includes bonus interviews with Peter Sallis, Brian Wilde, and Frank Thornton. A fourth title, Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1977, was released in September 2008. It focuses on the fourth series and feature a rare 1977 interview with Roy Clarke. Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1979 was released in June 2009. This fifth collection included episodes from series five and includes bonus interviews. A set of Christmas specials that was originally broadcast between 1978 and 1982 followed in October 2009.
Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1982–1983 was released on 27 April 2010. The new collection features all episodes from the sixth and seventh series, but does not include the 1982 Christmas special "All Mod Conned".
prequel
show, First of the Summer Wine, premiered on BBC One in 1988. The new programme was written by Roy Clarke
and used different actors to follow the activities of the principal characters from Last of the Summer Wine in the months leading up to World War II. Unlike its mother show, First of the Summer Wine was not filmed in Holmfirth. Period music was used instead of Ronnie Hazlehurst's score to create a more World War II era atmosphere. New supporting characters were added to those from Last of the Summer Wine. Peter Sallis
and Jonathan Linsley
were the only actors from the original series to appear in the spin-off: Sallis played the father of his own character from the original show and Linsley appeared during the second series as a different character.
The spin-off show could not build on its early success and was cancelled after two series of thirteen episodes in 1989. Although the BBC has never rerun the show, it has been broadcast on G.O.L.D. and internationally.
in 1984. While Bill Owen and Peter Sallis reprised their roles as Compo and Clegg, Brian Wilde chose not to take part because of personal differences with Owen. The show focused on the men's interaction with Clegg's new neighbour, Howard (Kenneth Waller
), and his wife, Pearl, played by a local actress. The first act built up to the appearance of Marina (Jean Fergusson
), who was in correspondence with Howard. At the end of the first act, Marina was revealed to be a blonde sexpot. Howard and Marina's story line was partly based on an early subplot of the television show. In the first series, the librarian, Mr. Wainwright, was having a love affair with his married assistant, Mrs. Partridge. Despite their efforts to keep the plot a secret, especially from Mrs. Partridge's husband, the trio of old men were well aware of the affair. The summer season reversed the roles: Howard became the married partner, and the challenge was to keep the affair secret from his wife.
The summer season proved to be a success and frequently played to packed houses. In 1985, the show was once again produced, first as a two-week tour of Britain, and then as another summer season in Bournemouth. Fergusson returned for the second summer season, once again playing Marina. Robert Fyfe
replaced Waller in the role of Howard, and Juliette Kaplan
took the role of Pearl for this season. Although the new characters were not originally intended to be carried over to the television programme, Roy Clarke included them in four of the following six episodes of the 1985 series. All three characters remained until the end of the sitcom.
An amended version of the show toured across Britain in 1987. Sallis was reluctant to appear in the new production, and his role in the show was rewritten and played by Derek Fowlds
. Because Owen was the only member of the television show's trio to appear in the production, it was retitled Compo Plays Cupid. Once again, the summer season was a success.
A new stage adaptation of the show debuted in 2003. Based on Clarke's novel The Moonbather, the play was first performed by the Scunthorpe
Little Theatre Club from 7 October to 11 October 2003. Using new actors to perform the roles of Compo, Clegg, and Foggy, the play featured the trio as they attempted to get to the bottom of the disturbance created by a near-naked man in the town. The play was later performed in Eastbourne
by Eastbourne Theatres from 15 July 2009 to 8 August 2009 before touring the country through November 2009.
In 2010, it was announced that long-time supporting cast members Ken Kitson
and Louis Emerick
would spin their characters off into their own stage adaptation, titled An Arresting Night. Kitson and Emerick, who appeared together on Last of the Summer Wine as Police Constables
Cooper and Walsh from 2003 to 2010, reprised their roles in an improvised stage play
. While some elements of the series will be used, the majority of the play was improvised, with Kitson and Emerick each deriving their cues of what to do from the audience. The play was successfully performed in Holmfirth
, after which dates were announced in Emerick's hometown on the Wirral
.
released a novelisation
of Last of the Summer Wine in 1974. Written by Roy Clark as an unbroadcast original story, the novel featured Compo, Clegg and Blamire helping their friend, Sam, enjoy one last night with a glam girl. The book became the basis for the Last of the Summer Wine film, "Getting Sam Home", with Blamire being replaced by Foggy. In the late 1980s, Roy Clarke wrote novels featuring Compo, Clegg and Seymour. The books were published by Penguin Books
under the series heading Summer Wine Chronicles, and included such titles as Gala Week and The Moonbather. Clarke later adapted The Moonbather into a stage play.
In the early 1980s, a daily comic strip based on the show was drawn by Roger Mahoney and appeared in the Daily Star. A compilation of these strips, published by Express Books, was released in 1983.
In 1993, the Summer Wine Appreciation Society asked their members for their favourite musical themes from Last of the Summer Wine. Ronnie Hazlehurst used the resulting list for an independently released CD collection, which was released under the name Last of the Summer Wine: Music from the TV Show. BBC Radio
released audio-only versions of episodes starting in 1995. Peter Sallis provided narration to compensate for the loss of the televised visual elements. All twelve audio episodes were released in CD format.
In 1976, a selection of early scripts from the series was published as Last of the Summer Wine Scripts. A companion guide to the show, Last of the Summer Wine: The Finest Vintage, was released in 2000. The book was written by Morris Bright and Robert Ross and chronicled the show from its inception through the end of the 2000 series. Included were interviews with cast and crew, a character guide, and an episode guide. Both the companion guide and its updated 30th anniversary version are now out of print
. A release by journalist Andrew Vine titled Last of the Summer Wine: The Inside Story of the World's Longest-running Comedy Programme covered the entire series, including the story of the final words of the series. It was released on 16 August 2010.
's Big Brother
with 3.6 million viewers at 9:00 p.m., although the reality show had a smaller share of viewers for its time slot. The 29th series finale, which was broadcast on 31 August 2008, was watched by 4.2 million people, giving the network a 22.5% share for the night.
The 31st series continued to bring in over four million viewers, with the series opener pulling in 4.77 million viewers for an overall 21.6% share of the ratings for the night.
