A Country companion.

[amos hames]

Has anyone else read this book.Last of the summer wine.
A country companion by Paul Ableman published by bbc books i bought it for
two pounds in a charity shop in Tonbridge in Kent.It is in general not a bad book
apart from a few glaring mistakes.twice it gives Foggy different names.In the back
flap of the book it gives his name as Oliver Dewhurst and it also has part of the
script for th odd dog men when he is called Ralph Dewhurst.Also Holmfirth is called
STONEFIRTH!!!.overall its quite good ok for what i paid..if anyone else has read or
owns this book i would like to hear what others think of it.

 

[happyjack]

I have had it for some time now. Yes it has some unforgivable mistakes but it is a good addition to my collection of lotsw collection.

 

[Chunky Rumblow]

I have that book, too. An interesting book overall.
I do wonder what Roy Clarke thought of it, being written by someone else. Didn't he once stop the characters appearing on a show because someone else had written the script? He said something along the lines of "No one writes for my characters except me!"

 

[barmpot]

Yes I have had a copy for a long time.

I think it was written when the show was relatively young and it seems there was a certain coyness about mentioning Holmfirth by name, as seemed to be the case with many locations at that time for filming, not just SW.

I think that Foggy's name was not identified at the time of writing hence the confusion: I seem to recall that the initials on a trunk in "Kink in Foggy's Niblick"! were not W C. However it seems continuity was not seen as an issue in those days.

As far as writing for the characters - it was mainly a case of rehashing existing scripts, which the BBC would be entitled to do, and as oublsihed by BBC it suggests that they were aware of any copyright complexities.

 

[barmpot]

I.....
I do wonder what Roy Clarke thought of it, being written by someone else. Didn't he once stop the characters appearing on a show because someone else had written the script? He said something along the lines of "No one writes for my characters except me!"

I have noted thus before and it has caused me to wonder whether Claye's drawings might not fall into this category, as he is writing a "mini-script" with each cartoon strip. Would only be a problem if he were to publish them in a wider context.