User reviews

Due to Covid a had a lot of time on my hands; so I decided to watch something a had seen some of the later episodes of; LOTSW. I watched the entire series in three weeks. The later episodes are friendly and mildly entertaining but to my surprise the earlier ones are much more gritty, much rawer and so much better! So much so that it even made me wonder; why was the series so watered down over time? It must have been to please a general audience. But so much was lost this way. If you watch the series in quick succession, as I did, the change is very obvious. The language becomes gentler, the actors get replaced by more polished substitutes. Even if the stay on, like Nora Batty or Cleggy, they lose their edges. Attitude towards women has to become PC. Even Compo's teeth have to be fixed. But with this it loses a lot of honesty and in the end it is just mildly entertaining instaead of a wonderful social satire. How great this could have been if the BBC had had a bit more courage.

I shall start by saying that this is coming from someone who grew up with this show and pretty much hated it. The twee theme tune, the boring conversations, the dreadfully unfunny moments. That said, i still have the odd memory of laughing my head off at Compo getting into scrapes, such as rolling down the hill in a tin bath and dressing up as Santa.

As a massive fan of older comedy and British sitcoms, this is one show i have steadfastly declined to revisit. Until now. I'll never watch every episode, it would take me forever, but i have watched a fair chunk of them recently. I started from the beginning, what ididn't realise wes that the "original trio" weren't actually the original trio!

First 2 series, Foggy isn't even in it. I still liked it a lot more than later episodes though. The "boring conversations" were actually pretty interesting to a now middle-aged viewer. No question, it hits it's stride properly when Foggy comes along. There's a real chemistry between that trio. I'd forgotten all about Sid too. I think the show really dropped off a cliff when Sid and then Foggy departed.

I can now vaguely remember the actor who played Sid dying and being sad about it, even though i was very young at the time, so he was clearly one of my favourites in those early years. Viewing now, it's clear to me that the show was actually a lot better than i remembered it. That is...until Sid was "replaced" by a whole raft of unremittingly awful characters.

Nothing against the actors, but the characters of Howard, Marina and Pearl for me were never even remotely funny or interesting and still aren't now. It's essentially one (not very funny) joke, dragged out for an eternity. It's pretty much a rehash of the librarians in the first series and that wasn't funny either. I can now pinpoint that as the moment i started hating the show. Foggy then left (although would later return) and the temptation to then turn it into "The Compo Half Hour Farce" was clearly too strong to resist.

Some great actors then followed, i've always liked Brian Murphy especially from his Man About the House and George & Mildred days. Definitely there are some golden moments still to be had, but far too often they are ruined by the ridiculous caricatures of the peripheral characters.

Once it stopped being about the friendship of the main trio, it just slipped into rubbish sitcom territory. I can now at least see why it's loved by so many. At it's best, with the trio walking in the countryside and having pointless but humorous conversations, it's a lovely sweet relaxing watch. But pretty much all of the secondary characters, apart from the excellent Sid and often genuinely funny Ivy, seem to be just written to be as annoying as possible. Totally goes against the grain of the show. First 7 series 7.5/10, the rest 4/10 if that.

There are very few TV shows that could justifiably claim to be a British institution, but Last of The Summer Wine is certainly one of them. Watching Compo and friends on a Sunday evening was a staple of my childhood and I will always remember this show with great fondness. Bill Owen and Brian Wilde remain two of my favourite comic actors and few people have ever made me laugh as much as Danny O'Dea did as the hilarious Eli.

The show never pretended to be anything other than gentle slapstick and needn't be held to high standards. Yes the gags are repetitive and yes the storylines are predictable but this isn't a problem. Last of The Summer Wine is the TV equivalent of comfort food; simple, wholesome and always enjoyable.

There is no doubt the show went on too long and for me, the death of Bill Owen should have brought things to an end. But regardless, Last of The Summer Wine will forever hold a special place in the hearts of many people.

I was a big fan of this series before i appeared in it. I still get letters and cards from fans despite leaving the show in 1988. Roy Clarke is one of the greatest comedy writers of his generation, he explores the British class system, old age, and the relationships between Yorshiremen and the Women they love brilliantly. The early shows were about boredom, retirement, life in Yorkshire and friendship between men of differing backgrounds. When the show was taken over by Alan J W Bell ,who produced and directed all the episodes i appeared in, the comedy broadened. Wonderful slapstick and unlikely romance became the strong central themes. In 1987 the show regularly had viewing figures just below 20 Million, and it continues to have a cult following to this day. I made some wonderful friends on the series too, Jane Freeman (who played my Auntie Ivy), Bill Owen (who i sadly miss) Peter Sallis (who taught me so much when we worked on stage together) Thora Hird (who told great stories of her early life in the Co-op as a sales assistant) Joe Gladwyn (who told me the most wonderful tales of early music hall and variety shows) to name just a few... I think one of the best qualities of this show is that anyone of any age can watch it and find something amusing, popular family entertainment is rare these days and this is a gem.