Several members of the royal family
are viewers of Last of the Summer Wine. While presenting an OBE
to Roy Clarke in 2002, Prince Charles
said that his grandmother, the Queen Mother
, had introduced him to the show. The Queen
told Dame Thora Hird during a 2001 meeting that Last of the Summer Wine was her favourite television programme. The show is also a favourite of Hamid Karzai
, president of Afghanistan.
A 2003 survey by Radio Times
found that Last of the Summer Wine was the programme readers most wanted to see cancelled. With nearly 12,000 votes in the survey, the show received one-third of the total vote, and twice as many votes as the runner up in the poll, Heartbeat. Alan J. W. Bell responded that Radio Times has always been anti-Last of the Summer Wine, and Roy Clarke remarked that people who dislike the show "shouldn't switch it on" unless they are "too idle to turn it off". A 2008 survey by County Life magazine, which named the show the worst thing about Yorkshire, was disputed by members of the Holme Valley Business Association, who said the show was good for business. The BBC wanted to cancel Last of the Summer Wine for years in favour of a new programme aimed at a younger demographic, but the show remained too popular for cancellation; even repeats received ratings of as much as five million viewers per episode. The show came 14th in a high-profile 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom
, and was praised for portraying older people in a non-stereotypical, positive, and active manner. It was also praised for its clever and at times philosophical writing, and for being a family-friendly show.
Last of the Summer Wine was nominated numerous times for two British television industry awards. The show was proposed five times between 1973 and 1985 for the British Academy Film Awards
, twice for the Best Situation Comedy Series award (in 1973 and 1979) and three times for the Best Comedy Series award (in 1982, 1983, and 1985). The show was also been considered for the National Television Awards
four times since 1999 (in 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2004 ), each time in the Most Popular Comedy Programme category. In 1999 the show won the National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Programme.
Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...
that was broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse was a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served?...
on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell
Alan J. W. Bell
Alan J. W. Bell is a British television producer and director. He has produced and/or directed many BBC series since the early 1970s, most notably Last of the Summer Wine, Ripping Yarns and the TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
produced and directed all episodes of the show. The BBC confirmed on 2 June 2010 that Last of the Summer Wine would no longer be produced and the 31st series would be its last. Subsequently, the final episode was broadcast on 29 August 2010. Repeats of the show are broadcast in the UK on GOLD and Yesterday. It is also seen in more than twenty-five countries, including various PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
stations in the United States and on VisionTV in Canada. Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in Britain and the longest-running sitcom in the world.
Last of the Summer Wine was set and filmed in and around Holmfirth
Holmfirth
Holmfirth is a small town located on the A6024 Woodhead Road in the Holme Valley, within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Centred upon the confluence of the Holme and Ribble rivers, Holmfirth is south of Huddersfield and from Glossop. It mostly consists of...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England and centred around a trio of old men whose line-up changed several times over the years. The original trio consisted of Bill Owen as the scruffy and child-like Compo, Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis, OBE is an English actor and entertainer, well-known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.Sallis is best known for his role as the main character...
as deep-thinking, meek Norman Clegg and Michael Bates
Michael Bates (actor)
Michael Bates was a British actor born in Jhansi, United Provinces, India.-Biography:Bates served as a Major serving with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Burma before his discharge at the end of World War II...
as authoritarian and snobbish Blamire. When Bates dropped out through illness in 1976 after two series, the role of the third man of the trio was filled in various years up to the 30th series by the quirky war veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
, Foggy (Brian Wilde
Brian Wilde
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine...
), the eccentric inventor, Seymour (Michael Aldridge
Michael Aldridge
Michael William ffolliott Aldridge was an English actor. While it was his role as Seymour in the television series Last of the Summer Wine which made him widely recognised, his long career as a successful character actor on stage and screen dated back to the 1930s.-Early life:The son of Dr...
), and former police officer Truly (Frank Thornton
Frank Thornton
Frank Thornton is an English actor who is best known for playing Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served? and its sequel Grace & Favour and as Truly in Last of the Summer Wine.-Early life:...
). The men never seem to grow up and develop a unique perspective on their equally eccentric fellow townspeople through their youthful stunts. The cast grew to include a variety of supporting characters, each contributing their own subplots to the show and often becoming unwillingly involved in the schemes of the trio.
After the death of Owen in 1999, Compo was replaced at various times by his real-life son, Tom Owen, as equally unkempt Tom, Keith Clifford
Keith Clifford
Keith Clifford in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, UK is a British actor best known for his role as Billy Hardcastle on Last of the Summer Wine between 1999 and 2006....
as Billy Hardcastle, a man who fancied himself a descendant of Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, and Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy (actor)
Brian Murphy is a British actor.Murphy was born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Although a prolific actor in many films and theatre productions for almost half a century, Murphy's most famous role was as the henpecked husband George Roper in the sitcom Man About the House and spin-off George and...
as the childish Alvin. Due to the age of the main cast, a new trio was formed during the 30th series featuring somewhat younger actors, and this format was used for the final two instalments of the show. This group consisted of Russ Abbot
Russ Abbot
Russ Abbot is an English musician, comedian and actor who first came to public notice during the 1970s as the singer and drummer with British comedy showband the Black Abbots, later forging a prominent solo career as a television comedian with his own weekly show on British television.Continuing...
as a former milkman
Milkman
A milkman is a person, traditionally male, who delivers milk in milk bottles or cartons. Milk deliveries frequently occur in the morning and it is not uncommon for milkmen to deliver products other than milk such as eggs, cream, cheese, butter, yogurt or soft drinks...
who fancied himself a secret agent
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, Hobbo, Burt Kwouk
Burt Kwouk
Burt Kwouk OBE , born Herbert Kwouk, is an English actor of Chinese descent, known for many television appearances and for his role as Cato in the Pink Panther films.-Career:...
as the electrical repairman, Entwistle, and Murphy as Alvin. Sallis and Thornton, both past members of the trio, continued in supporting roles alongside the new actors.
