What Should Happen to Summer Wine

maltrab

Administrator
Staff member
As there has been chat on forums about what should happen next with losw,I thought I would see what the members felt,this poll will remain open for some time and you will see the results of voting before it closes
 
Intriguing that only 16 votes out of 100 views - or is it that some of us have seen it four times?
 
I think it should carry on in its present format but with a bit more thought to the casting. I think there is a bit more mileage in the series given that.
 
The fact that the BBC didn't end the series at 35 years with a 'Special', I feel that they should give the current cast five years to settle in. If they are successful, then make it into a spin off.

Last of the Summer Wine is the longest running sit-com in the world. The BBC does not recognise the 'jewel' that they have. They tend to listen to the critics, who seem to get it wrong all time. Amongst their mistaken reviews is the belief that Summer Wine uses canned laughter. As a member of that audience of over 300 that creates that 'canned laughter' for the last twelve years, I no longer believe the reviewers, I have tried to tell the BBC not to listen, but to no avail.
 
The fact that the BBC didn't end the series at 35 years with a 'Special', I feel that they should give the current cast five years to settle in. If they are successful, then make it into a spin off.

Last of the Summer Wine is the longest running sit-com in the world. The BBC does not recognise the 'jewel' that they have. They tend to listen to the critics, who seem to get it wrong all time. Amongst their mistaken reviews is the belief that Summer Wine uses canned laughter. As a member of that audience of over 300 that creates that 'canned laughter' for the last twelve years, I no longer believe the reviewers, I have tried to tell the BBC not to listen, but to no avail.

One of the main problems is that the BBC is now run by blinkered idiots who are only interested in competing with the ITV for viewing figures.
Reality TV is the only thing they seem to be intersted in making and I now have my own belief that the channel is one of the shoddiest in the media.

I would be happy for the show to carry on while ever Roy Clarke wants to write it or failing that let him end it in his own way.

I am not surprised that your suggestions have fallen on deaf ears as the BBC don't really listen to the people who fund them, they seem to be far too arrogant and drowning in their own self importance and paying stupid wages to talentless clowns.

The sooner they are made to self funding the better it will be, THEN we will see just how good they are at wasting money where they should not.
 
What chances a spin off now?

About as much chance as we have of Cooper and Walsh catching a crook....
 
I have voted that the show we all love should be allowed to end gracefully, I know that may not be the popular view but the magic of the show was the interaction between Compo, Clegg, and Foggy/ blamire/seymour/truly which is gone.
Listening to their discussions as they lazed on a hillside was the high point for me, Foggys war tales, compos infatuation with Nora and Cleggs mind wandering of on some crazy tangent which left the other two dumbfounded was truly magic and can never recreated.

Sadly, I think its time to say goodbye to them all.

:'(
 
I totally agree with sidsfloyd - its sad but without Clegg and Truly being the REAL stars then its not the same. The last couple of series without much of the REAL stars was not the same and it really annoyed me that Peter Sallis and Frank Thornton's name on the cast list did not come first (and Ivy's of course).
 
Yet there could eb a spin off - albeit on another channel. Perhaps Cooper and Walsh do occasionally arrest someone!
 
I think I'd have to agree with sidsfloyd & Flatcap - For me, Summer Wine was Clegg and Compo and their third. Foggy was a good replacement for Blamire, and Seymour and Truly were good replacements for Foggy. Wesley and Sid were good supporting characters and Barrie was a good supporting character for Wesley. It was magic. Everything just fell into place together and worked right.

When Compo went forth, I really saw the gap that he left behind, and then when Cleggy became housebound, I realised that they were well and truly past the summer and deep into autumn.

In my view, I think it would have been better to bring Summer Wine to a close earlier, on a more positive note, and then bring out a spin-off (even though I hate that term). I think it makes a big difference if you watch a show and say, "Hey, it's just like Summer Wine!" or watch the old show and see the characters getting old and disappearing and being replaced by people who "just aren't the same".

Still, having said that, I realise that the show as it is is real life. In the real Holmfirth, the old people pass away and the younger people grow up and take over, and it's "just not the same anymore" (as Terry and Claye's photos will show). But t.v. can only follow reality to a certain extent.
 
Well stated Garret.