My father got me hooked on this series, after he mentioned how much he enjoyed it. A local PBS station was running it, and I just fell in love with the three old men and their antics. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Peter Sallis is also the voice of Wallace, as in "Wallace & Grommit" -- another personal favorite. My biggest frustration is that our PBS station stopped running it, the BBC has only released one set of tapes, and that is criminal for a show that's been on the air for 30 years! For gentle, character driven comedies, this show cannot be beat. Also, the scenery is beautiful. All those rural, rustic shots of the English countryside are gorgeous.

I suppose the idea of this show - maybe not right at the start, but once it got established - was that it would be like dropping in every week on a bunch of entertaining friends who live in a beautiful place. And I'm not against that, in principle. The trouble is that they have to say something, and do something, for half an hour each time. From early on, the material feels spread very thin, with about half the dialogue being of mind-bending pointlessness and inanity. And that's when the show was at its peak, and you could at least count on Compo and Nora Batty to put a bit of much-needed life into each ep; from there it slowly became a more and more tiresome exercise in scenic water-treading.

And then some sort of wheeled conveyance rolls down a hill, and someone or something falls out of it. I don't know how they'd have ended the episodes if it had been set somewhere flat...

Interesting fact: none of the classic trio were actually Yorkshiremen: Foggy was from Ashton-under-Lyne (historically in Derbyshire, now Greater Manchester), Compo and Clegg both southerners.

This programme has been one of British televisions centre pieces since the first pilot episode. With wonderful performances from Bill owen as the scruffy, gambleing, Nora Loving, loveable Compo and Peter Sallis as Clegg a widower who is terrified of anything female, but is more immature than your average child at Christmas. Plus brilliant supporting actors like Michael Bates (Clockwork Orange), Brian Wilde, John Comer, Joe Gladwin, Jane Freeman and Kathy "Nora" Staff.

It might on the face of things seem like a comedy for older people but it's anything but, young people love to see older people being immature (e.g)Monty Python. The scripts in the early series where quite wonderful with the setting, timing and situation right it was always going to be what it is........One of the most loveable and enjoyed Sit-coms to ever be made, I know thats said a lot but with this 30 year old gem it's true.

This series is about four old (and presumably retired) men in a small town having a variety of escapades, evidently recapturing their lost youths.

Yes, it is thin material, depending on how well it is written and performed. It doesn't depend on contrived silliness like "Fawlty Towers" or "Are You Being Served?" or excessive blue humor like "Benny Hill" or weirdness like "Monty Python's Flying Circus". Most of the humor is funny to non-Britons as well. So how does this program work? The characters are reasonably credible-bored old men deciding to have fun before they die, though things often go wrong. Every cast member manages to perform their role correctly as well.

This is mild entertainment, though-not for those who want to see overacting and screaming.

This programme is one of the best about and it certainly has been about for quite a while. Very sadly one of the funniest and most active comedians I have ever seen Bill Owen died recently, but although he was almost the main character in the show I'm certainly glad that for Bills memory that the show has continued.One of the great things about the show is that just about all of the actors in the show have made their mark in other comedy's and other shows, yet they all seem like they have been in the show from the start, for example Jean Alexander spent many years as Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street and Stephen Lewis was well known as Blakey in On The Buses. Take a look at this show and I think you will be glad you did.

This is such easy viewing but the highlight is some of the best one-liners on TV. There are downsides too. Compo is a very annoying character with little to engraciate him to the audience but the other characters more than make up for the lack of comedy where Compo is concerned. The later series without Compo are the best and the introduction of Alvin and Entwhistle lifts the series to new heights. Robert Fyfe as Howard is superb.