Although some feel the show's quality declined over the years, Last of the Summer Wine continued to receive large audiences for the BBC and was praised for its positive portrayal of older people and family-friendly
Family-friendliness
Entertainment or information is called "family friendly" if it is considered suitable for all members of the average family. In particular it means that it is not considered inappropriate for children, which may imply restrictions on engagement in, or depiction of, nudity, sex, violence, horror,...
humour. Many members of the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
enjoyed the show. The programme was nominated for numerous awards and won the National Television Award
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...
for Most Popular Comedy Programme in 1999. There were many holiday specials
Christmas in the media
Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists, writers, and weavers of folklore. Moviemakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptations of literary classics and new stories.-Films:...
, two television films and a documentary film about the series. Last of the Summer Wine inspired other adaptations, including a television prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
, several novelisations
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
, and stage adaptations.
History and development
In 1972, Duncan WoodDuncan Wood
Duncan Wood was a British comedy producer, director and writer. His best known achievements were to produce all of Tony Hancock's Half Hours for BBC TV during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later, also with Hancock's former writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the classic British sitcom...
, at that time the BBC's Head of Comedy, watched a drama on television called The Misfit
The Misfit (TV series)
The Misfit was an ATV sitcom series written by Roy Clarke and was broadcast from 1970 to 1971 on ITV.-Premise:Basil Allenby-Johnson returned from a colonial life in Malaya to an England he no longer recognised...
. Impressed by writer Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...
's ability to inject comedy into the drama, Wood offered Clarke the opportunity to write a sitcom. Clarke nearly turned the job down as he felt that the BBC's idea for a programme about three old men was a dull concept for a half-hour sitcom. Instead, Clarke proposed that the men should all be unmarried, widowed, or divorced and either unemployed or retired, leaving them free to roam around like adolescents in the prime of their lives, unfettered and uninhibited.
Clarke chose the original title, The Last of the Summer Wine, to convey the idea that the characters are not in the autumn of their lives but the summer, even though it may be "the last of the summer". BBC producers hated this at first and insisted that it remain a temporary working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
, while the cast worried that viewers would forget the name of the show. The working title was changed later to The Library Mob, a reference to one of the trio's regular haunts early in the show. Clarke switched back to his original preference shortly before production began, a title that was shortened to Last of the Summer Wine after the pilot show.
The Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of BBC's Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse was a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served?...
on 4 January 1973. The pilot, "Of Funerals and Fish", received enough positive response that a full series was commissioned to be broadcast before the end of the year. Although the initial series did not do well in the ratings, the BBC ordered a second series in 1975.
Filming
Barry TookBarry Took
Barry Took was an English comedian, writer and television presenter. He is best remembered in the UK for his weekly role as presenter of Points of View, a BBC TV programme in which viewers' letters criticising or praising the BBC were broadcast...
, who had produced a series of ultimately unsuccessful documentaries for the BBC about working men's club
Working men's club
Working men's clubs are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the United Kingdom, particularly the North of England, the Midlands and many parts of the South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.-...
s, was partially responsible for the choice of location for the exterior shots. The programme which drew the highest ratings of the series focused on Burnlee Working Men's Club, a club in the small West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
town of Holmfirth
Holmfirth
Holmfirth is a small town located on the A6024 Woodhead Road in the Holme Valley, within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Centred upon the confluence of the Holme and Ribble rivers, Holmfirth is south of Huddersfield and from Glossop. It mostly consists of...
and Took saw Holmfirth's potential as the backdrop of a television show. Took's idea was passed to James Gilbert and Roy Clarke via Duncan Wood, who was at that time filming Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse was a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served?...
. Gilbert and Clarke then travelled to Holmfirth and decided to use it as the setting for the pilot of Last of the Summer Wine.
Though the exterior shots were always filmed on location in Holmfirth and the surrounding countryside, the interior shots were, until the early 1990s, filmed in front of a live studio audience at BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
in London. The amount of location work increased, however, as studio work became a drain on time and money. Under Alan J. W. Bell, Last of the Summer Wine became the first comedy series to do away with the live studio audience, moving all of the filming to Holmfirth. The episodes were filmed and then shown to preview audiences, whose laughter was recorded and then mixed into each episode's soundtrack to provide a laugh track and avoid the use of canned laughter
Laugh track
A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...
.
The show used actual businesses and homes in and around Holmfirth, including Sid's Café and Nora Batty's house, a real Holmfirth residence owned by Sonia Whitehead. Although this has helped the Holmfirth economy and made it a tourist destination
Tourist destination
A tourist destination is a city, town, or other area that is dependent to a significant extent on the revenues accruing from tourism. It may contain one or more tourist attractions and possibly some "tourist traps."...
, tensions have occasionally surfaced between Holmfirth residents and the crew. One such incident, regarding compensation to local residents, prompted producer Alan J. W. Bell
Alan J. W. Bell
Alan J. W. Bell is a British television producer and director. He has produced and/or directed many BBC series since the early 1970s, most notably Last of the Summer Wine, Ripping Yarns and the TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
to consider not filming in Holmfirth any more. The situation escalated to the point that Bell filmed a scene in which Nora Batty put her house up for sale.
Crew
Every episode of Last of the Summer Wine was written by Roy ClarkeRoy Clarke
Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...
and every episode featured Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis, OBE is an English actor and entertainer, well-known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.Sallis is best known for his role as the main character...
as Clegg. The Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse was a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served?...
pilot and all episodes of the first series were produced and directed by James Gilbert. Bernard Thompson
Bernard Thompson (director)
Bernard Thompson was a British television producer and director most famous for his work on Last of the Summer Wine and Are You Being Served?. Thompson served as producer and director during Last of the Summer Wine's second series...
produced and directed the second series of episodes in 1975. In 1976, Sydney Lotterby
Sydney Lotterby
Sydney Lotterby OBE is a British television producer and director. He started as a cameraman at the BBC and progressed to becoming technical manager...
took over as producer and director. He directed all but two episodes of the third series – Ray Butt
Ray Butt
Ray Butt is a British television producer and director best known for his work on Only Fools and Horses in which he directed in season one and in seasons to follow he also directed and produced until season five when he moved onto new projects. Ray Butt is also remembered for his work on Last of...
directed "The Great Boarding House Bathroom Caper" and "Cheering up Gordon". Lotterby directed two further series before departing the show in 1979. In 1981, Alan J. W. Bell took over as producer and director. Bell, in an effort to get each scene exactly right, was known for his use of more film and more takes than his predecessors and for using wider angles that feature more of the local Holmfirth landscape.
