The Howard and Pearl we could have had

Douglas Enwright

Douglas Enwright

Dedicated Member
I know this has been on here and discussed before,but I came across the old theatre tour programme for Last of the Summer Wine,I knew Howard and Pearl weren’t played by Robert Fyffe and Juliette Kaplan,but I had never seen photos of the characters who played the parts in the play.
Peter Sallis and Bill Owen are there,but interestingly there is no third man,Marina and Crusher are the characters we know and love,but it seems really strange seeing Kenneth Waller from Are you being served and Bread as Howard,and Jean Trend as Pearl.
I wonder if they were ever considered for the part on the tv show,and if so,if they regretted turning it down.
Anyway,here is the Howard and Pearl we could have had.
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Thanks Chuffer, this is really interesting, I've often wondered after reading about it in Andrew Vines book, I remember Kenneth as Young Mr Grace in AYBS, but could easily see him playing the henpecked Howard type character. I don't know much about Jean Trend so cannot comment, that said I'm sure I read somewhere that Pearl was auditioned as she was in the play, perhaps they switched the actors?
I think there was no third man as Brian Wilde was being his often petulant self, and refused to appear in it - from everything I've read he simply wasn't a team player.

Love the way it says at the bottom biscuits supplied by United Biscuits :p :p :p

Thanks once again for taking the time to share, what I'd give to see video of this play, if it even exists......
 
It would be great to see it wouldn’t it Barry.
The Glenda in the theatre cast list is not Barry’s Glenda,it’s the punk girlfriend of Crusher,who when she briefly appeared in a tv episode was played by Yvette Fielding and called Fran.
Thankyou for some very interesting points,
I can just imagine a saucer of biscuits in every dressing room proudly placed there by United biscuits
ps I’v lost all my screenshots and dialogue from Destiny and six bananas but will doing the anniversary reconstruction walk when I have them again x
 
I like the standby for Mr Owen and Mr Sallis John Channel Mills , clearly more a theatre actor than any other branch of entertainment as his IMDB has one sole credit as an Inspector in Relative Strangers in 1987 . He was clearly versatile and very capable of line learning given he was understudy for both Compo and Cleggy just amazing can you imagine if Bill or Peter were unable to perform and what happens if they both can't very risky having one person cover two parts and two of the main parts , astounding ! :oops:
 
Very interesting! In his book, Peter Sallis mentions the play, he says Brian Wilde didn't want to do it, that he did it for two years, and Bill Owen for three. He indicates there was a fill in for the character of Foggy, but he doesn't name him. He mentions Jan Butlin as the director and problems with props. Some of the character inter-relationships were different from how they turned out in the show. I get the impression that the play was never intended to be what might be called cannon to the show. Do we have anyone here who saw the original play firsthand? Peter's book indicates 1983 and 1984. Coincidently, there was a heatwave that summer too.
 
From different sources, my understanding is that those are the Howard/Pearl actors from the first season of the play. They did some early shows in London to get warmed up and originally had another actor playing Foggy. However, they decided that didn't work so when they took the show out for a successful summer run, they took Foggy out and just had him supposedly upstairs and sick the whole time. Bell and Clarke saw the first season show and weren't all that impressed by it.

The second season, the actors who played Howard and Pearl weren't available, so were recast. That's where Robert and Juliette came in. Bell and Clarke thought they worked a lot better, but I don't think there was any plan to bring any of those actors or characters to the TV show until the death of John Comer. At that point they apparently decided to add the play characters, though Crusher is a lot different based on things Jonathan has said. He may have even been Marina's son in the play, as she was a widow in that story. (I've never found a script for the play or a detailed summary of it). Their appearances in series 8 seem to have been test runs to see how audiences would react to them.

There was a third season of the play but only Bill Owen appeared that year and I don't think they had Foggy or Clegg in it at all. I'm not sure who played Howard, Pearl, or Marina in that version. It may have been the actors we are used to, though.
 
captain clutterbuck said:
They've just announced the new Doctor Who appears to be a a landowner and TV legend from Shropshire . No stranger to SCI FI here's a picture from a role he played in a famous Gerry Anderson show. :)

View attachment 5284
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Love it CC!!! I hardly think a 1/3 acre overgrown parcel of land makes me Mr DeVere but I'll take that!!!!
If you've ever been to Shropshire, some of the people who live in rural parts are more scary than any Dr Who alien :devil2::eek2::devil2::geek2:
 
Barrychuckle said:
Love it CC!!! I hardly think a 1/3 acre overgrown parcel of land makes me Mr DeVere but I'll take that!!!!
If you've ever been to Shropshire, some of the people who live in rural parts are more scary than any Dr Who alien :devil2::eek2::devil2::geek2:
Click to expand...
I was watching Antiques Roadshow and a presenter briefly opined that the women of Shropshire had thick ankles. Well, he never heard the end of it and had to meet with the ladies and publicly retract that remark -- over tea and crumpets.
 
Sarkus said:
From different sources, my understanding is that those are the Howard/Pearl actors from the first season of the play. They did some early shows in London to get warmed up and originally had another actor playing Foggy. However, they decided that didn't work so when they took the show out for a successful summer run, they took Foggy out and just had him supposedly upstairs and sick the whole time. Bell and Clarke saw the first season show and weren't all that impressed by it.

The second season, the actors who played Howard and Pearl weren't available, so were recast. That's where Robert and Juliette came in. Bell and Clarke thought they worked a lot better, but I don't think there was any plan to bring any of those actors or characters to the TV show until the death of John Comer. At that point they apparently decided to add the play characters, though Crusher is a lot different based on things Jonathan has said. He may have even been Marina's son in the play, as she was a widow in that story. (I've never found a script for the play or a detailed summary of it). Their appearances in series 8 seem to have been test runs to see how audiences would react to them.

There was a third season of the play but only Bill Owen appeared that year and I don't think they had Foggy or Clegg in it at all. I'm not sure who played Howard, Pearl, or Marina in that version. It may have been the actors we are used to, though.
Click to expand...
Thankyou Sarkus that was very interesting
 
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