Being from America, prior to OAH, I never had any exposure to Ronnie Barker or to David Jason. I prefer SOAH. Ronnie Barker's stutter was OK, but he was no Mel Tillis or Michael Palin. Think about Michael Palin in 'A Fish Called Wanda' when he achieved the ultimate pinnacle of a stutter performance, as he struggled to choke out "the Ca - the Ca - the Caaaaaaa--------------the Caaaaaaa------------the Ca- Caaaaathcart Hotel". Priceless!! The look of frustrated anguish on his face, then followed with relief, said it all. It was masterful! In comparison to that, Arkwright's stutter came across as scripted, unemotional and ho hum. In comparison to Howard's pursuit of Marina, Arkwright's pursuit of the Nurse Gladys Emmanuel seemed like it was on Xanax. I saw one re-hash of an episode from KUA where the washing machine delivery truck had to go around the block a couple of times so the Nurse could see its' arrival with the new washing machine, but the delivery truck did not have the Royal Warrant on it for obvious reasons and missed the mark.
I will say that Arkwright used some of Auntie's tactics to trick unwilling participants into the store, but Auntie continued working over her unwilling customers behind a closed front door. Arkwright worked them over on camera which I thought was better.
I've seen a few episodes of SOAH on Dailymotion and was pleased to see the turnover go to Glanville. Glanville went from Arkwright's flunky to Arkwright's successor. The show is more modern, Lynda Baron, Stephanie Cole and Maggie Ollerenshaw have all matured nicely and are putting on great performances as well. Glanville seems to have taken the shop keeper character to the next level. My new SOAH box set arrived yesterday from Austrailia, and I am looking forward to seeing more episodes.