In 1983, Lotterby returned to the show at the insistence of Brian Wilde
Brian Wilde
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine...
, who preferred Lotterby's use of tight shots focused on the trio as they talked rather than Bell's wide-angle scenes. Lotterby produced and directed one additional series before departing again the same year. Bell then returned to the show beginning with the 1983 Christmas special and produced and directed all episodes of the show to the end of the 31st series.
In 2008, Bell announced that he had quit as producer of Last of the Summer Wine. Citing differences with the BBC and his dislike of their indifference towards the series, Bell said, "I have now decided I will not do it again. I have had enough of the BBC’s attitude." The announcement came following rumours initiated by Bell that the network would not commission another series of episodes following the 30th series and their indecision regarding a possible one-off special. However, on 26 June 2009, the BBC announced that it had recommissioned the show for a 31st series with Bell continuing as producer and director.
Music
Composer and conductor Ronnie HazlehurstRonnie Hazlehurst
Ronald "Ronnie" Hazlehurst was an English composer and conductor who, having joined the BBC in 1961, became its Light Entertainment Musical Director....
, who had also produced themes for such series as Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served? is a British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London department store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John...
, Yes Minister
Yes Minister
Yes Minister is a satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC Television between 1980–1982 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total there were 38 episodes—of which all but...
and Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
created the theme for the show. The BBC initially disliked Hazlehurst's theme, feeling it was not proper for a comedy programme to have such mellow music. He was asked to play the music faster for more comedic effect but eventually his original slower version was accepted.
The theme, an instrumental work, featured lyrics three times. The 1981 Christmas special, "Whoops", had two verses of lyrics written by Roy Clarke that were performed over the closing credits. The 1983 film, "Getting Sam Home", used those two verses, with an additional two and played them over the opening credits. Another altered version was sung during Compo's funeral in the 2000 episode "Just a Small Funeral". Bill Owen also wrote a different version of the lyrics but this version was never used during an episode of the show.
Composing the score for each episode until his death in 2007, Hazlehurst spent an average of ten hours per episode watching scenes and making notes for music synchronisation. Hazlehurst then recorded the music using an orchestra consisting of a guitar, harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, two violins, a viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, cello, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
, bass
Bass (instrument)
Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and percussion. The distinctive harmonica was played by Harry Pitch, who had featured in the 1970 one-hit-wonder "Groovin With Mr Bloe
Mr. Bloe
Mr. Bloe was the name given to the musicians who performed the single "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" which was a hit for Dick James Music . These included Harry Pitch or Ian Duck on harmonica, and Zack Laurence on piano....
.
Cancellation
Despite numerous cast and production changes over the years, Last of the Summer Wine continued to be popular with viewers and was renewed year after year despite reports to the contrary. Rumours circulated as early as the 1980s that the BBC wanted to end the show and replace it with a new programme aimed at a younger demographic. Its popularity made this decision hard to justify, however, since even repeats sometimes received ratings of as many as five million viewers per episode.In December 2008, Alan J. W. Bell stated in an interview with The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
that the BBC had not yet commissioned a new series and that bosses at the network told him one would not be produced. Bell criticised this decision, stating that "millions still enjoy the series and the actors love being involved" and that it would be a terrible blow to the shops and businesses in Holmfirth who have come to depend on tourist revenue. The BBC denied these claims, saying that a decision had not yet been reached whether to commission another series or not.
It was confirmed on 26 June 2009 that a 31st series of 6 episodes had been commissioned for transmission in 2010. However, on 2 June 2010, the BBC announced that it would not renew Last of the Summer Wine after its thirty-first series was broadcast during the summer of 2010. The final episode of the show, "How Not to Cry at Weddings", was subsequently broadcast on 29 August 2010.
Characters and casting
Initially, the only certain cast member for the show was Peter SallisPeter Sallis
Peter Sallis, OBE is an English actor and entertainer, well-known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.Sallis is best known for his role as the main character...
. Clarke had already collaborated on a few scripts with him and the character of Norman Clegg was created especially for Sallis, who liked the character and agreed to play him. He was soon joined by an actor he had previously worked with, comedy actor Michael Bates
Michael Bates (actor)
Michael Bates was a British actor born in Jhansi, United Provinces, India.-Biography:Bates served as a Major serving with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Burma before his discharge at the end of World War II...
as Cyril Blamire.
James Gilbert had seen film actor Bill Owen playing northern characters in the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
and proposed to cast him as Compo Simmonite. Clarke, who initially saw Owen as an archetypal cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
who could not play as solid a northern character as Compo was meant to be, only recognised Owen's potential after going to London for a read-through
Read-through
The read-through, table-read, or table work is a stage of film and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted....
with him.
On-screen chemistry with existing players determined the later changes to the cast. Brian Wilde
Brian Wilde
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine...
, Michael Aldridge
Michael Aldridge
Michael William ffolliott Aldridge was an English actor. While it was his role as Seymour in the television series Last of the Summer Wine which made him widely recognised, his long career as a successful character actor on stage and screen dated back to the 1930s.-Early life:The son of Dr...
and Frank Thornton
Frank Thornton
Frank Thornton is an English actor who is best known for playing Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served? and its sequel Grace & Favour and as Truly in Last of the Summer Wine.-Early life:...
each brought a sense of completion to the trio after the departure of the preceding third man. Tom Owen provided a direct link between his father and himself after the death of Bill Owen. Keith Clifford
Keith Clifford
Keith Clifford in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, UK is a British actor best known for his role as Billy Hardcastle on Last of the Summer Wine between 1999 and 2006....
was added following three popular guest appearances on the show. Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy (actor)
Brian Murphy is a British actor.Murphy was born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Although a prolific actor in many films and theatre productions for almost half a century, Murphy's most famous role was as the henpecked husband George Roper in the sitcom Man About the House and spin-off George and...
was chosen as Nora Batty's neighbour because of his work on George and Mildred
George and Mildred
George and Mildred is a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1979. It was a spin-off from Man About the House and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper...
