Each week, we will be taking an in depth look at some of the best sitcoms and comedy shows from both the UK and the USA.

Today we will be looking at a comedy that has had a whopping 31 seasons since it started in the seventies and is the world’s longest running comedy –  Last Of the Summer Wine

Opening Titles / theme tune

About the Show

Summary of Plot

Three old men from Yorkshire who have never grown up face the trials of their fellow town citizens and everyday life and stay young by reminiscing about the days of their youth and attempting feats not common to the elderly.- IMDb

Number of Seasons / Episodes

31 Seasons

Characters:

Peter Sallis – Clegg

Jane Freeman – Ivy

Kathy Staff – Nora Batty

Robert Fyfe – Howard

Juliette Kaplan – Pearl

Trivia

• Peter Sallis (Cleggy) is the only actor to appear in all 295 episodes of the series. In second place is Jane Freeman, who appeared in 274 episodes.
• The series has been officially declared the world’s longest-running television sitcom, airing continuously between Wednesday 4th January 1973 to Sunday 29th August 2010. Peter Sallis was the sole cast member to appear (as Norman Clegg) throughout the whole 31 seasons. He also appeared (as Clegg’s father) in the spin-off prequel series First of the Summer Wine (1988).
• Officially announced by Buckingham Palace in 1996 as being Her Majesty the Queen’s favourite television series.
• By 1982, it was the BBC’s most popular sitcom with 16 million viewers.
• Brian Wilde much preferred working with Director Sydney Lotterby ( who had directed Wilde in Porridge) rather than Alan J.W. Bell due to the difference in directing and visual styles of the two men. Bell liked to shoot in a more cinematic way often using long distance wide shots of the Yorkshire landscape and hills with the actors walking through them playing the scene. Inevitably this meant scenes took a lot longer to set-up ,co-ordinate and shoot much to Wilde’s and some other cast member’s frustration whereas Lotterby tended to keep things much tighter visually, like a traditional sitcom and worked more quickly.

Classic Clips

Combo and Nora

Tour De France