Why did season three feature Gordon?

B

bigcat

Dedicated Member
From out of nowhere our trio goes on holiday with Gordon and he meets a girl. A bit later he marries her as we meet his mother, her parents and others. Then they all vanish from the face of the earth. A three odd episodes in a very quirky season.
Was it intended to set up a younger man and couple as series regulars as we would see with Barry and his wife much later? Was his mum or her folks to be a part of the show like Wesley and Edith? It seems there must have been some plan for the characters or why bother a whole episode that featured characters other than our trio or a simple guest star.
Any ideas?
 
Bigcat, I am really enjoying your inquiries. I have no idea, but I always found it quite interesting how Roy Clarke used random characters throughout the show. Many times they would appear only once, but in Gordon's case, it was 3 appearances. I will wait to hear other responses from the more knowledgeable members here.
 
If anyone knows I reckon it would be here.
You are right that many folks just popped in for a single appearance which could be quite memorable and then were never heard from again. I need to watch more of Roy Clarke's shows to see if that was a general pattern in his writing or exclusive to this series.
Cheers and if I haven't mentioned it, your username is great.
 
I'm thinking that RC was just trying different ideas in the early stages as he didn't know which direction he wanted to take the series in. You could say the same about Who's Made A Bit of a Splash in Wales Then? Foggy has met a girlfriend who we've never heard of previously and after that episode we never hear of again.
 
Also take into account the family in Pate and Chips with Compo's nephew Chip and his wife Connie and a van full of kids. I thought those characters would have made a great addition to the cast, think of a the fun Compo would have had with the kids.
 
bigcat said:
If anyone knows I reckon it would be here.
You are right that many folks just popped in for a single appearance which could be quite memorable and then were never heard from again. I need to watch more of Roy Clarke's shows to see if that was a general pattern in his writing or exclusive to this series.
Cheers and if I haven't mentioned it, your username is great.
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Bigcat, with two of his other great shows Open All Hours/ Still Open All Hours and Keeping up Appearances a look at the IMDB site for the cast offers up the greatest hint when you view the number of appearances for each actor . For all three shows when you view it their is a core cast who appear pretty much in every show followed by a long long list of actors who appear once or a couple of times . I think he has a penchant to weave in a guest character or characters into one or two episodes often not in consecutive episodes.

There are characters he obviously delights in using . In the 25 episodes of Open All Hours he sparingly uses the appearances of the "Black Widow" Mrs Featherstone actress Stephanie Cole who only appears in 10 which I find astonishing because she is such a strong character you think she is in every one. Roy thought the same so in the sequel Still Open she appears in all 41 but again IMDB shows a very long list of actors/actresses who appear once or twice . I don't believe they are try outs I just think he uses a breadth of actors to weave small vignettes in each show and its obvious from the dialogue that they are never going to return they are there to simply be a part of a gag in the show.
 
Whilst Gordon himself may not have been a 'tryout' the essentially 3-parter is his first go at writing a longer story than one episode would allow. The last part feels almost a trubute to Peter Toinniswood's I Didn't Know You Cared starring our very own Sid which had it's first series aired the year before. Whilst it would have needed a bit of editing to weave all 3 together it's great to see the chance to let our characters really breathe and expand themselves past their usual remit for the first time. The episode before 'Mending Stuart's Leg' could have easily have been done in the Blamire 'era' as could have the following one of 'The Kink in Foggy's Niblick' with minimal changes required.
 
Barrychuckle said:
I'm thinking that RC was just trying different ideas in the early stages as he didn't know which direction he wanted to take the series in. You could say the same about Who's Made A Bit of a Splash in Wales Then? Foggy has met a girlfriend who we've never heard of previously and after that episode we never hear of again.
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Looking back now it is interesting to think that no one had any idea the show would run for decades and become an institution. It does have the feeling of finding its way in the early years especially with the major cast change doesn't it. Actually just watched the Wales episode and it did feel like it almost belonged to another series with two actors we would never hear from again.
 
Pearl said:
There were so many possibilities in the early years that were never fully developed, I think Roy realised just popular or how long the show would be.
I'd like to gave seen Jack Harry Tesdale a few more time, he fit right in.
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You make good points. The Doctor Who fan in me wonders if there are different realities to our own which are defined by which of the directions Last of the Summer Wine went. There are children and family in one dimension and specific guest stars that stayed on in other dimensions!
Certainly no one could have known that this quirky little library comedy would go on to be talked about on message boards at the dawn of 20224.
 
captain clutterbuck said:
Bigcat, with two of his other great shows Open All Hours/ Still Open All Hours and Keeping up Appearances a look at the IMDB site for the cast offers up the greatest hint when you view the number of appearances for each actor . For all three shows when you view it their is a core cast who appear pretty much in every show followed by a long long list of actors who appear once or a couple of times . I think he has a penchant to weave in a guest character or characters into one or two episodes often not in consecutive episodes.

