A few months after its amusing pilot episode, the show returns in an episode which sees the trio seek out Compo's missing key. The show started off in very different style, how many shows can say they soften to teatime viewing? Last of the Summer Wine certainly did. It always surprised me as to why this show aired much later then the usual tea time slot we all associate it with, but when you watch this, you see a much more adult tone, language, implied smut etc, it really was different. The librarian and his colleague are a real joy.
3 Reviews
Not the Summer Wine most people remember
keysam-0261014 June 2022
I do actually remember Summer Wine from this period, with Blamire as third man and with the library featuring heavily, but for a long time no one else seemed to remember anything prior to Foggy taking over.
That might be because it used to be shown at 8pm and, as can be seen from the pilot and several of these first few episodes, was a rather different proposition from what a lot of people think of when the show is mentioned.
This Summer Wine is NOT soft, bucolic and cuddly. These three men smoke, swear, read mucky magazines at the barber's (who also has a topless calendar on the wall which I notice Drama channel have blurred out) & have strong opinions about religion and politics. Of the two characters that went on for years, Compo & Clegg, the most obvious difference is in Clegg. He's not actually all that likeable and he's certainly not timid. He's not long widowed (Mrs C's gravestone in the pilot says she died 1971. It's now 1973) and though he seems to miss his wife in some ways, he also seems to relish his new freedom.
The other feature of these early episodes is that they feel much more theatrical. At times the actors seem to be declaiming, as though in order to be heard by an audience some distance away.
It's entertaining enough, especially if you do remember the 70s (everything seems authentically grimy and run down) but in some ways it now seems amazing it lasted so long as it feels like a show that wouldn't have appealed so widely.
That might be because it used to be shown at 8pm and, as can be seen from the pilot and several of these first few episodes, was a rather different proposition from what a lot of people think of when the show is mentioned.
This Summer Wine is NOT soft, bucolic and cuddly. These three men smoke, swear, read mucky magazines at the barber's (who also has a topless calendar on the wall which I notice Drama channel have blurred out) & have strong opinions about religion and politics. Of the two characters that went on for years, Compo & Clegg, the most obvious difference is in Clegg. He's not actually all that likeable and he's certainly not timid. He's not long widowed (Mrs C's gravestone in the pilot says she died 1971. It's now 1973) and though he seems to miss his wife in some ways, he also seems to relish his new freedom.
The other feature of these early episodes is that they feel much more theatrical. At times the actors seem to be declaiming, as though in order to be heard by an audience some distance away.
It's entertaining enough, especially if you do remember the 70s (everything seems authentically grimy and run down) but in some ways it now seems amazing it lasted so long as it feels like a show that wouldn't have appealed so widely.
The Lost Key
Prismark1023 October 2017
After the pilot episode this would had been the first episode of the series proper. It far from the cuddly family show of the later years. Not only is their swearing but a nude calendar at the barber's as well as Compo going through a mucky magazine while Blamire is having his hair cut.
The set up features the library and Sid's cafe prominently. Wainwright is passionate about his assistant Mrs Partridge. She in turn likes the thrill despite being married.
Compo loses his keys when the others turn him upside down and then try to to retrieve them from the library which is closed by trying to get hold of Wainwright. This includes a trip to the police station where Compo and his family is known and where Compo is encouraged tip fag ash into the Superintendent's hat.
In search of Wainwright the trio stumble on to a black tie dance and buffet function where they find that they do not meet the dress code.
The best scenes are at the hairdresser's with Frank Middlemass playing Judd the barber, he knows everyone who has recently dropped dead and is the only one who still cuts hair short.
The set up features the library and Sid's cafe prominently. Wainwright is passionate about his assistant Mrs Partridge. She in turn likes the thrill despite being married.
Compo loses his keys when the others turn him upside down and then try to to retrieve them from the library which is closed by trying to get hold of Wainwright. This includes a trip to the police station where Compo and his family is known and where Compo is encouraged tip fag ash into the Superintendent's hat.
In search of Wainwright the trio stumble on to a black tie dance and buffet function where they find that they do not meet the dress code.
The best scenes are at the hairdresser's with Frank Middlemass playing Judd the barber, he knows everyone who has recently dropped dead and is the only one who still cuts hair short.
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