50 Fun Facts About Last of the Summer Wine

Which West Yorkshire town, once known for saucy postcards, was the filming home of Last of the Summer Wine?

Holmfirth stood in for the trio's home town from the 1973 pilot to 2010, after producer Barry Took spotted its potential while touring working men's clubs as a comic.

In Last of the Summer Wine, Compo can never resist remarking on which trademark of Nora Batty's outfit?

Wrinkled stockings made Nora Batty a national icon, and on the rare days Compo failed to mention them she worried that something was wrong with him.

Peter Sallis, the only actor in every episode of Last of the Summer Wine, voiced which animated inventor?

Wallace of Wallace & Gromit got his voice after student animator Nick Park wrote to Sallis in 1983, six years before the first film was finally released.

Which royal told the actress who played Edie in 2001 that Last of the Summer Wine was her favourite programme?

Queen Elizabeth II was not the only fan at the palace: Prince Charles said his grandmother, the Queen Mother, had introduced him to the show.

Tom Simmonite arrived in Last of the Summer Wine after Compo's death, played by which relative of Compo's actor?

His son Tom took the part of Compo's long-lost lad after years of uncredited walk-on roles in the show, and is now buried beside his father near where it was filmed.

Frank Thornton, Truly in Last of the Summer Wine, was best known as Captain Peacock in which sitcom?

Thornton had already spent 13 years, from 1972 to 1985, in Are You Being Served? Brian Wilde, the man he replaced as third man in 1997, suggested him for Summer Wine.

Burt Kwouk, Entwistle in Last of the Summer Wine, played which ambushing manservant in the Pink Panther films?

Cato was under orders to attack Inspector Clouseau when he least expected it, a running gag that usually left Clouseau's flat damaged or destroyed.

Billy Hardcastle in Last of the Summer Wine is convinced he is a direct descendant of which English folk hero?

Robin Hood's would-be heir first turned up trying to recruit a band of Merry Men, and Nora Batty took such a shine to his costume that a jealous Compo dressed up too.

Edie's put-on telephone voice in Last of the Summer Wine was the prototype for which sitcom snob by the same writer?

Hyacinth Bucket inherited Edie's grand telephone greeting almost word for word, so Edie's own airs were toned down to keep the two characters apart.

Which former policeman and teacher wrote every one of the 295 episodes of Last of the Summer Wine?

Roy Clarke nearly turned the job down, thinking the BBC's idea of a sitcom about three old men was dull, until he made them free to roam like adolescents.

Which London-born Carry On regular played the scruffy Compo in Last of the Summer Wine for 26 years?

Bill Owen was a Londoner the show's writer first thought too cockney for the part, yet he grew so fond of the area that he is buried in a churchyard near the filming town.

Which actress, who padded herself out for the audition, played Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine?

Kathy Staff won over a sceptical producer by making herself look bigger and reading a scene opposite Compo's actor, then played the battleaxe from the pilot until 2008.

Which composer of the Yes Minister theme also wrote the gentle signature tune of Last of the Summer Wine?

Ronnie Hazlehurst had to resist BBC bosses who thought his mellow theme wrong for a comedy and asked him to play it faster for laughs.

Session player Harry Pitch carried the theme tune of Last of the Summer Wine on which instrument?

Harmonica virtuoso Pitch had already featured on the 1970 one-hit wonder Groovin' with Mr Bloe before he gave Summer Wine its plaintive sound.

Who was the original third man of the trio, alongside Compo and Clegg, in Last of the Summer Wine?

Cyril Blamire, a snobbish ex-corporal, lasted only two series before his actor fell ill, and was written out as rushing off to an old flame who had just been widowed.

Michael Bates left Last of the Summer Wine through illness while also starring as Rangi Ram in which sitcom?

It Ain't Half Hot Mum suited a man born in India who had been a Gurkha officer in Burma, and he kept that role after cancer forced him out of Summer Wine.

Brian Wilde, Foggy in Last of the Summer Wine, played the timid Mr Barrowclough in which sitcom?

Porridge was still running when Wilde joined Summer Wine in 1976, so for a while he was both the eager-to-please warder and the boastful old soldier.

Jean Alexander, Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine, spent 23 years as which Coronation Street character?

Hilda Ogden left the Street in 1987, and a year later Alexander turned up in a Summer Wine Christmas special in a one-off guest part that became permanent.

Stephen Lewis, gloomy Smiler in Last of the Summer Wine, was best known as Inspector Blakey in which sitcom?

On the Buses ran for 74 episodes and spawned three films, and Lewis, who co-wrote some of its episodes, brought much the same eternal misery to Smiler.

Which Ronnie Barker and David Jason sitcom came from the same writer as Last of the Summer Wine?

Open All Hours managed only four series in nine years because its two stars kept leaving for other projects.

Brian Murphy was cast as Alvin in Last of the Summer Wine because of his henpecked husband in which sitcom?

George and Mildred had shown him cowering before a strong-willed wife, ideal training for moving in next door to Nora Batty and teasing her as Compo once had.

Russ Abbot's Hobbo fancied himself a secret agent in Last of the Summer Wine, but what had his real job been?

Milkman Hobbo claimed ties to MI5, perhaps a nod to Basildon Bond, the spoof spy Abbot had played in his 1980s sketch shows.

Foggy Dewhurst boasts of jungle heroics in Last of the Summer Wine, but what was his actual army job?

Signwriter Foggy still styled himself a trained killer, a boast that bored passing strangers and now and then got him arrested.

When Foggy first left Last of the Summer Wine in 1985, he was said to have taken over which family business?

Egg painting took him off to Bridlington for five years, until he came back claiming he had tired of it just as his replacement boarded a bus out of town.

