How not to cry at funerals and fish

theatrically_inclined

theatrically_inclined

Dedicated Member
The UK tv channel "UKTV Gold" have been showing two episodes of Summer Wine every weekday morning for some time. Tomorrow, 23 March, an event takes place nearly as rare as an eclipse. At 9:25 am they are broadcasting the last ever episode, "How not to cry at weddings", followed at 10:05am by the pilot (billed as series 1 episode 1) "Of funerals and fish" (repeated at 4pm and 4:40pm). Just see how much has changed by slipping back nearly fifty years to the original episode.
 
That sort of reminds me of when I first started watching Summer Wine years back. While recording KUA for me while I was at work, My wife started recording Summer Wine as well. It was around season 25ish. That was the norm for me. Then I caught the first season on a weekend airing and later on, started viewing Seymour's first season during another time slot. I was all over the place with these eras. Oddly enough, it was a while until I came across Foggy.
 
Well, on WETA UK, they have been running LOTSW at noon and it came time for "Elegy for Fallen Wellies." Very sad. But I couldn't help but notice that the ladies doing that fru-fru dance, did very well. Probably was not the first time they put on their dancing shoes. But the rest was sad and very poignant.
 
Barrychuckle said:
I actually like How Not To Cry at Weddings, I know most here aren't fans of the later episodes but I think it was a gentle goodbye to the series. Not sure what others think of this particular episode?
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I haven't seen it for a while. I recall, it was a good send-off considering the Series it was in. Was it a classic episode to the quality of some of the early classics or Series 8? No. However, for the remaining cast, it was a good way to end the show.
 
"How Not to Cry" is a solid conclusion to the series and what Roy Clarke decided to do. So I'm ok with it. I do find myself thinking about how they filmed it a lot, though. Remember, Peter and Frank were studio only by then so scenes like when they are in the bus are interesting. In fact, you can see they aren't actually there by looking at where people are and who should be behind who. It reminds me of how they handled Thora Hird in "A Secret Birthday" where you can see her double in at least one scene.
 
wstol said:
I've heard conflicting reports about whether that episode was actually written as the last ever.
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In what way? I'm going by Alan Bell's book, where he says Clarke was given the go ahead to write the series even before Bell was told that. Andrew Vine's book says the cast and crew all knew that was almost certainly going to be the final series. So, I think we can pretty safely conclude that Clarke knew that as well when he wrote it. I'm not saying he didn't have some small hope it might continue, just that it does reach a conclusion on some points. Finally, I've read that when asked Clarke has said that's the ending he wrote. He's never said he wanted a wrap-up special or anything like that.
 
I see that UK Gold has yet again omitted series 30 episode 1, the last episode of series 29 was on yesterday and today they are showing Adventures of the Inventor of the Mother Stitch series 30 episode 2 why skip I was a Hitman for Primrose Dairies again :mad: I am not pointing their mistake out again to them , they have it their head that it was a Christmas special as it was shown during the Christmas/New Year period we know different . Anyone watching will be bemused about Hobbo's origins and reasons why he suddenly appeared in the regular three, words just fail me.
 
captain clutterbuck said:
I see that UK Gold has yet again omitted series 30 episode 1, the last episode of series 29 was on yesterday and today they are showing Adventures of the Inventor of the Mother Stitch series 30 episode 2 why skip I was a Hitman for Primrose Dairies again :mad: I am not pointing their mistake out again to them , they have it their head that it was a Christmas special as it was shown during the Christmas/New Year period we know different . Anyone watching will be bemused about Hobbo's origins and reasons why he suddenly appeared in the regular three, words just fail me.
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The previous episode (Get Out of That, Then) was originally aired 31 August 2008, and "Some Adventures of the Inventor of the Mother Stitch" was originally broadcast 19 April 2009, so "I Was a Hitman for Primrose Dairies" was the "New Year" Special on 31 Dec 2008, and as all specials, gets ignored in the sequential run... you'll have to wait for a bank holiday!
 
I notice that the BBC Iplayer has lots of full box sets on it's site, ie KUA & Porridge I wonder if they'll put the entire series on there for its 50th anniversary next year?
 
I was shocked that, after years of looping through the final seven or so seasons, our local channel (Kentucky Educational Television) started off fresh with "Funerals and Fish" and have been progressing through ever since. Up to fourth or fifth episode by now.
Kind of funny in that on episode two certain things are pixilated at the barber shop. Not sure where that post production was done before airing.
 
Onslow said:
I was shocked that, after years of looping through the final seven or so seasons, our local channel (Kentucky Educational Television) started off fresh with "Funerals and Fish" and have been progressing through ever since. Up to fourth or fifth episode by now.
Kind of funny in that on episode two certain things are pixilated at the barber shop. Not sure where that post production was done before airing.
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Hard to say as that stuff isn't pixelated on my UK copies. Either it was done by the distributor who sells the show in the US or maybe by the station you are watching itself. There are only a few episodes like that - another is in Series 9 when Seymour builds a garbage disposal for Edie. A calendar in the machine shop when they go pick it up shows some nudity.
 
I remember when I was growing up the topless calendar was pretty much universal in every mechanics workshop and behind most bars hidden by the peanuts. I suppose we're lucky that we weren't all morally corrupted prior to TV companies kindly censoring things for us ;)
 
theatrically_inclined said:
The previous episode (Get Out of That, Then) was originally aired 31 August 2008, and "Some Adventures of the Inventor of the Mother Stitch" was originally broadcast 19 April 2009, so "I Was a Hitman for Primrose Dairies" was the "New Year" Special on 31 Dec 2008, and as all specials, gets ignored in the sequential run... you'll have to wait for a bank holiday!
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I contacted UK Gold by mail when this first happened stating there was no background on Hobbo which we learn in episode 1 of series 30 it appears to the uninitiated that he dropped out of the sky and without the use of Alvin's hang glider . When I first contacted them they sent this twaddle

I'm afraid there is no oversight this time around, this episode was
originally broadcast 31/12/2008,(Episode 2 which is actually the start
of series 30 didn't broadcast till April 19th 2009) it's a Christmas
Special, as such we won't be broadcasting it this time around, when we
broadcast Christmas Specials outside the festive period we generate a
lot of complaints.

So I wrote back and told them that although shown at Christmas time it was not a Christmas episode per say and received this

We have looked into this and found there was a historic discrepancy
in the way the distributor had labelled the series, which meant we
didn't have this episode available to us. We have rectified this now.

For future airings of Last of the Summer Wine, we will be including
this episode in the run but weren't able to include it this time
around unfortunately.

Clearly this time around and maybe other of the series replays they clearly forgot they had acquired episode 1 and did not keep their promise in the mail.
 
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