It was only a matter of weeks ago that I began watching the first ever series of Last of the Summer Wine. So obviously I was ready in front of the telly for the television event of the year; the final (apparently) episode.
I know I do not fall into the demographic for this show, but I have always had a soft spot for their adventures. With this and Bullseye gone, all they need do is remove Antiques Roadshow and we won’t even know if it is Sunday or not.
Despite the changing dynamic, this final series has kept me entertained. Most of our favourite characters/actors are no longer with us, but the beauty of this gentle comedy is that elderly comedians who did not save an adequate pension (one of the perils of self-employment that I am all too aware of) could be drafted in. This series has seen Russ Abbott, Bert Quock and Brian Murphy roaming the countryside. The only surviving cast member from the beginning, Peter Sallis has side-lined himself into a small cameo sketch with Frank Thornton. Sallis and Thornton looked every bit as if they did not know where they were, or just did not care. Although Sallis spoke the last words, this was not a deserved ending to a much loved comedy institution. Neither was it a respectable curtain call on a long and distinguished acting career. I say end, I assume with a heavy heart that the offers of work are not exactly flooding in. Despite a bit of Wallace and Gromit work, (if he lives that long, those Aardman boys do take their time), he should retire happily. He was not even there for most of the last few series; he filmed elsewhere and appeared with the other characters using CGI, as was Frank Thornton.
Everyone connected with Last of the Summer Wine deserved better. The BBC should have given sufficient notice of the axe, so that a proper farewell episode could have been made. Maybe a Christmas special is on the cards, nobody seems to know.
Roy Clarke should perhaps start putting out the feelers on another network. There are plenty to choose from after all, and if he wanted to carry on writing it then I am sure someone would have bitten his arm off for the chance to show it.
If it turns out that I am wrong, he could go to the medium that is slowly taking over from television and radio, and put episodes online. I would be very happy to pay to keep this show going. Then the final resting place for comedy would be able to continue long enough for David Mitchell to play the pompous one, Lucy Porter to take over the café, and Stuart Lee to roll down a hill in a bathtub on wheels.
When they all got in that bus at the end for a trip, I was half wondering if Roy Clarke had written in the ‘drive off a cliff’ ending, like the last episode of The Young Ones.
Or a realisation that they were not in a Yorkshire village at all but this was a version of heaven for retired sitcom actors and they had all been dead all along. Like the last Ashes to Ashes. Sort of.