Which inventor and former headmaster joined the trio of Last of the Summer Wine in the film Uncle of the Bride?

Seymour blamed the failure of his contraptions on divine punishment for an old affair with a barmaid, and it was usually Compo who had to test them.

Which 1983 film, the first feature-length Last of the Summer Wine, grew out of a novel by the show's writer?

Getting Sam Home was the first film the BBC had ever commissioned for television from one of its comedies, a trend Only Fools and Horses later followed.

Which knighted comedian played nervous pianist Billy Ingleton in several Last of the Summer Wine specials?

Norman Wisdom was booked for a single New Year special as a pianist who had lost the confidence to play, but proved so popular that he kept coming back.

Which comedy double act guest-starred in Last of the Summer Wine as two members of the Joliffe family?

Cannon and Ball met as welders in Oldham, and Bobby Ball's Lenny arrived from the pickle factory wanting to be known as the Swan Man of Ilkley.

Nora Batty was twice written out of Last of the Summer Wine by being sent off to which country?

Australia was her excuse both times: first when her actress went back to the soap Crossroads, and again when illness kept her away and sister Stella moved in to house-sit.

In Last of the Summer Wine, café owner Ivy is known for clouting unruly customers over the head with what?

A metal tray was her weapon of choice, and Ivy is the only character besides Clegg to have been in the series from start to finish.

Which animals did Compo keep in Last of the Summer Wine and leave to his friend Reggie when he died?

Ferrets went to Regina 'Reggie' Unsworth, the woman Compo turned out to have been quietly visiting every Thursday.

Which Dame played house-proud Edie in Last of the Summer Wine and was still in the cast at 91?

Thora Hird was often filmed sitting down in her last years because of frailty, with a double standing in for Edie's hair-raising scenes at the wheel.

Which peroxide-blonde supermarket worker does henpecked Howard keep sneaking off to meet in Last of the Summer Wine?

Marina first appeared in a seaside stage version of the show, and proved such a hit that she, Howard and his wife Pearl were written into the television series in 1985.

In a famous Last of the Summer Wine stunt, Compo falls into what and hurtles downhill while helping Howard move it?

A bath of cast iron, meant for Howard's girlfriend, ran away on its cart with Compo aboard, and ended by hitting a loose drainpipe that soaked him.

The prequel First of the Summer Wine follows young Clegg and friends in the months before which event?

The Second World War hangs over the prequel, which is set between May and September 1939 and begins each episode with the diary of an 18-year-old Clegg.

The actors behind Compo and the first third man of Last of the Summer Wine clashed off screen over what?

Politics set the left-wing Compo actor against his right-wing co-star Michael Bates, a real-life divide that mirrored the way their characters bickered on screen.

Compo dies smiling in Last of the Summer Wine after the shock of seeing Nora Batty dressed as what?

A chorus girl outfit brought on his fatal heart attack, and a guilt-stricken Nora was later horrified to find the grin still on his face in the chapel of rest.

The writer of Last of the Summer Wine says Compo's nickname is slang for living on which of these?

Compensation payments were what he lived on: the writer says being on the compo was a common saying where he grew up, and Compo spent most of his life in the dole queue.

Last of the Summer Wine began in January 1973 as a one-off episode of which BBC anthology series?

Comedy Playhouse aired the pilot on 4 January 1973, and although the first full series did poorly in the ratings the BBC still commissioned another.

Last of the Summer Wine was named Most Popular Comedy Programme in 1999 at which annual ceremony?

The National Television Awards gave the show its best-known trophy, after five BAFTA nominations between 1973 and 1985.

Which listings magazine's readers voted Last of the Summer Wine the show they most wanted cancelled in 2003?

Radio Times readers gave it a third of nearly 12,000 votes, and the show's writer replied that anyone who disliked it should simply not switch it on.

Compo's actor in Last of the Summer Wine was also a songwriter, whose hit Marianne was recorded by whom?

Cliff Richard recorded Marianne in the 1960s, when the future Compo also worked on The Matchgirls, a musical about the London matchgirls' strike of 1888.

Jonathan Linsley, hulking café helper Crusher in Last of the Summer Wine, later appeared in which film series?

Pirates of the Caribbean cast him in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, some twenty years after he had played Ivy's menacing-looking but harmless nephew.

Which working title did Last of the Summer Wine briefly carry, after one of the trio's early haunts?

The Library Mob replaced a title BBC producers hated, but the show's writer switched back to his own choice shortly before production began.

Which director of TV's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy made Last of the Summer Wine from 1981 to 2010?

Alan J. W. Bell produced and directed 250 episodes, favouring wide shots of the hills, and in time dropped the London studio recordings to film everything on location.

Before his quiet retirement in Last of the Summer Wine, the cautious Clegg was made redundant from which job?

Lino salesman Clegg lost his job around the time his wife Edith died, which left him free to drift back to his old school friends.

Gordon Wharmby, mechanic Wesley in Last of the Summer Wine, had no acting training and had worked as what?

Painter and decorator Wharmby auditioned for a one-line part and so impressed the director that Wesley grew from a cameo into a regular for two decades.

Wesley restored which red convertible for his wife Edie, a terrible driver, in Last of the Summer Wine?

Triumph Herald outings left her passengers fearing for their lives, and Edie always blamed Wesley for having moved the gear lever and clutch around.

Which title is now given to the 1973 pilot episode of Last of the Summer Wine?

Of Funerals and Fish is a title given in retrospect to the try-out episode, which first went out under the show's own name with a 'The' in front.

Nora Batty usually sees off Compo's advances in Last of the Summer Wine with the hard end of what?

Her broomstick did the talking, yet Nora rushed to comfort Compo when one of Wesley's vehicles blew up with him inside.