Absolutely agree Codfanglers. Nora and Wally were at their best as a double act. I would have had Auntie a bit higher up the list and Mrs. Partridge a little lower:wink:
August 2014 ask Codfanglers
- Thread starter maltrab
- Start date
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
I like Auntie a lot and it was nothing against her.
Mrs. Partridge came in at the end but I thought her role of "desperate, hopeless romantic" was a great addition to the show. She had great moments with Barry, the cops, etc. She also clashes socially with e veryone else so much, it added humor to the show; trying to start poetry groups, ladies' reading clubs, etc.
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
Do you mean Miss Davenport Cod? I'm confused, which isn't unusual
Thank you for the correction. And hopefully John sees this and gets it now. Yes, I don't know where "Mrs. Partridge" came from. I meant Misses Davenport!!!!!! One of the Blamire librarians was a Mrs. Partridge, correct? That and Jean from As Team Goes By was named Ms. Partridge or Ms. Partridger before getting married, correct????
Ms Partridge was one of Wainwright's librarians yes, the married one he was carrying on with
I have a feeling , not sure though. Jean from As Time Go's By was a Mrs Pargeter (not sure of the spelling.) :-[
It is Dick. (Pargetter )
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
Well this will be an uneduated answer, Susan. My knowledge of British actors is limited, but so is my knowledge of American actors. I am not picking my favorite actors (not that I have any), but I am picking actors that I think would fit in well to a Summer Wine Format.
OK, your first question is about a third man. There are two mindsets to a third man. One is to be a wild, comic, barmpot-like character matching wits of the other two guys. I believe Wilde, Aldridge, and Abbott were really comics themselves with the characters they played. On the other hand, Blamire and Truly weren't necessarily comical by themselves, but were more of "straight-men" complimenting the comedy of their goofier partners.
I will give you a BBC actor and an American actor. Your Irish husband might appreciate the first one. For a more straight person to be a leader, how about Niall Toibin, who played Fr. MacAnally on Ballykissangel. He had a bit of a curmudgeon quality that could really but heads with Glegg and Compo-like characters.
Next, an American actor for a more comical third man, John O'Hurley. He played J. Peterman on Seinfeld and hosted Family Feud for a while. He appears constantly energetic and I could always see him guiding the guys around on missions from morning to night, not giving them much of a break. His character has a bit of a Seymour or Foggy likeness.
OK, I will use John O'Hurly for the second question about American actors. For the others, here is a good solution. Cheers is popular on this site, correct? Well, the characters Cliff (Clegg) and Norm (a lazy Compo) would fit really well. John Ratzenberger played Cliff and George Wendt played Norm. All three of these guys would be of Summer Wine age now!
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
I like the Cheers thyme, I loved Cheers and if ever they did an American version of Summer Wine they would do well to use Cliffy and Norm
WSow! Come to think of it, Kelsey Grammer who players Frasier would be a good third man. Isn't Frasier a good bit like Seymour?
Nicko12345
Dedicated Member
I guess there are several distinctive eras in the show`s history...
Blamire years
Early Foggy years
Seymour years
Late Foggy years
Truly (with Compo) years
Truly (without Compo) years
Hobbo years
If you had to rank these in order of preference, where would you place them and why?
Blamire years
Early Foggy years
Seymour years
Late Foggy years
Truly (with Compo) years
Truly (without Compo) years
Hobbo years
If you had to rank these in order of preference, where would you place them and why?
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
Great question, but there is some gray area with this. For example, it is hard to rank the Truly with Compo and without Compo years, because he was only with him for 2 years and (without looking) over ten years without him. There were only 2 years of Blamire and two of Hobbo, but I believe over ten of the 2nd Foggy run, etc.
Also, to me, the biggest direction change of the show (behind Compo's passing) was the permanent switch from Lotterby to Bell. I believe the "Golden Era" of Summer Wine combined three of these era's. This is Series 8-12. This was the beginning of a larger cast, and it combined elements of the old traditional Summer Wine with the new. There were so many classic episodes during this time and it included the final year of Foggy's First Run and first season of his second run.
So here is my ranking......
1. Early Foggy Years (I know, not really part of my Golden Era but I believe most of the classic episodes are here)
2. Seymour Years (I don't think Seymour is any better than Truly or Foggy, it is just that the episodes are great)
*3. Truly without Compo
*4. Truly with Compo
5. Late Foggy Years (after a great Series 12, the show slipped a good bit)
6. Blamire Years
7. Hobbo Years
The Truly Years- I mostly voted for the post-Compo Truly years because there are so many more episodes after Compo and so many of them are great. This is the era that I started with, so the collection of Barmpot characters, like Smiler, Billy, etc. is my "comfort food" with Summer Wine.
I might annoy some here by ranking the Blamire years so low. They might actualy be better than Foggy's second run but there are so few episodes, it can't quite compare. I really do like the Blamire years a lot, but I enjoy all these eras a lot.
Also, I am different from a lot of people here in the I liked Tom a lot and actually enjoy his first few episodes. I thought that shifty character running from the repo man added a lot to the show. I think he was shifty, yet loveable and I believe he worked well with the others. OK, the girl with the crazy make up was odd (forget her name) but she was only a very small part of those episodes.
Nicko12345
Dedicated Member
Thanks for the reply.
I`m interested as to why you feel the show slipped after Series 12.
And in what ways you think it improved during the Truly era (though of course I understand, as you said, that as you started with this era it is special to you for that reason).
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
1. There isn't any great philosophical reason, it is just that there were fewer great episodes. I looked over the Episode Guide here, and Series 12 has a lot of great ones. Empire that Foggy Buillt was followed by Maurice Chevalier Impression and then perhaps the great episodes dropped off a bit (even before the end of Season 12). Then, during the long stretch of Foggy's run, as mentioned before in numerous threads, Compo's yelling toward Nora from his window and Foggy's war stories to strangers became too repetitive. During this 2nd run, there were a few great episodes scattered here and there, like Defeat of the Stone Worm, Camera Shy, Gypsies at the Bottom of our Garden, etc. but they were spread out much more than the earlier years. Foggy's 2nd to last episode, Destiny and Six Bananas is a great one, however. I wish that were his official swan song.
2. You can look over my recent post in the ongoing Three Men and a Mangle thread. I don't know exactly why the show improved with Truly, but the creativity of the writing was revived a bit. Perhaps it helped that Truly was a much different third man. I can't really pin point now which early Truly episodes were great because it has been a long time since I've seen them, but those seasons seemed more solid tha n Foggy's last ones.
I have been writing about this thought a few times lately. I may be the only here to think this, but the characters, Seymour and Foggy, were rather similar-style leaders of the trio, and I think over 20 years of episodes were written to accomodate either the likes of Foggy or Seymour. Truly was a bit different, so maybe, the storyline became fresher. If you want me to be more specific on this though, just read my Aug. 11 comments on the Three Men and a Mangle Thread.
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
One of the disadvantages of relying on my Public Television stations is that I don't get to see the specials. They are not aired on a regular basis. Last Christmas, however, I accidentally discovered one of the channels was airing a bunch of Summer Wine Christmas specials! So I happily kept it on, but we were in the process of getting ourselves and the kids ready for going out of town to visit my family.
I didn't fully get to concentrate on the episodes, but All Mod Conned looked really good and I definitely want to see it in its entirety. Another special has a scene where Foggy was dressed as Father Christmas and they were trying to get a group photo taken and all kinds of things were going wrong.
I know I can see the specials on you tube, but for me, I can only imagine viewing Summer Wine on my living room televison.
codfanglers
Dedicated Member
I believe all the writing around Compo in the cafe in that episode was brilliant!