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Last of the Summer Wine poster

Last of the Summer Wine

1973

Comedy

Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.

Keith Clifford photo

Keith Clifford

Keith Clifford is an actor famous for playing Billy Hardcastle in Last of the Summer Wine from 1999 to 2006 and for playing celebrated northern wartime comedian Frank Randle, for which he won the 1993 Sony Radio Award for the play Randle's Scandals.

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Mike Newbold

Mike Newbold is an actor known for Deadline (1989), Last of the Summer Wine (1973) and Pantomime (2014).

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Blake Butler

John David Blake Butler was an English actor best known for his role as the lecherous chief librarian Mr. Wainwright during the first and third series of Last of the Summer Wine in 1973 and 1976 respectively.

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Gordon Wharmby

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Gordon Wharmby was a British television actor. He was best known for the role of Wesley Pegden on Last of the Summer Wine. He was born in Manchester, Lancashire, in 1933, and served in the Royal Air Force during his national service. He died in 2002, aged 68.

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John Comer

John Comer (died 1984) was a British comic actor. He starred in the television series I Didn't Know You Cared, Last of the Summer Wine and All Our Saturdays. Born and brought up in Stretford, Lancashire, Comer gained an engineering apprenticeship at Metropolitan-Vickers, Trafford Park. Comer began his career performing a comedy routine around local social clubs and pubs in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1952, with his younger brother Tony, he performed in a children's theatre production for local schools in Stretford.[citation needed] The siblings then formed a double act named the Comer Brothers. In 1957 the brothers began a regular slot at the Manchester Apollo, performing a variety act entitled Comer's Cottage. In 1958 the Comer Brothers participated in an ITV talent show called Bid for Fame and began working for Butlin's. In 1959 they won first prize in the Butlin's National Talent Contest, winning £1,000 and a film contract with the Boulting Brothers. In 1959 the Boulting Brothers cast John and Tony Comer in the film I'm All Right Jack, in which they starred alongside Peter Sellers and Richard Attenborough as trade union shop stewards. Their next film roles were in 1961, when they featured alongside Rita Tushingham in A Taste of Honey. However shortly afterwards Tony decided to leave showbusiness and returned to full-time work at Metropolitan-Vickers, while John decided to continue pursuing his film career. He appeared in the Boulting Brothers' 1967 film The Family Way as a father-of-the-bride to Hayley Mills's character, whose father John Mills portrayed her father-in-law. He gained a recurring role in 1973 as the primary supporting role of Sid in the new BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. He also starred in a long-running advertising campaign for Home Brew Beer. 1977 saw him appear as Bill Malley in the BBC series "Murder Most English". From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Michael Aldridge

Michael William ffolliott Aldridge was an English actor. He was known for playing Seymour in the television series Last of the Summer Wine from 1986 to 1990 and he had a long career as a character actor on stage and screen dating back to the 1930s.

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Robert Fyfe

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Robert Fyfe was a Scottish-born actor, who is best remembered for his role on the long-running British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, where he played the character of Howard between 1985 and 2010. He also appeared in the movies Xtro, The 51st State, Around the World in 80 Days and Babel. Other credits include guest appearances on Z Cars, Survivors, The Gentle Touch, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Monarch of the Glen.

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Sarah Thomas

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Sarah Thomas is a British film and television actress, best known for playing Glenda Wilkinson in the television series "Last of the Summer Wine".

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Jean Fergusson

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Jean Fergusson was a British television and theatre actress, who is best known for playing the part of Marina on the British situation comedy 'Last of the Summer Wine' from 1985 until it was discontinued in 2010, and her role as Dorothy Hoyle in the soap 'Coronation Street'.

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Danny O'Dea

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Danny O'Dea was an English actor. He made numerous appearances as Eli Duckett in the British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine between 1986 and 2002. His film roles include Paddie, an elderly man in Rita, Sue and Bob Too in 1986.

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Brian Wilde

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Brian Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine.

Kathy Staff photo

Kathy Staff

Cast · Known for Crossroads, Last of the Summer Wine

Kathy Staff was an English actress known for her work on British television. She is best known for her portrayal of Nora Batty on Last of the Summer Wine, the longest running sitcom in the world.

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Tony Barton

Born 1950, Tony Barton is an English actor who has had minor roles in shows like Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and Last of the Summer Wine.

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Jonathan Linsley

Jonathan Linsley is an English actor who made his professional debut in 1980. He appeared on television in Last of the Summer Wine as "Crusher" Milburn, and his film roles include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, as Ogilvey aboard the ship Flying Dutchman.