I really did love 99.9% of the episodes but as i've mentioned elsewhere on this forum, there are a few episodes that i don't watch very often, they just don't seem right somehow, as though Roy Clarke wasn't "firing on al four cylinders" when he wrote them, i'm sure he has his off days, just like the rest of us do.

There are certain episodes that i don't find quite as funny as i used to, lets face it, it's been nearly 40 years that some of us have been watching the show, i was 19 years old when it started in`73, i am now 56 years old.
I do feel i've grown old with both the show and the characters within the show, i'm sure we all have our favorites, of both shows and characters.

I do agree with Garret, that a show cannot be infinite and the characters cannot be immortal, although they will always be remembered with oodles of affection.
I've been watching a couple of the DVD's over the weekend and i did find it difficult to decide which ones to watch, because i've seen them that many times.

The last DVD i bought, the latest one with "The man who nearly knew Pavaroti", featuring Norman Wisdom on it, well there were a couple of episodes in the set that i had never seen before, they were broadcast when i was living in Southern Ireland in the early`90's and i don't think they have ever been repeated since. so it was nice to sit down with me dinner and watch those episodes first.

I don't think that there should be any spinoffs really, to me it's like pushing a car when the tyres are flat, or as Norman Clegg might say "A little voice keeps telling me, Norman, Norman..., leave it alone".
I wonder if some of us just want a spinoff, to keep the Summer wine memory alive?
If that's the case, then i think i would rather it went down as something that was special to us for many years and but for the really crappy last few episodes, which in my opinion, was not the kind of ending that such an iconic comedy programme deserved, i'm quite happy to imagine in my own mind, that the bottle of "Summer wine", was already quite empty by the time that Russ Abbot arrived.
I'm afraid that the show seemed to be just running on faith from that point on.

RIP Summer wine, i remember thee well. x

G ; )
 
Well stated Garret....

Thanks for the vote of confidence Blueprint. Like I said, I don't like the term spin-off, and honestly I don't much like the concept. I've seen the memory of some good programs ruined by pathetic spin-offs. And you raised an important point that I hadn't thought about before... perhaps I was just trying to "keep the Summer Wine memory alive", as you said, when I mentioned the spin-off idea.

Although I actually did like the pair of Alvin and Entwistle - I think they worked together well, as did P.C.s Walsh and Cooper, and I was thinking that a decent show could be built up around them. Not really a Summer Wine copy, but a new show continuing in the direction that they were taking it. (But without that Hobbo guy...)

However, in the end, Summer Wine truly is no more, and perhaps it's for the best. Let us remember it and its characters in the way we enjoyed them most.

I repeat Bluprint's sentiment: RIP Summer Wine (as I take off me flat cap and hold it to me breast...)
 
When Frank Thornton joined the cast (Brian Wilde suggested him), i found it as acceptable as when Micheal Aldridge joined as Seymore in the eighties.
Foggy did return, so i think it was always there in the back of our minds that Foggy may well return again.

When it became obvious that he was unlikely to come back into the programme, then (in my case), i saw Truly as a more settled third member, he was as feasable as when Foggy joined, after Micheal Bates left.
The transition from Blamire to Foggy worked well in "The man from Oswestry", as did the transition from Foggy to Seymore in "Uncle of the bride".

Seymore's departure and Foggy's return in "Return of the warrior" was brilliantly written, as was the introduction of Truly and the final goodbye to Foggy in "There goes the groom".
The transitional thing, lost it's way with the arrival of Hobbo, even though there were veiled attempts to show him as the "Milkman who went a bit loopy", as i saw it.
Hobbo's pretence of having been a secret agent, just didn't cut it for me, it was sailing too close to Foggy's war stories for my liking and that had already been done with Foggy's character, so a similar background of self belief and importance with Hobbo, was in my opinion, a non-starter, been there, done that, move on.

I think with the panic felt by both the fans of the show and the cast and crew, with rumours of no more commisions for 2010, the final series was more like a pantomime, with too much emphasis on Howard and Pearls potential break-up.
It seemed like the final scripts had been hurriedly written and in my opinon, it showed in the final series.
I've watched them a few times but the magic just wasn't there anymore for me.
The BBC scored a home goal by not ending Summer wine before the introduction of Hobbo, they could have given Roy Clarke plenty of time to write a fitting finale to a much loved show, it could have slipped into a warm bed, turned off the bedside lamp and whispered a final "Good night".

G ; 0
 
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