There are characters he obviously delights in using . In the 25 episodes of Open All Hours he sparingly uses the appearances of the "Black Widow" Mrs Featherstone actress Stephanie Cole who only appears in 10 which I find astonishing because she is such a strong character you think she is in every one. Roy thought the same so in the sequel Still Open she appears in all 41 but again IMDB shows a very long list of actors/actresses who appear once or twice . I don't believe they are try outs I just think he uses a breadth of actors to weave small vignettes in each show and its obvious from the dialogue that they are never going to return they are there to simply be a part of a gag in the show.
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Thanks for that. I never thought of looking at IMDB. There are many guest stars through all his series. More than most other sitcoms I can think of.

I wonder if most were intended to be one off characters, I assume so, and how did he choose certain actors to stay on as fixtures in the show? It feels almost random at times.
 
mashibinbin said:
Whilst Gordon himself may not have been a 'tryout' the essentially 3-parter is his first go at writing a longer story than one episode would allow. The last part feels almost a trubute to Peter Toinniswood's I Didn't Know You Cared starring our very own Sid which had it's first series aired the year before. Whilst it would have needed a bit of editing to weave all 3 together it's great to see the chance to let our characters really breathe and expand themselves past their usual remit for the first time. The episode before 'Mending Stuart's Leg' could have easily have been done in the Blamire 'era' as could have the following one of 'The Kink in Foggy's Niblick' with minimal changes required.
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I hadn't thought of the that. We would see more multi-part episodes or longer specials in the future. So we do get a preview of coming attractions here. Also the wedding was something of a special event that we would bump into from time to time.

I'm into season four now and it does seem like the character of Foggy is now more established and being written for more specifically which I'm thankful for. The show is really rolling along now.
 
mashibinbin said:
The episode before 'Mending Stuart's Leg' could have easily have been done in the Blamire 'era' as could have the following one of 'The Kink in Foggy's Niblick' with minimal changes required.
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bigcat said:
I'm into season four now and it does seem like the character of Foggy is now more established and being written for more specifically which I'm thankful for. The show is really rolling along now.
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Series 3 was originally written for the Blamire character, before it was known he would be too unwell to appear, so the episodes we adapted for the new character Foggy - who is quite similar. That's probably why early Foggy does not seem to be fully formed until series 4.
 
theatrically_inclined said:
Series 3 was originally written for the Blamire character, before it was known he would be too unwell to appear, so the episodes we adapted for the new character Foggy - who is quite similar. That's probably why early Foggy does not seem to be fully formed until series 4.
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Thanks for that. I'm happy to be in season four for that reason.

I wonder if when Foggy leaves and returns we see a similar issue? Will be interesting to keep an eye out for that.
 
bigcat said:
Thanks for that. I'm happy to be in season four for that reason.

I wonder if when Foggy leaves and returns we see a similar issue? Will be interesting to keep an eye out for that.
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When Michael Aldridge left the show he gave notice and did so very graciously (unlike Brian first time around) so I suspect Foggys return episodes would be written for him.

I strongly recommend that you read the Andrew Vine book for the definitive LOTSW story, I couldn't put it down when I read it! Also Summerwine Decanted videos on YouTube are very informative too.
 
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Barrychuckle said:
When Michael Aldridge left the show he gave notice and did so very graciously (unlike Brian first time around) so I suspect Foggys return episodes would be written for him.

I strongly recommend that you read the Andrew Vine book for the definitive LOTSW story, I couldn't put it down when I read it! Also Summerwine Decanted videos on YouTube are very informative too.
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That makes sense.

I had a book like that that I couldn't put down. Never eat molasses while reading a book! Seriously I just looked and I have that book. I just pulled it out to start reading it. Thanks for mentioning it. I also seem to have a country companion and something cheap on ebook from Amazon so lots of fun reading hopefully.
 
bigcat said:
That makes sense.

I had a book like that that I couldn't put down. Never eat molasses while reading a book! Seriously I just looked and I have that book. I just pulled it out to start reading it. Thanks for mentioning it. I also seem to have a country companion and something cheap on ebook from Amazon so lots of fun reading hopefully.
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I love it that so many of you that side of the pond love the show :) I do hope hope you'll make the pilgrimage to Holmfirth as some stage, Mecca for Barmpots!!!!!!
 
Barrychuckle said:
I love it that so many of you that side of the pond love the show :) I do hope hope you'll make the pilgrimage to Holmfirth as some stage, Mecca for Barmpots!!!!!!
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I doubt I ever will in person, but now that you mention it I might be able to in VR. I'll have to see if Google earth and/or street view can take me there virtually.
 
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