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David Jason to front Open All Hours retrospective

theatrically_inclined

theatrically_inclined

Dedicated Member
David Jason is to front a U&Gold retrospective of Open All Hours. The 90 minute special will include a short new scene written by Roy Clarke in which Jason returns as Granville for a final time.
According to UKTV "2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the classic comedy, with Sir David Jason being the only actor to have starred in every episode of the original series, and the re-boot, Still Open All Hours. Sir David will discuss his personal journey on the show, revealing exclusive behind-the-scenes moments as well as some of his fondest memories from his time playing grocer, Granville."

from comedy.co.uk
 
U & Gold are getting to be more adventurous , not personally for the best always . Months ago I booked two tickets to see the Fawlty Towers play at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at the cost of £80 only to now find U & Gold have secured broadcasting it this month :mad: . I cannot not watch it and even if I didn't friends will be watching the Gold broadcast and talking about it so yesterday I cancelled my tickets .

I had a credit for the amount and I have managed to secure tickets for a production of Inspector Morse in Feb 2026 which is a sheer bit of luck because plays are rare here tends to be mostly musicals , so its a happy ending . I wondered how they secured it for broadcast wondered if one of Cleese's wives had put the squeeze on so he needed the money and sold it to Gold.
 
Has anyone else watched this yet ? I watched it last night and really enjoyed it although a lot was about Still which is not my favourite , however it was great to see Sir Roy give a lot of insight into his writing and the end scenes are a very emotional and fitting moment for the actors who appeared . Of course some actors have sadly passed away , Stephanie Cole is 84 and retired but didn't appear on the show neither surprisingly to me did Sally Lindsay who pops up often on all sorts of shows or Geoffrey Whitehead , Mr Newbould who is 86.

Leroy's flame from the library and Sophie Willan were no shows . A few of the lesser actors who appeared in the odd episodes did appear and it was nice to see them in "Civvies" , of course a lot of those from Open All Hours may well have passed away but it was nice to revisit clips showing them .

If you watch it I'd be interested in what you think .
 
Well I've seen it now and in summary it felt fitting for a show centred around thriftyness to feel 'done on the cheap.'

Sir Roy and David's contributions were enjoyable and plentiful enough but the likes of Johnny Vegas et al were mostly sidelined apart from Maggie Ollerenshaw. Behind the scenes wise not much was revealed but the selection of outtakes and fluffs especially those from Stephanie Cole were a real delight. It would have been nice to have the interact with each other eg David and Maggie/James, Johnny and Kulvinder etc.

What was a let down really was the final 'scene' penned by Roy - nothing wrong with it's content but it was alarmingly brief. Whilst I appreciate a full episode to round things off was sadly unlikely to be on the horizon, a 5-10 minute short along the lines of the Funny Side of Christmas would have sufficed giving us one last chance to see the dynamic of Granville, Leroy and Mavis at the very least. Instead we got what appeared to be Sir David cgid against the shop front in a similar way to Frank Thornton and Peter Sallis in their final 'location' work and all for all of merely a paragraph.
 
I think the actors would have signed up to that but I felt they were truly touched by the individual letter from Sir Roy and I got an inkling Sir Roy thought there was unfinished business and would have probably written a script, perhaps like the fete of Red Dwarf U and Gold did not want to commit to making it.
 
I loved the final scene. It's not as substantial as one would dream of, but the fact that it exists at all is kind of a miracle. What we did get made me tear up. Softy that I am.

Everybody involved would have loved to have done one more to round things off – but the time has sadly passed. The cost of resurrecting the sets and getting everyone together would be very high.
 
DrewTheWino said:
I loved the final scene. It's not as substantial as one would dream of, but the fact that it exists at all is kind of a miracle. What we did get made me tear up. Softy that I am.

Everybody involved would have loved to have done one more to round things off – but the time has sadly passed. The cost of resurrecting the sets and getting everyone together would be very high.
Click to expand...
Not been able to see it yet
 
captain clutterbuck said:
I think the actors would have signed up to that but I felt they were truly touched by the individual letter from Sir Roy and I got an inkling Sir Roy thought there was unfinished business and would have probably written a script, perhaps like the fete of Red Dwarf U and Gold did not want to commit to making it.
Click to expand...

I'm sure they would and if pushed probably for expenses given their love of the show.
DrewTheWino said:
I loved the final scene. It's not as substantial as one would dream of, but the fact that it exists at all is kind of a miracle. What we did get made me tear up. Softy that I am.

Everybody involved would have loved to have done one more to round things off – but the time has sadly passed. The cost of resurrecting the sets and getting everyone together would be very high.
Click to expand...
Sad but true - it just felt even shorter than some of the closing monologues in the show and poor Sir David didn't look too comfortable but that may have been his emotion taking over.
 
Sadly the documentary seems to have passed members by like a cheap rocket from a dodgy back street garage, it fizzed for two seconds and it was gone . Has the limelight sadly faded for the other comedies in terms of interest?
 
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