I had read about "Last of the Summer Wine" in a number of articles, and was familiar with some of the cast members (particularly those in the later series) before I ever got to see this waste of electricity. I have great admiration for the British, and for many of their situation comedies and dramas, but how this show stayed on for nearly forty years is one of television's great mysteries to me. The plots are simplistic; the characters ridiculously broad and stereotyped; but maybe worst of all, it's the same dumb show year after year after year. Stupid ideas from equally stupid characters. How many times can something that didn't work when you were 13 seem like a good thing to try when you're 73? Was it the fact that virtually the entire cast consisted of veteran actors what made this a hit in England? While it's nice to see them keep working, it would be better to see them in a show that was complimentary to an older actor, i.e.; "As Time Goes By."

Last of the Summer Wine doesn't come on until 11 pm on the local PBS station, but it's always worth the lack of sleep.

It's a rare comedy nowadays that can be genuinely funny without being crude. The three old men at the center of the show are constantly involved in antics worthy of Lucille Ball. The wide array of supporting characters are representative of real-life characters to be found in any small town in any country, which is probably why it appeals to me, a girl from a small town in the Midwestern United States.

It's heartwarming, funny, and for the entire family. What more could you want?

Let me first say that I have noted the many favorable comments here but as far as I'm concerned, to quote Fawlty Towers' outboard motor salesman: "This Wine Is Corked". Most definitely.

Last of the Summer Wine recently made it's appearance in my local TV viewing area. Accordingly, I have been watching episodes for some weeks, all the while entertaining high hopes that the humor would commence. Not a chance. Not one laugh to date.

I have asked myself: Can this be due to a generation gap? No. I am of the same age as the actors. Well then, can it be that it is a certain kind of fare that appeals strictly to the British alone? Well, I cannot say for certain. What I do know is that I find Keeping Up Appearances, Ab Fab, Fawlty Towers, Waiting For God and Are You Being Served? absolutely hilarious (superior, in fact, to anything produced here in the U.S). I have viewed the same episodes of these shows repeatedly and never tire of them. In fact, I doubt that this day will ever come.

Now having spoken my piece I think it only fair to end on a positive note. The Holmfirth countryside is absolutely enchanting.

The quality of 'Summer Wine' is reflected in its longevity and ongoing popularity.I consider myself fortunate that, having once lived near Holmfirth, the small Yorkshire town where the action was set, during the 1980's,I had the opportunity to sample at first hand, the various locations and was fortunate in seeing the filming of some of the earlier episodes. There may be some support for my view that the earlier episodes, which featured 'Blamire'( Michael Bates)as one of the three leading characters, were characterised by the interplay between these three characters,expressed in terms of dialogue rather than the 'comic' situations which became a feature of later episodes, coupled with the development of other characters who played little or no part in the first series. I consider that the quality of the scripwriting suffered as a result of the changes, particularly when the focus moved away from the central trio. Nevertheless, the programme maintained its popularity over many years and developed almost a cult following. Curiously, though, this popularity was not wholly shared by the population of Holmfirth, who saw the programme as a mixed blessing when the interest generated by the programme resulted in an influx of sightseers into their small, quiet narrow streeted town, with predictable results. Suffice it to say that while one or two enterprising people benefitted from the publicity, the sightseer were, it must be said, disappointed with the fact that there was very little to see of real interest and, of course, the 'characters' were nowhere to be seen. That the programme retained its popularity for so long can only be explained by how well the characters created the illusion of three eccentric old men enjoying their freedom in nostalgic adventures in beautiful surroundings where the sun always appeared to smile on them (the grim reality of the harsh Holmfirth climate being conspicuous by its absence) The secondary characters were always believable and the humour was, by and large, unsophisticated and free from innuendo, reasons, perhaps, for its acceptance in the context it was presented. It may be that the reason for the success of the programme is that it presents a world that no longer exists, a set of endearing characters,lost in their own little world, steeped in a kind of rural simplicity from which the harsh values and events of the real world are permanently excluded,playing the sort of schoolboy adventures in which we may, at one time, have all shared. Their hopes and doubts, dreams and uncertainties running through the tapestry of their lives, played out for us with a skill which belies the simplicity of the message that the programme conveys.

It's so hard not to get nostalgic about Last of the Summer Wine, it conjures up Sunday evenings with my Gran, ham sandwiches, coconut macaroons, just a wonderfully warm, comforting feeling.

People argue the show isn't full of laughs, I disagree it was fun to watch with all the family. Wonderful characters one and all, from the original line up of regulars , Compo, Cleggy and Blamire, through Foggy, Truly etc. To the wonderful characters we'd come to love, Nora Batty, Ivy, Howard and Marina, Edie, Auntie Wainwright, Smiler etc, the wonderful Eli!!