, where he played the hen-pecked husband to a strong-willed woman.
In 2008, the BBC announced that Russ Abbot
Russ Abbot
Russ Abbot is an English musician, comedian and actor who first came to public notice during the 1970s as the singer and drummer with British comedy showband the Black Abbots, later forging a prominent solo career as a television comedian with his own weekly show on British television.Continuing...
would join the cast as a relatively more youthful actor in series 30. Abbot was cast to allow Sallis and Thornton to reduce their role on the show to only indoor scenes. Abbot portrayed Luther "Hobbo" Hobdyke, who formed a new trio with Entwistle and Alvin. Entwistle, played by Burt Kwouk
Burt Kwouk
Burt Kwouk OBE , born Herbert Kwouk, is an English actor of Chinese descent, known for many television appearances and for his role as Cato in the Pink Panther films.-Career:...
, was formerly a supporting character brought in to replace Wesley Pegden after the death of actor Gordon Wharmby
Gordon Wharmby
Gordon Wharmby was a British television actor. He was best-known for the role of Wesley Pegden on Last of the Summer Wine....
, but whose role on the show steadily increased in the previous two series.
The original cast of Last of the Summer Wine also included a handful of characters with whom the trio regularly interacted. Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff was an English actress, well known for her work on British television...
was chosen to play Compo's neighbour, Nora Batty. Gilbert was initially sceptical about casting Staff but changed his mind after she padded herself to look bigger and read from a scene between her character and Owen's. This group was rounded out by characters at two locations frequented by the trio: John Comer
John Comer
John Comer was a British actor best known for his comedy roles in the television series I Didn't Know You Cared, Last of the Summer Wine and All Our Saturdays.-Early life:...
and Jane Freeman as Sid and Ivy, the quarrelling husband-and-wife owners of the local café; and Blake Butler
Blake Butler
Blake Butler was a British actor best known for his regular role as Mr. Wainright during the first three series of Last of the Summer Wine between 1973 and 1976...
and Rosemary Martin
Rosemary Martin
Rosemary Martin was an English actress, best-remembered for her television roles .Other notable TV credits include: Z-Cars, Crown Court, Bill Brand, Coronation Street, Pennies from...
as Mr. Wainwright and Mrs. Partridge, the librarians having a not-so-secret affair. Butler and Martin, however, were dropped as major characters after the first series. According to Peter Sallis, Roy Clarke felt there was little more he could do with them.
Supporting cast members were added throughout the run of the show. The only addition with no professional acting experience was the Holmfirth resident Gordon Wharmby, who performed so well during his audition as mechanic Wesley Pegden that Alan J. W. Bell cast him in one episode. Pegden became a regular character after a positive audience reception.
When Alan J. W. Bell took over as producer, the plots of Last of the Summer Wine moved away from the original dialogue-packed scenes in the pub and the library; guest actors were brought in to interact with the trio in new situations. Although many of these guest appearances would last for only one episode, some led to a permanent role on the show, as in the cases of Gordon Wharmby, Thora Hird
Thora Hird
Dame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
, Jean Alexander
Jean Alexander
Jean Alexander is a BAFTA Nominated English television actress. She is best known to British television viewers as Hilda Ogden on the soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played from 1964–1987 and also as Auntie Wainwright on the longest running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010...
, Stephen Lewis
Stephen Lewis (actor)
Stephen Lewis is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake in the LWT Sitcom On the Buses, Clem "Smiler" Hemmingway in the longest running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine and Harry Lambert in BBC Television's Oh, Doctor Beeching!.-Career:Lewis began his...
, Dora Bryan
Dora Bryan
Dora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...
, Keith Clifford, Brian Murphy, Josephine Tewson
Josephine Tewson
Josephine Tewson is an English actress. Tewson is perhaps best known for her roles as Elizabeth in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and as Miss Davenport in the British television series Last of the Summer Wine.-Early life:Tewson was born in Hampstead, London. Her father was a...
, June Whitfield
June Whitfield
June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, well known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
, Barbara Young
Barbara Young (actor)
Barbara Young is an English actress. She is probably best known for her role as the future Emperor Nero's mother, Agrippinilla, in the landmark 1976 BBC serial I, Claudius....
, and Trevor Bannister
Trevor Bannister
Trevor Gordon Bannister was an English actor best known for playing the womanising junior salesman Mr. Lucas in the sitcom Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1979, and for his role as Toby Mulberry Smith in the longest-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, from 2003 until it ended its run in 2010...
. Other noted guests on the programme included John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
, Ron Moody
Ron Moody
Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
, Sir Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...
, Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...
, Liz Fraser
Liz Fraser
Liz Fraser is an English actress, mainly in comedy roles.- Life and career :Her birthdate is usually attributed as 1933, the year she gave when auditioning for her role in I'm All Right Jack, as the Boulting Brothers wanted someone younger for the part...
, Stanley Lebor
Stanley Lebor
Stanley Harvey Lebor is an English actor, best known for his role as Howard in the 1980s BBC TV series, Ever Decreasing Circles and the Mongon Doctor in Flash Gordon...
, and Philip Jackson
Philip Jackson (actor)
Philip Jackson is an English actor, known for his many television and film roles, most notably as Chief Inspector Japp in the television series Poirot and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the cult 1980s series Robin of Sherwood. Jackson was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire...
.
