Open All Hours

Open All Hours has to be one of the best comedies ever made, along with Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers and Only Fools And horses.

This one is about a Northen shopkeeper, Arkwright and his nephew who works for him, Granville. His lover, Nurse Gladys Emmanual lives across the road. We get to see a variety of customers coming into the shop and also Granville's love for the milk woman. This series was filmed in Doncaster.

The brilliant cast includes the late, great Ronnie Barker as Arkwright, David Jason (Only Fools And Horses) as Granville and Linda Baron as Nurse Gladys. Others appearing as customers over the years include Kathy Staff (Last Of the Summer Winw) and Stephanie Cole (Waiting For God).

Open All hours is certainly a comedy classic and the BBC still regularly repeat episodes and is much better than any comedy made today. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

This is one of the best British sitcoms of all time and comes close to the likes of Porridge and Fawlty Towers.

It's basically about a shopkeeper, Arkwright, who is a tight fisted old miser and is constantly trying to seek great attention from nurse Gladys Emanuel, his neighbour and so-called fiancé. Arkright runs a grocers shop on a quiet little street, set in early 1970's Doncaster.

Each episode is mainly about the day-to-day running of the shop and Arkwrights' constant banter and disagreements with Granville, his nephew, employee and whipping boy. Granville is still a boy at heart, thanks to his uncle, who won't let him grow up. He is paid a pittance and is kept firmly at bay by his uncle from loose woman and any other form of socializing.

The funniest moments in the show are the lengths Mr Arkwright will go to sell his products. He will say just about anything to get his customers to spend their hard earned dosh in his shop. But the dialogue between all characters is superb and it's clearly a well written series.

As the viewer, you really get used to the regular customers in the shop, and it's hilarious to see them be minipulated into buying items they didn't come in for.

10 Out Of 10

G,gggranville, very capably played by the very naive David Jason, playing as the assistant to Ronnie Barker, playing the tight fisted, finger on the scales "Arkwright" whose life revolved around nurse Ggggggladys and cast with the most amazing cash register come man trap the producer could find. The series showed northern England in its Blackest humour. Granville's dreams about even hold a woman in his arms were so sensitively acted. Good clean fun with no violence, filth or malice. A great show.

a great comedy series set in the north of England about a miserly old shopkeeper who dreams of getting saucy with Nurse gladys across the road,who looks after his hapless worker nephew It's a fairly simple plot but the imaginative pairing of Ronnie Barker (The Two Ronnies) and David Jason (Only fools and horses,A touch of frost) made this sitcom what it was. It's not laugh out loud funny,the humour can be quite subtle and it's nearly always set in the corner shop which some people might find tedious,but not me, in my opinion it's one of the better sitcoms BBC sitcoms from the Mid 1970's to 1980's, and it's such a shame that Ronnie Barker retired from acting a number of years ago because his presence in this sitcom at the better Prison sitcom 'PORRIDGE' without him they would not have becomne the classic sitcoms they now are

Rating 8/10

Two great comedy legends Ronnie Barker and David Jason come together to produce one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time.

The plots may seem a little twee compared to the more action packed sitcoms of today but there is something so charming about the simple shop set up combined with the writing talent of Roy Clarke that sets this show apart from anything that has been produced since. There is a timeless appeal about Open all hours.

Barker and Jason have fantastic chemistry and make the characters of Arkwright and Granville so iconic and loved that we get to know them so well over the four series run.

Comedy like this will live on forever while the so called modern classics of today will soon be all but forgotten and the cries of "Granville - get yer cloth" will generate laughter across the world forever.