However, the casting of Owen, whose long list of credits included the first two Carry On films, Sergeant and Nurse, worried Roy Clarke, who regarded Compo as the archetypal layabout. He’d only seen Owen playing roles as straight cockney, whereas Jimmy Gilbert, who produced the first series, had seen him in plenty of northern parts on stage. Roy’s doubts were soon dispelled, though, when he observed Owen at the opening read-through. Now, of course, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Bill Owen playing Compo, the kind-hearted, welly-wearing scruff bag.
The personnel may have changed over the years, but Summer Wine’s adaptability has seen it remain largely unaffected by any upheavals. Just like the Carry On films, where producer Peter Rogers intentionally avoided hiring star names, Summer Wine benefits from the same approach. Other sitcoms may have struggled if one of its leading names had departed: think of Porridge without Barker, Fawlty Towers without Cleese—well, you can’t, can you? Employing well-proven and reliable character actors in the roles, intentionally or not, has enabled the programme to grow with age and cope with the changes in faces that one would expect in a programme lasting nearly four decades.
One such change was the departure of Michael Bates. When he left in 1975, he was replaced by Brian Wilde, alias Barrowclough in Porridge, who played Foggy Dewhurst for nine years—although he came back for a seven-year stint in the
1990s—before Michael Aldridge, as Seymour Utterthwaite, arrived for four years to make up the male trio. Then, after Wilde’s second spell ended, veteran actor Frank Thornton, who’d delighted sitcom audiences with his sniffy portrayal of Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served?, was a last-minute replacement as Herbert Truelove.
Throughout the years, the programme has enjoyed a plethora of supporting characters. Three of the most memorable were present in the opening instalments: Nora Batty, Ivy and Sid, played by Kathy Staff, Jane Freeman and John Comer respectively. Other regulars have arrived over the years, such as Edie (Dame Thora Hird), Pearl (Juliette Kaplan), Auntie Wainwright (Jean Alexander), Glenda (Sarah Thomas), Marina (Jean Fergusson), Wally (Joe Gladwin), Wesley (Gordon Wharmby), Howard (Robert Fyfe), Barry (Mike Grady), Smiler (Stephen Lewis), Tom (Tom Owen), Alvin (Brian Murphy) and Entwistle (Burt Kwouk). All have done a sterling job under the direction of, among others, Jimmy Gilbert, Sydney Lotterby and, of course, Alan J W Bell, who has produced and directed the series for 27 years.
The series has now reached its 30th season, with Russ Abbot joining the cast as Hobbo. There is uncertainty surrounding its long-term future but regardless of how long it continues, Summer Wine will remain a classic sitcom and, hopefully, enjoyed by generations to come.
‘HAIL SMILING MORN OR THEREABOUTS’
Blamire and Compo go into the library to look at a photo exhibition. Compo takes out one of his doorstep-sized sandwiches.
BLAMIRE: You know, if ever one of those came up in the middle of the North Sea, there’d be an international incident to decide who was entitled to stick a flag into it.
COMPO: Come on, let’s go call on Clegg.
BLAMIRE: Just a moment. Just a moment. I’m studying contrast and tone. I used to exhibit myself, you know.
COMPO: You mucky old devil.
BLAMIRE: In the 14th Field Signals Regimental Camera Club, I won the Mrs. Colonel Langford O.B.E. Award for my interpretation of a soldier’s farewell at F11 in 1/60th of a second. Of course, the equipment has improved since those days.
COMPO: (Sadly) Mine hasn’t.
BLAMIRE: It’s marvellous what you can do with a close-up lens.
COMPO: Well, hurry up and do it and let’s go and get Clegg.
BLAMIRE: You’ve no cultural interests at all, have you?
COMPO: I’ve got me ferrets.
BLAMIRE: Didn’t you take any advantage of the army’s further education schemes?
COMPO: Well, we had this army film show once about social diseases. My mate fainted. (He approaches the display) Well it’s all a lot of rhubarb this, innit? Look at this—a tatty bit of wood. Who wants to take a photograph of a photograph of a lump of wood?
BLAMIRE: It’s a study in texture.
COMPO: I bet that bloke had a dolly bird sitting on there.
BLAMIRE: So what?
COMPO: And he clicked his shutter and she fell off. (He has a good chuckle)
BLAMIRE: You’ve no idea, no idea at all.
COMPO: Hey up! (looking very closely at a picture) Hey, look at this ’ere “September Morn”.
MEMORIES…
‘Duncan Wood recognised the comic element in my ITV series, The Misfit, and wanted me to try a sitcom. What threw me, though, was he required something for three old men—a dreadful idea, I thought. It left me cold and after playing about with it intensively for a couple of weeks, I couldn’t make it work. It bored me. Then, out of desperation, I thought that if they were all footloose and free, they were in the same position as adolescents at the other end of the scale. The minute I saw them as kids, it worked.’
ROY CLARKE
’Working with John Comer [Sid] was a joy. He was a stand-up comedian and wonderful at delivering the lines. He was very popular.
JANE FREEMAN (Ivy)
‘THE GREAT BOARDING-HOUSE BATHROOM CAPER’
Foggy and Clegg are sat in the café. Ivy, in hat and coat, is at another table, gripping her handbag and looking stern. They’re waiting for Compo to arrive, also Gordon with his minibus.
IVY: Are you sure you locked the back door?
SID: Thirty-three times you sent me to lock that back door. I’ve been up since six o’clock just locking the back blasted door.
IVY: Yes. Leave me to do all the packing.
SID: Packing? It’s more like unpacking. ‘You can’t take them,’ she keeps saying. ‘I’ve no room for them. I haven’t an inch of space’. Then she opens her mouth.
IVY: I heard that.
SID: And I’ve been hearing that (indicating her mouth) for nearly 30 years. Have a rest woman, you’re on holiday.
MEMORIES…
‘Jimmy Gilbert offered me Ivy after seeing me play a dreadful landlady in The Fishing Party. I’ll never forget recording the pilot because immediately afterwards I went on my delayed honeymoon to Greece. We had to catch a 10pm flight and with little time to prepare I went off resembling Ivy, with my normally curly hair greased down flat!
‘I used to get aggressive people come up to me in the street, complaining about how I mistreated Sid; and people, usually men, would approach my poor husband, saying, “She must be hell to live with!” My late husband, director Michael Simpson, knowing the soppy me, got upset because he didn’t care to be regarded as a henpecked husband.
‘It’s been an honour saying some of Roy Clarke’s lines. In the early days, though, I thought the show was chauvinistic and questioned whether to carry on. But then Enid [Roy Clarke’s wife] said to me: “You’ve