Scenario
Last of the Summer Wine focused on a trio of older men and their youthful antics. The original trio consisted of Compo Simmonite, Norman Clegg and Cyril Blamire. Blamire left in 1976, when Michael Bates fell ill shortly before filming of the third series, requiring Clarke to hastily rewrite the series with a new third man. The third member of the trio would be recast four times over the next three decades: Foggy Dewhurst in 1976, Seymour Utterthwaite in 1986, Foggy again in 1990, and Truly Truelove in 1997. After Compo died in 2000, Compo's son, Tom Simmonite, filled the gap for the rest of that series, and Billy Hardcastle joined the cast as the third lead character in 2001. The trio became a quartet between 2003 and 2006 when Alvin Smedley moved in next-door to Nora Batty, but returned to the usual threesome in 2006 when Billy Hardcastle left the show. The role of supporting character Entwistle steadily grew on the show until the beginning of the 30th series, when he and Alvin were recruited by Hobbo Hobdyke, a former milkmanMilkman
A milkman is a person, traditionally male, who delivers milk in milk bottles or cartons. Milk deliveries frequently occur in the morning and it is not uncommon for milkmen to deliver products other than milk such as eggs, cream, cheese, butter, yogurt or soft drinks...
with ties to MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, to form a new trio of volunteers who respond to any emergency.
The trio explored the world around them, experiencing a second childhood with no wives, jobs or responsibilities. They passed the time by speculating about their fellow townspeople and testing inventions. Regular subplots in the first decade of the show included: Sid and Ivy bickering over the management of the café, Mr Wainwright and Mrs Partridge having a secret love affair that everyone knows about, Wally trying to get away from Nora's watchful eye, Foggy's exaggerated war stories, and Compo's schemes to win the affections of Nora Batty.
The number of subplots on the show grew as more cast members were added. Regular subplots since the 1980s included: Howard and Marina trying to have an affair without Howard's wife finding out (a variation of the Wainwright-Partridge subplot of the 1970s), the older women meeting for tea and discussing their theories about men and life, Auntie Wainwright trying to sell unwanted merchandise to unsuspecting customers, Smiler trying to find a woman, Barry trying to better himself (at the insistence of Glenda), and Tom trying to stay one step ahead of the repo man
Repossession
Repossession is generally used to refer to a financial institution taking back an object that was either used as collateral or rented or leased in a transaction. Repossession is a "self-help" type of action in which the party having right of ownership of the property in question takes the property...
.
Episodes
Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in Britain, and the longest running situation comedy in the world. Each series has between six and twelve episodes; most were thirty minutes in length, with some specials running longer. There were 295 episodes and 31 series between 1973 and 2010, counting the pilot, all episodes of the series, specials, and two films.Specials
In 1978, the BBC commissioned a Last of the Summer Wine Christmas specialChristmas in the media
Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists, writers, and weavers of folklore. Moviemakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptations of literary classics and new stories.-Films:...
instead of a new series. Titled "Small Tune on a Penny Wassail", it was broadcast on 26 December 1978. Other Christmas programmes followed in 1979 and 1981. The 1981 special, "Whoops", gained 17 million viewers and was beaten only by Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
for the number one spot. Christmas shows were produced infrequently thereafter and sometimes were the only new episodes in years without an order for a new series. This happened often during the 1980s when Roy Clarke's commitment to Open All Hours
Open All Hours
Open All Hours is a BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke which ran for four series a first run in 1976, a second run in 1981, third in 1982 and finally with a fourth run in 1985, with a pilot episode from the Seven of One series in 1973...
prevented the production of a full series every year. The specials often included well-known guest stars such as John Cleese and June Whitfield.
The first New Year special, "The Man who Nearly Knew Pavarotti", was commissioned in 1994. The hour-long show was broadcast on 1 January 1995 and featured Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...
as a piano player who had lost the confidence to play. A second New Year programme was produced and broadcast in 2000 to celebrate the new millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
. It featured the second guest appearance by Keith Clifford
Keith Clifford
Keith Clifford in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, UK is a British actor best known for his role as Billy Hardcastle on Last of the Summer Wine between 1999 and 2006....
and a guest appearance by Dora Bryan
Dora Bryan
Dora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...
. Titled "Last Post and Pigeon", the show ran for sixty minutes and dealt with the trio's pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to visit World War II graves in France. Part of this special was shot on location in France. A third New Year show, titled "I Was a Hitman for Primrose Dairies", was broadcast on 31 December 2008 and introduced Hobbo and the new trio he formed with Entwistle and Alvin.
Films
In 1983, Bill Owen suggested to returning producer Alan J. W. Bell that Roy Clarke's novelisation of the show (see below) should be made into a feature length special. Other British sitcomBritish sitcom
A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...
s such as Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
and Dad's Army
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...
had previously produced films made for the cinema, but the BBC were initially sceptical as they had never before commissioned a film based on a comedy programme for original broadcast on television. They nevertheless commissioned a ninety minute film named "Getting Sam Home", which was broadcast on 27 December 1983, and started a trend which would continue with other British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
.
After the success of "Getting Sam Home", a second film was made in 1986. Titled "Uncle of the Bride", the film featured the introduction of Michael Aldridge as Seymour, the new third man of the trio. The plot centred around the marriage of Seymour's niece, Glenda (Sarah Thomas), to Barry (Mike Grady). Also making her first appearance in the film was Thora Hird
Thora Hird
Dame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
as Seymour's sister and Glenda's mother, Edie, as well as re-introducing Gordon Wharmby as Edie's husband Wesley, previously seen in a popular one-off appearance. The second film proved a success and all four new characters (five including Wesley) were carried over to the show beginning with the ninth series in 1986.
Documentaries
A documentary film was commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Last of the Summer Wine. Produced and directed by Alan J. W. Bell, it featured interviews with the majority of cast and crew members, outtakes from the show, and a behind-the-scenes look at production. Segments with Duncan WoodDuncan Wood
Duncan Wood was a British comedy producer, director and writer. His best known achievements were to produce all of Tony Hancock's Half Hours for BBC TV during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later, also with Hancock's former writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the classic British sitcom...
and Barry Took
Barry Took
Barry Took was an English comedian, writer and television presenter. He is best remembered in the UK for his weekly role as presenter of Points of View, a BBC TV programme in which viewers' letters criticising or praising the BBC were broadcast...
explained the origins of the show and how it came to be filmed in Holmfirth. The documentary was broadcast on 30 March 1997.
