The success of the show is quite extraordinary - it features neither mystery nor adventure, neither car chases nor firearms, neither glam nor glitz, not even that faithful old double act, sex and violence. Instead, just three old so-and-sos wandering about the Yorkshire countryside, side like a geriatric version of Just William.
How did it get made at all? Alan Bell, producer-director, has no doubt. "It has an emotional heart," he says. "And these are reconisable, real, warm characters." Bell is the first to admit he is a mere novice in the series, with only 12 years on the team. The three stars were not exactly juvenile leads when they began. Peter Sallis (Clegg) is now 72, Bill Owen (Compo) is 78, and Brian Wilde is... well, we don't really know how old Wilde is because he is unable to tell us.
They are three old gents. They sit in the caravan, resting, while an aide sustains them with nourishing health drinks. "I have a good headline for your article," says Sallis, sipping at a plastic cup. "How about 'Bovril in August'?"
Sallis specialises in the unsmiling joke, and the placing of conversational cats among pigeons. He also likes to joke about their age. While they are filming, he says, there is a great deal of sleeping, a certain amount of time spent on the crossword, and only sporadic banter of a mild nature: "I find these days I can spend quite a long time doing nothing."
Brought up in the London suburbs, Peter Sallis's first attempt at acting was with his friend Reg Davies, starring in their own play, The Leopold Pearls. He remembers how, when Reg drank from the poisoned cup and said that they would never take him alive, Mary the housemaid wet herself laughing. "Reg, who was clearly destined for a theatrical career, later became a dentist, so it was just left to me."
How did it get made at all? Alan Bell, producer-director, has no doubt. "It has an emotional heart," he says. "And these are reconisable, real, warm characters." Bell is the first to admit he is a mere novice in the series, with only 12 years on the team. The three stars were not exactly juvenile leads when they began. Peter Sallis (Clegg) is now 72, Bill Owen (Compo) is 78, and Brian Wilde is... well, we don't really know how old Wilde is because he is unable to tell us.
They are three old gents. They sit in the caravan, resting, while an aide sustains them with nourishing health drinks. "I have a good headline for your article," says Sallis, sipping at a plastic cup. "How about 'Bovril in August'?"
Sallis specialises in the unsmiling joke, and the placing of conversational cats among pigeons. He also likes to joke about their age. While they are filming, he says, there is a great deal of sleeping, a certain amount of time spent on the crossword, and only sporadic banter of a mild nature: "I find these days I can spend quite a long time doing nothing."
Brought up in the London suburbs, Peter Sallis's first attempt at acting was with his friend Reg Davies, starring in their own play, The Leopold Pearls. He remembers how, when Reg drank from the poisoned cup and said that they would never take him alive, Mary the housemaid wet herself laughing. "Reg, who was clearly destined for a theatrical career, later became a dentist, so it was just left to me."