Portal:Comedy/Selected article/11

Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that airs on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. Since 1983, Alan J. W. Bell has produced and directed all episodes of the show. Reruns of the show air in the UK on satellite stations UKTV Gold and UKTV Drama, and it is also seen in more than twenty-five countries, including various PBS stations in the United States. Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in Britain and the longest-running sitcom in the world. Last of the Summer Wine is set and filmed in and around Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, England, and centres around a trio of old men whose lineup has changed over the years. The original trio consisted of Bill Owen as the scruffy and child-like Compo, Peter Sallis as deep-thinking, meek Clegg, and Michael Bates as authoritarian and snobbish Blamire. Brian Wilde joined the cast as the quirky war veteran Foggy when Bates left in 1976 after two series. The men never seem to grow up, and develop a unique perspective on their equally eccentric fellow townspeople through their youthful stunts. The cast has grown to include a variety of supporting characters, each contributing their own subplots to the show and often becoming unwillingly involved in the schemes of the trio. The main cast of the 29th series consists of Sallis, Frank Thornton as former police officer Truly, Brian Murphy as the childish Alvin, and Kathy Staff as Alvin's grumpy next door neighbour, Nora Batty.