An updated version of the documentary was commissioned for the 30th anniversary of the series. Broadcast on 13 April 2003, this version featured an expanded interview with Brian Wilde
Brian Wilde
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine...
and new interviews with Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy (actor)
Brian Murphy is a British actor.Murphy was born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Although a prolific actor in many films and theatre productions for almost half a century, Murphy's most famous role was as the henpecked husband George Roper in the sitcom Man About the House and spin-off George and...
and Burt Kwouk
Burt Kwouk
Burt Kwouk OBE , born Herbert Kwouk, is an English actor of Chinese descent, known for many television appearances and for his role as Cato in the Pink Panther films.-Career:...
.
DVD releases
In September 2002, Universal Playback (licensed by the BBC) began releasing boxed sets of episodes on DVD for region twoDVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
. Each set contains two consecutive full series of episodes. Three "best of" collections as well as four sets devoted to individual series have been released for region one
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
. The first, simply titled Last of the Summer Wine, was released in 2003 and includes early episodes from the 1970s and 1980s. The second collection, titled Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1995, followed in 2004 and includes episodes from series seventeen and the 30th anniversary documentary. A 2008 release named Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1976 focuses on the third series of the show and includes bonus interviews with Peter Sallis, Brian Wilde, and Frank Thornton. A fourth title, Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1977, was released in September 2008. It focuses on the fourth series and feature a rare 1977 interview with Roy Clarke. Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1979 was released in June 2009. This fifth collection included episodes from series five and includes bonus interviews. A set of Christmas specials that was originally broadcast between 1978 and 1982 followed in October 2009.
Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1982–1983 was released on 27 April 2010. The new collection features all episodes from the sixth and seventh series, but does not include the 1982 Christmas special "All Mod Conned".
Spin-off
A spin-offSpin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
show, First of the Summer Wine, premiered on BBC One in 1988. The new programme was written by Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...
and used different actors to follow the activities of the principal characters from Last of the Summer Wine in the months leading up to World War II. Unlike its mother show, First of the Summer Wine was not filmed in Holmfirth. Period music was used instead of Ronnie Hazlehurst's score to create a more World War II era atmosphere. New supporting characters were added to those from Last of the Summer Wine. Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis, OBE is an English actor and entertainer, well-known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.Sallis is best known for his role as the main character...
and Jonathan Linsley
Jonathan Linsley
Jonathan Linsley is an English actor who made his professional debut in 1980, and has gone on to a career on the stage, television and films...
were the only actors from the original series to appear in the spin-off: Sallis played the father of his own character from the original show and Linsley appeared during the second series as a different character.
The spin-off show could not build on its early success and was cancelled after two series of thirteen episodes in 1989. Although the BBC has never rerun the show, it has been broadcast on G.O.L.D. and internationally.
Stage adaptations
A live production of Last of the Summer Wine, known informally as the "summer season", was produced in BournemouthBournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
in 1984. While Bill Owen and Peter Sallis reprised their roles as Compo and Clegg, Brian Wilde chose not to take part because of personal differences with Owen. The show focused on the men's interaction with Clegg's new neighbour, Howard (Kenneth Waller
Kenneth Waller
Kenneth Waller was an English actor.-Career:His first role was in the 1959 production Room at the Top, but it was not until 1981 when he played the part of "Old" Mr. Grace in Are You Being Served? that he found real fame. He played the elder of the Grace brothers, after the departure of "Young"...
), and his wife, Pearl, played by a local actress. The first act built up to the appearance of Marina (Jean Fergusson
Jean Fergusson
Jean Fergusson is a British television and theatre actress, who is best known for playing the part of Marina on the British situation comedy Last of the Summer Wine from 1985 until it was axed in 2010, and her role as Dorothy in the soap Coronation Street.In theatre, Fergusson's show She Knows You...
), who was in correspondence with Howard. At the end of the first act, Marina was revealed to be a blonde sexpot. Howard and Marina's story line was partly based on an early subplot of the television show. In the first series, the librarian, Mr. Wainwright, was having a love affair with his married assistant, Mrs. Partridge. Despite their efforts to keep the plot a secret, especially from Mrs. Partridge's husband, the trio of old men were well aware of the affair. The summer season reversed the roles: Howard became the married partner, and the challenge was to keep the affair secret from his wife.
The summer season proved to be a success and frequently played to packed houses. In 1985, the show was once again produced, first as a two-week tour of Britain, and then as another summer season in Bournemouth. Fergusson returned for the second summer season, once again playing Marina. Robert Fyfe
Robert Fyfe
Robert Fyfe is a Scottish actor, who has appeared as Howard on the long-running British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1985 to 2010....
replaced Waller in the role of Howard, and Juliette Kaplan
Juliette Kaplan
http://www.juliettekaplan.com/Juliette Kaplan is a British actress, real name Marlene Hoser. She is most famous for playing the role of Pearl in the BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, from 1985 to 2010. She also did a tour around British theatres in a one actor show, performing as Pearl...
took the role of Pearl for this season. Although the new characters were not originally intended to be carried over to the television programme, Roy Clarke included them in four of the following six episodes of the 1985 series. All three characters remained until the end of the sitcom.
An amended version of the show toured across Britain in 1987. Sallis was reluctant to appear in the new production, and his role in the show was rewritten and played by Derek Fowlds
Derek Fowlds
Derek Fowlds is an English actor, known for playing Bernard Woolley in popular British television comedies Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister and Oscar Blaketon in the long-running ITV police drama Heartbeat....
. Because Owen was the only member of the television show's trio to appear in the production, it was retitled Compo Plays Cupid. Once again, the summer season was a success.
A new stage adaptation of the show debuted in 2003. Based on Clarke's novel The Moonbather, the play was first performed by the Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe is a town within North Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 72,514 in 2010. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre,...
Little Theatre Club from 7 October to 11 October 2003. Using new actors to perform the roles of Compo, Clegg, and Foggy, the play featured the trio as they attempted to get to the bottom of the disturbance created by a near-naked man in the town. The play was later performed in Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
by Eastbourne Theatres from 15 July 2009 to 8 August 2009 before touring the country through November 2009.