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Michael Bates

Cast · Known for A Clockwork Orange, The Wednesday Play

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Michael Hammond Bates was an Indian-born English actor. He was educated at Uppingham School in Rutland and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Bates served as a Major serving with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Burma before his discharge at the end of World War II. In 1953, while an ensemble member with the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, he appeared in Richard III and All's Well That End's Well. In 1956 he appeared in Hotel Paradiso which starred Alec Guinness, at the Winter Garden Theatre in London. He appeared in many UK television series including Last of the Summer Wine from 1973 to 1975 as Cyril Blamire and It Ain't Half Hot Mum from 1974 to 1977 as Rangi Ram, as well as many others. His role as Rangi Ram caused some controversy as it required Bates to be made-up with fake tan to look like an Indian, which he took to naturally as he was born in India and spoke the Hindi language fluently. On radio he played a variety of characters in the BBC's long-running comedy series The Navy Lark. These were: Able Seaman Ginger, Lt. Bates, Rear Admiral Ironbridge, the Padre and Captain Ignatius Aloysius Atchison. Bates' film roles include Battle of Britain (1969) as Warrant Officer Warwick, Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) as a Lance-corporal, Patton (1970) as Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery (to whom he bore a striking resemblance), Frenzy (1972) by Alfred Hitchcock, and the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange (1971). On stage, he did Shakespeare at Stratford and the Old Vic and made a big impression as Inspector Truscott in the West End production of Loot by Joe Orton in 1966. He died of cancer in Cambridge, aged 57. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Bates (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Jean Alexander

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Jean Mavis Hodgkinson, known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to television viewers for her long running role of Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and also as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010. For her role in Coronation Street, she won the 1985 Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance, and received a 1988 BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress.

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James Gilbert

Director · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

James Gilbert was born in Edinburgh, Scotland as Cecil James Gilbert. He was a producer and director, known for Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Sunstruck and Last of the Summer Wine. He was married to Fiona Clyne.

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Alan J.W. Bell

Director · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Alan James William Bell was a British television producer and director. He was born in Battersea, London. He has produced or directed many BBC series since the early 1970s, most notably Last of the Summer Wine, Ripping Yarns and the TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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Roy Clarke

Writer · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Royston Clarke OBE, usually known as Roy Clarke, is an English comedy writer best known for creating the sitcoms Last of the Summer Wine, Keeping Up Appearances, Open All Hours and its sequel series, Still Open All Hours.

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Juliette Kaplan

Cast · Known for Last of the Summer Wine

Marlene Juliette Kaplan was a British actress whose married name was Marlene Hoser. She was most famous for playing the role of battle-axe Pearl Sibshaw in the BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, from 1985 to 2010.

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Trevor Bannister

Trevor Gordon Bannister (14 August 1934 - 14 April 2011) was an English actor best known for having played the womanising junior salesman Mr Lucas in the sitcom Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1979, and for his role as Toby Mulberry Smith in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, from 2003 until it ended its run in 2010.

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Bert Parnaby

James Bertram "Bert" Parnaby (4 March 1924 – 30 July 1992) was a British actor who was notable for a string of TV and Film roles from the 1960s through the 1980s. His TV roles included performances in Blackadder, By the Sword Divided, Juliet Bravo, Inspector Morse and Last of the Summer Wine. In 1988, he appeared as Father Christmas in the BBC adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. His film credits included Prick Up Your Ears (1987), The Dressmaker (1988) and The Reunion (1989). Whilst living in Didsbury, Bert was a schoolmaster at Manchester Grammar School during the 1950s and early 1960s. Teaching English, he was greatly involved in the production of teachers’ plays. He subsequently became an HMI (one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools). On leaving the education profession, Parnaby worked as a producer and performer for the BBC. His monologues on breakfast radio often started ‘I hate …’, for example the edition about the Post Office, which was based on the Didsbury branch, albeit unnamed. Parnaby died in July 1992 at the age of 68, shortly after the death of his wife Jane. A bench in their memory was later erected in Drummer Street, Cambridge.

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Beatrice Kelley

Beatrice Kelley (born 1941 in Farnley Hall, North Yorkshire) is a well-established actress whose TV credits include Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, The Grand, Dalziel and Pascoe, Phoenix Nights, Last of the Summer Wine, Burn It, Where the Heart Is, My Parents Are Aliens, Life on Mars, Ideal, The Visit, Casualty, Waterloo Road, Heartbeat, Doctors, Candy Cabs, Shameless and The Syndicate. She has appeared in Coronation Street in two different roles; Carol Palmer in 1996, and Barbara Deakin in 2014-15. The youngest of four children of Harold and Marjorie Smith, Beatrice spent many hours in Beech Hill cinema when films were shown continuously; a love of acting began here. She joined the Otley Junior Players and her first starring role was as a clockwork doll at the age of five. She progressed to the Sylvia Green drama school in Menston but continued her formal education as her parents wished and became a teacher in spite of having been told at Prince Henry's Grammar School that she was "not academic enough to teach". However, Beatrice resigned from her teaching post when Prince Henry's would not put "A" Level drama on the curriculum. Having already obtained a degree and a diploma in drama, she obtained her Equity card at the age of 47. She also appeared in the John Smiths famous "No Nonsense" advertisements.