Boarding House / Beach House Questions

codfanglers

codfanglers

Dedicated Member
I got to see one of my favorite episodes again, The Great Boarding House Bathroom Caper. Some here are lucky enough to visit Summer Wine locations and others here dream of it. Seeing the trio in that bedroom makes me really want to visit that boarding house. Does anybody know the exact location of this house?

Also, I know it was more common to have a shared bathroom in the UK than in the US back in the day. Would most of those rentals still have shared bathrooms? Just curious. My guess is yes because it would be too much of a task to add a bathroom in every room, but perhaps they would add more so fewer guests share a single bathroom. But then again, what do I know?
 
That episode was a real rib tickler. Many things to think about. They all went to the shore together. The three stayed in the same room. Very obviously, the proprietor was a widow with a large house and she turned it into sort of a B&B. Since the bathroom was down one flight of stairs, everyone, of course, arrived with a useful bathrobe. Even Compo, who obviously did not purchase his.

And there was a very ironic scene. Cleggy peering at the slightly naughty postcards. Why is that ironic? Well, those postcards were actually designed and printed in Holmfirth. Sort of a coals to Newcastle sort of thing.

And then there's Philip Jackson. He's this young skinny thing. Doesn't have too many lines, except, (ha ha) that fishing line. And then he appears years later as Inspector Japp in Poirot. And I wonder -- did he absorb any lessons in acting from his time in LOTSW?
 
These days it would be rare to stay in a B&B here that did not have it's own bathroom, though some are rather small bathrooms, some in older properties are massive
 
I think all the interior scenes would have been studio sets and probably different from the actual house used for the exterior scene. Also, when they arrive at the house they appear to turn into the street from the seafront, but in the opening scene of 'Cheering up Gordon' the camera zooms in to see Foggy exercising on the fire escape of a house quite some way from the seafront.
 
Roger said:
I think all the interior scenes would have been studio sets and probably different from the actual house used for the exterior scene. Also, when they arrive at the house they appear to turn into the street from the seafront, but in the opening scene of 'Cheering up Gordon' the camera zooms in to see Foggy exercising on the fire escape of a house quite some way from the seafront.
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All good points, and while I was writing this, I was considering that the interiors scenes weren't really filmed there. I am sure when these episodes were produced, Clarke and company didn't realize people would be dissecting them 45 years later. :D
 
Adanor said:
That episode was a real rib tickler. Many things to think about. They all went to the shore together. The three stayed in the same room. Very obviously, the proprietor was a widow with a large house and she turned it into sort of a B&B. Since the bathroom was down one flight of stairs, everyone, of course, arrived with a useful bathrobe. Even Compo, who obviously did not purchase his.

And there was a very ironic scene. Cleggy peering at the slightly naughty postcards. Why is that ironic? Well, those postcards were actually designed and printed in Holmfirth. Sort of a coals to Newcastle sort of thing.

And then there's Philip Jackson. He's this young skinny thing. Doesn't have too many lines, except, (ha ha) that fishing line. And then he appears years later as Inspector Japp in Poirot. And I wonder -- did he absorb any lessons in acting from his time in LOTSW?
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The proprietor was hilarious. She was such a nervous wreck. I think this is a typical, awkward Roy Clarke character. It is one of my favorites. Then there is Compo's robe. :D
 
maltrab said:
These days it would be rare to stay in a B&B here that did not have it's own bathroom, though some are rather small bathrooms, some in older properties are massive
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Yes. I would imagine installing a bathroom in every single room would be quite an expense. So I could imagine the bathrooms being really small and simple.
 
maltrab said:
These days it would be rare to stay in a B&B here that did not have it's own bathroom, though some are rather small bathrooms, some in older properties are massive
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Most of the older, budget B&Bs and hotels, especially in London, that I've lodged in over the last 30 years have had pre-fabricated plastic bathrooms shoehorned into a corner of each bedroom. They're up a step from the bedroom floor level to create clearance for the plumbing and, even for a slender guest, they aren't quite big enough to turn around in. Most of the lodgings retain the old toilet rooms on the landings and the bathrooms, for bathing only, on alternate floors.

My favorite holiday provider, HF Holidays, sold it's country house hotel in Scarborough, Grosvenor House, because the only way to add en suite bathrooms was to convert about a third of the bedrooms, reducing the guest capacity to a point at which the house wouldn't have been self-supporting. HF is a non-profit, but its properties have to break even. In 1998, they replaced that house with Larpool Hall, on the outskirts of Whitby, which was up-to-date and on enough land to provide space to add a few handicapped-accessible rooms. Coram Court, at Lyme Regis, was sold for much the same reason, eventually replaced by West Lulworth House, at Lulworth Cove.
 
Although the interior scenes were sets in the studio, it's not uncommon to base the sets on the real property.

When we see Foggy exercising on the balcony/fire escape, that is the real building - so there should be some resemblance to the studio sets what with windows being in the same place and all that.

I don't know for sure if the balcony/fire escape is even the same building as the front of the hotel that we see when our heroes arrive.

And yes, I think most old guest houses will now have ensuite bathrooms in every room.
 
codfanglers said:
Was the Great Boarding House Bathroom Caper written with Blamire in mind?
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Yes, and the location filming in Scarborough was the first thing they filmed that series so it would have been Brian Wilde's first work on the show. Andrew Vine's book says that Michael Bates realized he wasn't healthy enough to film the series when he read the scene where Foggy is running into the water. They initially delayed filming for a month in the hopes that Bates' health would improve but when it didn't the decision was made to move on from him.
 
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