Last of the Summer Wine - 2008 & 2009 Page 3

Quote: Jack Massey @ June 23 2008, 7:39 PM BST

Watched five minutes and turned it off due to depression. Watching a once masterpiece of a sitcom going off the rails drastically is awful, I try to convince myself that it is a different show to that once classic sitcom. I was very alarmed to see Peter Sallis relegated to number two on the cast-list, Brian Murphy in the number one spot. Sallis has been in it since the show began (35 years), Murphy just for a few years. What is Roy Clarke doing? Why is a show that once had hilarious dialogue now been watered down (everybody said bloody in the first few series in every sentance, that's how people from Yorkshire speak) and become a show that has no comedy and poor slapstick.

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Couldn't agree more. The first couple of series were great but now it's tired amd should have been binned when Compo popped his wellingtons. The (imo) best seen ever was when Clegg had just passed his driving test and took ages to reverse into his drive. He finally gets it right. Gets out and he's in the wrong drive. Classic.

Wasn't that the one when they're trying to help someone reverse their caravan? Still there's so many episodes that they all seem to blend into each other so maybe not!

It could be????? Like you say. So many episodes thou dost forgeteth.

F**k me.
I hated this programme then & I hate it now. A load of old Daves wandering about. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

I do think it has now lost its appeal.

Saw the episode called "Eva's Back in Town" the 6th in the series and I've come to the conclusion that it was a little more witty and funny than usual and certainly not as afraid to say anything offensive. They should get rid of Barry and Glenda who had a pathetic sub-plot that never went anywhere and was never resolved and the two cops are annoying and should go too. Clegg and Truly were a lot more involved and it was better that way.

Quote: Charley @ June 23 2008, 10:54 PM BST

F**k me.
I hated this programme then & I hate it now. A load of old Daves wandering about. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

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I remember watching it right from the start and it was supposed to be about old men then.

After about 10 years it did get a bit tedious though.

Caught this the other day. Sad to see Peter Sallis and Frank Thornton relegated to little scenes, indoors, mainly sitting down; just bookending the episodes as they are now 'uninsurable' and so not allowed out. A little depressing.

They now have everyone who has ever been in a sitcom in it, but for no real reason. Therefore there's not much plot. As lovely as many of the cameos from old-timers are, if they want to make a proper 'sitcom' they could consolidate things a bit...

No matter what, I hope they keep making it 'cos hats off for it having lasted this long -- it's doing no harm.

That said, one of the things I don't like about the show now -- and I think this started when they went entirely over to film, whenever that was (early 90s?) -- is that it all feels very unreal or something.

Not sure if I can put into words exactly what I mean, but it's rather stilted. The writing and performances are so unvarying, and what with the rather tinny sounding laugh track (not saying it's canned), the whole enterprise rings hollow.

Compare to the shows in the 1970s and most of the 1980s where the characters, however larger than life, had a nice semblance of reality to them. That's long gone, probably due to them having been going over such samey material for bloody years now. For instance, I dread to think how much screen time has been given to the Howard/Pearl/Marina 'love triangle' in the last quarter of a century -- and exactly how little it has developed in all that time.

Long may it continue!

I would like to see it have a final episode, and have it written as such. It would be terrible if it just got cancelled. I have to admit, when I read last year that it had been cancelled (although the announcement was premature), I did get slightly choked up, mainly because it had been going for so many years and wasn't permitted the dignity of a last episode. Hopefully, we'll see it one day, but how it will eventually end is anyone's guess (maybe the whole village dies at once or something).

Peter Sallis is fourth on the bill now. It's Russ Abbot's show now, and although the character is an amalgamation of the Frank Thornton/Brian Wilde characters, he is all right and adds some new blood (comparatively speaking) to it.

I have been collecting the DVDs from series 3 when Foggy first joined the show. Think I will just buy the rest of the series up until Compo's funeral, as Peter Sallis is exceptional as Clegg but my favourite characters are definitely Foggy and Compo.

Edited by Aaron.

The original episodes never appealed to me in my younger years, however watching re runs on what ever channel it is that shows em I've grown to love it in a way but the later editions don't come close, in fact they should not have even been made... another sitcom being milked!

Because of its longevity I think the whole series is dismissed unfairly as 'formulaic'. It's getting that way now and has been for a few years - partly IMO due to them squeezing in everyone and anyone who has ever performed comedy who is still breathing.

But it gets high viewing figures and always has, yet the 'classic' shows never get repeated unlike its contemporaries such as Dad's Army, Some Mothers, etc/ This is a pity really. I don't have G.O.L.D. and it's not a sitcom I would seek out and buy, but it's odd that the BBC themselves never show anything from the back catalogue.

Agree about the cast consisting of lots of old comedy stars now. I can see why Josephine Tewson is in the show as she was in Keeping Up Appearances, and Roy obviously thought she would be good for the part she plays (a librarian I think) but as for the rest... I'm sure if Barbara Windsor wasn't in EastEnders...

Edited by Aaron.

Quote: peter gazzard @ May 2 2009, 10:49 PM BST

I have been collecting the DVDs from series 3 when Foggy first joined the show. Think I will just buy the rest of the series up until Compo's funeral, as Peter Sallis is exceptional as Clegg but my favourite characters are definitely Foggy and Compo.

Edited by Aaron.

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Get Series 1 & 2 with Michael Bates, there are some great episodes in that.