Fading into the Limelight - Peter Sallis

Maggie Jones

Maggie Jones

Dedicated Member
Hello all

Has anyone read Peter Sallis' autobiography called 'Fading into the Limelight'? Also I believe he wrote a book about his time working on LOTSW. Has anyone read either of these?

Maggie
 
I have not read it, but reviews indicate Fading Into The Limelight does not spend much of its focus on Summerwine. Instead, it's more about Sallis' theatrical career and professional life. The other book, Summer Wine and Other Stories, according to reviews on Amazon, is just Fading reissued with a different title.
 
I have ( & read) Fading into the Limelight. As stated very little on LOTSW, basically "I was great in this play & that play and know (insert celebrity) well." It wasn't my cup of tea unfortunately
 
I agree with Brian Johns. I read Fading Into the Limelight and was expecting to get some behind the scenes stories and experiences about Summer Wine from Peter. Instead, it was a chronology of his entire theater career with very little mention of LOTSW. It was an excellent autobiography, but not what I expected.

In fact I had the same impression of the books written by Bill Owen and Kathy Staff. For the amount of years they spent performing in LOTSW, it certainly didn't occupy much space in their books.
 
Yes - we know very little about Peter Sallis - his autobiography being a standard theatrical style as already indicated. His second one is exactly as the first with a new title but tells us very little about SW. The most forthcoming Peter was - will be found in one of the issues of the Journal of the Summer Wine Appreciation Society.

Called Deep in the Heart of Yorkshire , issue 7 dated Autumn 1995 (2 A5 sides) and issue 8 dated Spring 1996 (3 A5 sides) although the interview was done in 1994. Thre is a paragraph about the stage show - but it tells us little about Peter or SW.

There used to be a member here who met Peter and she did contribute some bits - but they might well be lost now as the site has been through several incarnations since those days. Although my recollection is that they did not tell us much.
 
Somewhere I have a tape with a copy of an interview Peter Sallis did with Peter Levy on Radio Leedsalong while ago.

even if it still played getting it in digital format might defeat me and anyway I suspect would fall foul of copyright.

However will endeavour to find and listen to it to see if there is anything else I can report.
 
Thanks everyone who had info on these books. I Suppose like a lot of people I was hoping for more 'insider' info on LOTSW, I expect he wanted to focus on the whole of his career.
 
I rather enjoyed Fading into the Limelight. I have the audio book, dictated by Peter Sallis himself. The LOSW segment was short but I still enjoyed it. Peter's life up until he became part of Summer Wine was very colorful and interesting. I really enjoyed his reminiscence on his time working with Orson Welles
 
Thank you Don for your reply. As it's his autobiography we can expect him to discuss the whole of his working life not just LOTSW, although I would have liked him to discuss it more from my point of view. I still think I'll buy the book as I do like autobiographies.

Maggie
 
I have read a number of autobiographies and it seems most actors do not like to dwell on any one area too long; they want to show their range of performance and the variety of roles tackled.

Peter Sallis's book is classic theatrical autobiography. If you want detailed SW material then Alan Bell's and Andrew Vine's books are the main two.
 
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I think you'require probably right as perhaps they are not as nostalgic about a role/character they'very played as we are. It could be to them that it'should just another role as many actors don'the like getting type cast.
 
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