The golden era for me would always be the trio of Compo, Cleggy and Foggy, the trio worked beautifully well together, complementing one another so well.

The Christmas specials were always an extra special treat. Merry Christmas, Father Christmas is just brilliant.

No surprises that it ran as long as it did, it had scarily high viewing figures in its prime. I was gutted it ended when it did, but all good things must come to an end.

A shining gem, 9/10

Im a young adult, and my grandmother told me about this program on Oklahoma Public Broadcasting Network (OETA) I love this show and never miss a episode. Ive looked up most of the cast on the net and read their bios. What a wonderful bunch of characters. I know most of them have passed away and that saddens me, but I will continue to be their greatest fan. GOD BLESS

This West Yorkshire-set BBC sitcom is about old men who behave in a juvenile manner. It ran from 1973-2010 - longer than any other sitcom in the world has ever done.

If the aim was to show the elderly still enjoying their lives to the full, then that could have been done in a much better way. This show is just one bad joke repeated hundreds of times - these old men routinely behave like kids. That's just pathetic and embarrassing, rather than funny.

After awhile of leaving it on between British comedies on American PBS, I grew to enjoy and like watching this television show. The characters like Compo and his relationship with Nora Batty is quite hysterical. It's great to watch Frank Thornton back in comedy again as Truelove. Of course, Thora Hird is my favorite British acting dame. At almost ninety years old, she is still beautiful, sweet, and brilliant in her role as Edie. The show is more like comedic serial than a sitcom. There is the ongoing secret courtship between married Howard and single attractive golden girl, Marina. Then there is the annoying happy marriage between Glenda and Barry. It's almost nauseating to hear Glenda speak so highly of her Barry to her mother and their friends over tea as they discuss husbands with the suspicious Pearl, the widowed Nora and Ivy. Of course, it's wonderful to watch Auntie Wainwright as an antique seller in the small town. It's a delight to watch Jean Alexander thrive in this role. In fact everybody thrives in their roles on this long running British comedy. In fact, I don't mind growing old. The show gives me something to look forward too now. I am sad about Bill Owen's death but the show still manages to go on with his son. I just wish he would chase after Nora Batty now who left. Even though the characters come and go, there are now new refreshing characters. When I go to England next time, I will definitely stop in Holmfirth, England, outside of Manchester to visit this charming little Yorkshire town.

Simply put, this show has been my favorite discovery of late and I am definitely going to try and purchase each and every one of the episodes and specials if possible.

It has really not been done justice by the other comment here. I am absolutely in love with this show.

I had no idea it has been around as long as it has. Apparently the longest running show in England and possibly most anywhere.

With good reason as you will see if you watch a couple of episodes.

These gentlemen trying to recapture their youth are so funny and endearing

I loved Last of the Summer Wine in the early 1990's when I was a kid and really enjoyed the mischief Compo, Clegg and Foggy got up to. Story lines also included Compo's constant attempt to attract Nora Batty which was always a laugh, but sadly in 1999, Bill Owen (Compo) passed away. Surprisingly though, the producers just continued making new series. The 'Compo's Funeral' episode was very touching but in my opinion, this should have been the show's final episode, ever since then, the show's quality has declined rapidly. Many of the other major characters have now passed away and often just replaced with other 'similar' characters, making it more like a soap than a much-loved sitcom. Even Clegg (Peter Sallis) is now only in episodes briefly.

I feel the producers are now just trying to keeps the show alive for as long as possible, but with few 'original' characters and poorer story lines, new episodes could tarnish the image of the series that was once brilliant.

It was aired in Canada a long time ago. I decided to buy the full series and I was not disappointed. I love the characters, and the situations. It is brilliant! My daughter and I watch the dvd's together and we laugh so much.We love the props they use in every episode. We love Foggy, Compo and Cleggy. Just a brilliant show!

I grew up in the UK in the 1970's, but didn't discover this show until much much later. Having grown up with classics like Benny Hill, Les Dawson, Dave Allen, Are You Being Served, Fawlty Towers, Tommy Cooper, Steptoe and Son, The Two Ronnies, Carry On movies, et al. Those shows are all awesome comedies, and if you haven't heard of them and like British comedy, look them up on YouTube! I left the UK in 1980 for Canada. But I still watch the classic British TV shows. I discovered Last of the Summer Wine a few years ago, and it has now become one of my all time favorite shows! I'm on season 24 out of the 31 or so seasons they made :-) Whenever I need a good larf, all I have to do is put this show on LOL