Last of the Summer Wine
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Last of the Summer Wine trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Last of the Summer Wine ran on the BBC from 1973 to 2010, which makes it the longest-running sitcom in the world. Its idea never changed: three men old enough to know better roam the Yorkshire hills like schoolboys, testing daft inventions and dodging the formidable women of the town. This quiz covers the whole run. There are questions on Compo, Clegg, Foggy and the men who followed them, on Nora Batty and the ladies' coffee mornings, on the guest stars and the cast's other famous roles, and on how the series was written, filmed and scored. It starts gently for anyone who grew up with the show and gets harder for viewers who can still name every third man. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which West Yorkshire town, once known for saucy postcards, was the filming home of Last of the Summer Wine?
Holmfirth
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.
Q 02In Last of the Summer Wine, Compo can never resist remarking on which trademark of Nora Batty's outfit?
Wrinkled stockings
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.
Q 03Peter Sallis, the only actor in every episode of Last of the Summer Wine, voiced which animated inventor?
Wallace
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.
Q 04Which royal told the actress who played Edie in 2001 that Last of the Summer Wine was her favourite programme?
Queen Elizabeth II
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.
Q 05Tom Simmonite arrived in Last of the Summer Wine after Compo's death, played by which relative of Compo's actor?
His son
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.
Q 06Frank Thornton, Truly in Last of the Summer Wine, was best known as Captain Peacock in which sitcom?
Are You Being Served?
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.
Q 07Burt Kwouk, Entwistle in Last of the Summer Wine, played which ambushing manservant in the Pink Panther films?
Cato
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.
Q 08Billy Hardcastle in Last of the Summer Wine is convinced he is a direct descendant of which English folk hero?
Robin Hood
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.
Q 09Edie's put-on telephone voice in Last of the Summer Wine was the prototype for which sitcom snob by the same writer?
Hyacinth Bucket
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.
Q 10Which former policeman and teacher wrote every one of the 295 episodes of Last of the Summer Wine?
Roy Clarke
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.
Q 11Which London-born Carry On regular played the scruffy Compo in Last of the Summer Wine for 26 years?
Bill Owen
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.
Q 12Which actress, who padded herself out for the audition, played Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine?
Kathy Staff
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.
Q 13Which composer of the Yes Minister theme also wrote the gentle signature tune of Last of the Summer Wine?
Ronnie Hazlehurst
Q 21Brian Murphy was cast as Alvin in Last of the Summer Wine because of his henpecked husband in which sitcom?
George and Mildred
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.
Q 22Russ Abbot's Hobbo fancied himself a secret agent in Last of the Summer Wine, but what had his real job been?
Milkman
Milkman Hobbo claimed ties to MI5, perhaps a nod to Basildon Bond, the spoof spy Abbot had played in his 1980s sketch shows.
Q 23Foggy Dewhurst boasts of jungle heroics in Last of the Summer Wine, but what was his actual army job?
Signwriter
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.
Q 14Session player Harry Pitch carried the theme tune of Last of the Summer Wine on which instrument?
Harmonica
Harmonica virtuoso Pitch had already featured on the 1970 one-hit wonder Groovin' with Mr Bloe before he gave Summer Wine its plaintive sound.
Q 15Who was the original third man of the trio, alongside Compo and Clegg, in Last of the Summer Wine?
Cyril Blamire
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.
Q 16Michael Bates left Last of the Summer Wine through illness while also starring as Rangi Ram in which sitcom?
It Ain't Half Hot Mum
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.
Q 17Brian Wilde, Foggy in Last of the Summer Wine, played the timid Mr Barrowclough in which sitcom?
Porridge
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.
Q 18Jean Alexander, Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine, spent 23 years as which Coronation Street character?
Hilda Ogden
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.
Q 19Stephen Lewis, gloomy Smiler in Last of the Summer Wine, was best known as Inspector Blakey in which sitcom?
On the Buses
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.
Q 20Which Ronnie Barker and David Jason sitcom came from the same writer as Last of the Summer Wine?
Open All Hours
Open All Hours managed only four series in nine years because its two stars kept leaving for other projects.
Signwriter Foggy still styled himself a trained killer, a boast that bored passing strangers and now and then got him arrested.
Q 24When Foggy first left Last of the Summer Wine in 1985, he was said to have taken over which family business?
Egg painting
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.
Q 25Which inventor and former headmaster joined the trio of Last of the Summer Wine in the film Uncle of the Bride?
Seymour
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.
Q 26Which 1983 film, the first feature-length Last of the Summer Wine, grew out of a novel by the show's writer?
Getting Sam Home
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.
Q 27Which knighted comedian played nervous pianist Billy Ingleton in several Last of the Summer Wine specials?
Norman Wisdom
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.
Q 28Which comedy double act guest-starred in Last of the Summer Wine as two members of the Joliffe family?
Cannon and Ball
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.
Q 29Nora Batty was twice written out of Last of the Summer Wine by being sent off to which country?
Australia
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.
Q 30In Last of the Summer Wine, café owner Ivy is known for clouting unruly customers over the head with what?
A metal tray
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.