In 2010, it was announced that long-time supporting cast members Ken Kitson
Ken Kitson
Kenneth "Ken" Kitson is a British actor who has been active on British television since the early 1970s....
and Louis Emerick
Louis Emerick
Louis Emerick, born 10 June 1960, Liverpool, England, UK, is a British TV actor, best known for his portrayal of Mick Johnson in the soap opera Brookside....
would spin their characters off into their own stage adaptation, titled An Arresting Night. Kitson and Emerick, who appeared together on Last of the Summer Wine as Police Constables
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
Cooper and Walsh from 2003 to 2010, reprised their roles in an improvised stage play
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
. While some elements of the series will be used, the majority of the play was improvised, with Kitson and Emerick each deriving their cues of what to do from the audience. The play was successfully performed in Holmfirth
Holmfirth
Holmfirth is a small town located on the A6024 Woodhead Road in the Holme Valley, within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Centred upon the confluence of the Holme and Ribble rivers, Holmfirth is south of Huddersfield and from Glossop. It mostly consists of...
, after which dates were announced in Emerick's hometown on the Wirral
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...
.
Other media
Coronet BooksHodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
released a novelisation
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
of Last of the Summer Wine in 1974. Written by Roy Clark as an unbroadcast original story, the novel featured Compo, Clegg and Blamire helping their friend, Sam, enjoy one last night with a glam girl. The book became the basis for the Last of the Summer Wine film, "Getting Sam Home", with Blamire being replaced by Foggy. In the late 1980s, Roy Clarke wrote novels featuring Compo, Clegg and Seymour. The books were published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
under the series heading Summer Wine Chronicles, and included such titles as Gala Week and The Moonbather. Clarke later adapted The Moonbather into a stage play.
In the early 1980s, a daily comic strip based on the show was drawn by Roger Mahoney and appeared in the Daily Star. A compilation of these strips, published by Express Books, was released in 1983.
In 1993, the Summer Wine Appreciation Society asked their members for their favourite musical themes from Last of the Summer Wine. Ronnie Hazlehurst used the resulting list for an independently released CD collection, which was released under the name Last of the Summer Wine: Music from the TV Show. BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
released audio-only versions of episodes starting in 1995. Peter Sallis provided narration to compensate for the loss of the televised visual elements. All twelve audio episodes were released in CD format.
In 1976, a selection of early scripts from the series was published as Last of the Summer Wine Scripts. A companion guide to the show, Last of the Summer Wine: The Finest Vintage, was released in 2000. The book was written by Morris Bright and Robert Ross and chronicled the show from its inception through the end of the 2000 series. Included were interviews with cast and crew, a character guide, and an episode guide. Both the companion guide and its updated 30th anniversary version are now out of print
Out of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
. A release by journalist Andrew Vine titled Last of the Summer Wine: The Inside Story of the World's Longest-running Comedy Programme covered the entire series, including the story of the final words of the series. It was released on 16 August 2010.
Reception
During its first series, Last of the Summer Wine did not receive a high ratings share. The second series proved to be a success, however, and two episodes made it to the top ten programmes of the week. The programme has since consistently been a favourite in the ratings, peaking at 18.8 million viewers for an episode shown on 10 February 1985. The premiere of the 28th series in 2007 brought in an 18.6 percent share of viewers in the 6:20 time slot with an average of 3.2 million viewers. Last of the Summer Wine's audience grew from 2.7 million to 3.4 million over the 30 minutes. The show was beaten for the night only by Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's Big Brother
Big Brother (UK)
Big Brother UK is the British version of the Dutch Big Brother television format, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...
with 3.6 million viewers at 9:00 p.m., although the reality show had a smaller share of viewers for its time slot. The 29th series finale, which was broadcast on 31 August 2008, was watched by 4.2 million people, giving the network a 22.5% share for the night.
The 31st series continued to bring in over four million viewers, with the series opener pulling in 4.77 million viewers for an overall 21.6% share of the ratings for the night.
Several members of the royal family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
are viewers of Last of the Summer Wine. While presenting an OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
to Roy Clarke in 2002, Prince Charles
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
said that his grandmother, the Queen Mother
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
, had introduced him to the show. The Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
told Dame Thora Hird during a 2001 meeting that Last of the Summer Wine was her favourite television programme. The show is also a favourite of Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
, president of Afghanistan.
A 2003 survey by Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
found that Last of the Summer Wine was the programme readers most wanted to see cancelled. With nearly 12,000 votes in the survey, the show received one-third of the total vote, and twice as many votes as the runner up in the poll, Heartbeat. Alan J. W. Bell responded that Radio Times has always been anti-Last of the Summer Wine, and Roy Clarke remarked that people who dislike the show "shouldn't switch it on" unless they are "too idle to turn it off". A 2008 survey by County Life magazine, which named the show the worst thing about Yorkshire, was disputed by members of the Holme Valley Business Association, who said the show was good for business. The BBC wanted to cancel Last of the Summer Wine for years in favour of a new programme aimed at a younger demographic, but the show remained too popular for cancellation; even repeats received ratings of as much as five million viewers per episode. The show came 14th in a high-profile 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom
Britain's Best Sitcom
Britain's Best Sitcom was a poll conducted in 2004 by the BBC, to identify the United Kingdom's best situation comedy. Viewers were asked to vote for their favourite by phone, text message and on the web. The top ten went forward to a final round of voting...
, and was praised for portraying older people in a non-stereotypical, positive, and active manner. It was also praised for its clever and at times philosophical writing, and for being a family-friendly show.
Last of the Summer Wine was nominated numerous times for two British television industry awards. The show was proposed five times between 1973 and 1985 for the British Academy Film Awards
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
, twice for the Best Situation Comedy Series award (in 1973 and 1979) and three times for the Best Comedy Series award (in 1982, 1983, and 1985). The show was also been considered for the National Television Awards
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...
four times since 1999 (in 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2004 ), each time in the Most Popular Comedy Programme category. In 1999 the show won the National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Programme.
External links
- Last of the Summer Wine at G.O.L.D.
- Last of the Summer Wine at British TV Comedy