First of the Summer Wine
Encyclopedia
First of the Summer Wine is a sitcom
written by Roy Clarke
that aired on BBC1. The pilot originally aired on 3 January 1988, and the first series of episodes followed on 4 September 1988. The show ran for two series of six episodes each, with the final episode airing on 8 October 1989. The pilot episode was produced and directed by Gareth Gwenlan
. Both series of episodes were produced and directed by Mike Stephens
. The BBC
has never shown repeats of the show, although repeats do occasionally appear in the UK on satellite
station G.O.L.D.. The show was broadcast in Australia
on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
network in the early 1990s.
First of the Summer Wine was a prequel
to Clarke's long running show, Last of the Summer Wine
, portraying the youth of the principal characters from the mother show in the months leading up to World War II. With the possibility of war hanging over them, the young men and women enjoy their youth while trying to find a place for themselves in the world. The show used young, mostly unknown actors to play the characters, with only two actors from the original series making an appearance in the prequel.
, the BBC
approved a new series which Roy Clarke
would carry over characters of the original show. With the new series, Clarke hoped to show the lives of his characters as they were in the "first summer" of their lives, as opposed to the second summer depicted in Last of the Summer Wine. While there would still be the "shadow of the Grim Reaper" hanging over them, this time it would be because of World War II, not due to their old age.
For the new series, Clarke used mostly young, inexperienced actors to fill the roles of the characters carried over from the original series. The actors were required to mimic the vocal characteristics and mannerisms already established in Last of the Summer Wine to create a continuity between the two series.
The show features much 1920s and 1930s music which adds to the nostalgic feel of the show. The theme tune
is "Sweet and Lovely", sung by Al Bowlly
, accompanied by Roy Fox and his Band. The recording was made in London on 18 September 1931.
as the eager soldier Foggy Dewhurst; Gary Whitaker as the love-smitten Wally Batty; and Paul Oldham as their friend, Sherbert. The women consisted of Helen Patrick as the object of Wally's affections, Nora Renshaw; Sarah Dangerfield as the cook, Ivy; Joanne Heywood
as Dilys, Judy Flynn
as Lena, and Linda Davidson
as Anita Pillsworth.
The adults around the young people act as supporting characters. Peter Sallis
and Maggie Ollerenshaw
play Mr. and Mrs. Clegg, Norman's parents. Derek Benfield
portrays Mr. Scrimshaw, the owner of the shop where Ivy, Dilys, and Seymour work.
Episodes revolve around the antics of the young men of a small Yorkshire village and their usually level-headed female counterparts, all of whom are grappling with the world around them, their youth, and their experiences with the opposite sex. With rumblings of war on the European continent as Hitler’s Nazi Germany
and Great Britain become increasingly poised for war, the lives of the young men and women will be changed forever.
aired on 3 January 1988, and was produced and directed by Gareth Gwenlan
. The first series of episodes aired between 4 September 1988 and 9 October 1988. A second series was produced and aired the following year between 3 September 1989 and 8 October 1989. All episodes from both series were produced and directed by Mike Stephens
. Including the pilot, thirteen entries were produced and aired. All episodes of the show were written by Roy Clarke
.
will release series 1 on region two
DVD on 6 June 2011.
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
written by Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...
that aired on BBC1. The pilot originally aired on 3 January 1988, and the first series of episodes followed on 4 September 1988. The show ran for two series of six episodes each, with the final episode airing on 8 October 1989. The pilot episode was produced and directed by Gareth Gwenlan
Gareth Gwenlan
Gareth Gwenlan is a British television producer, best known for his work on shows such as The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, To the Manor Born, Only Fools and Horses, and High Hopes. In 1983 he was appointed Head of Comedy for BBC.-External links:...
. Both series of episodes were produced and directed by Mike Stephens
Mike Stephens
Mike Stephens is a British television producer and director, most famous for his role as producer and director of the show, Allo 'Allo!. He also produced and directed both series of the short lived series, First of the Summer Wine.-Notes:...
. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
has never shown repeats of the show, although repeats do occasionally appear in the UK on satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
station G.O.L.D.. The show was broadcast in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
network in the early 1990s.
First of the Summer Wine was a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to Clarke's long running show, Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
, portraying the youth of the principal characters from the mother show in the months leading up to World War II. With the possibility of war hanging over them, the young men and women enjoy their youth while trying to find a place for themselves in the world. The show used young, mostly unknown actors to play the characters, with only two actors from the original series making an appearance in the prequel.
Production
With the success of Last of the Summer WineLast of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
approved a new series which Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...
would carry over characters of the original show. With the new series, Clarke hoped to show the lives of his characters as they were in the "first summer" of their lives, as opposed to the second summer depicted in Last of the Summer Wine. While there would still be the "shadow of the Grim Reaper" hanging over them, this time it would be because of World War II, not due to their old age.
For the new series, Clarke used mostly young, inexperienced actors to fill the roles of the characters carried over from the original series. The actors were required to mimic the vocal characteristics and mannerisms already established in Last of the Summer Wine to create a continuity between the two series.
The show features much 1920s and 1930s music which adds to the nostalgic feel of the show. The theme tune
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
is "Sweet and Lovely", sung by Al Bowlly
Al Bowlly
Albert Allick Bowlly was a Southern-African singer, songwriter, composer and band leader, who became a popular Jazz crooner during the 1930s in the United Kingdom and later, in the United States of America. He recorded more than 1,000 records between 1927 and 1941...
, accompanied by Roy Fox and his Band. The recording was made in London on 18 September 1931.
Characters
First of the Summer Wine followed a group of young men and women, some of whom were adapted from Last of the Summer Wine, with others being specifically created for the new show. The men consisted of Paul Wyett as the scruffy and immature Compo Simmonite; David Fenwick as meek and deep-thinking Norman Clegg; Paul McLain as snobbish ladder-climber Seymour Utterthwaite; Richard LumsdenRichard Lumsden
Richard James Lumsden is a British actor, writer, composer and musician. He played Nathan in Channel 4's drama Sugar Rush and on radio he plays Ray in Clare in the Community.-Career:...
as the eager soldier Foggy Dewhurst; Gary Whitaker as the love-smitten Wally Batty; and Paul Oldham as their friend, Sherbert. The women consisted of Helen Patrick as the object of Wally's affections, Nora Renshaw; Sarah Dangerfield as the cook, Ivy; Joanne Heywood
Joanne Heywood
Joanne Heywood is an English television actress, probably best known for her role as Jessica Lovelock in Grace & Favour, a spin-off series of Are You Being Served?.-Early Life and Career:...
as Dilys, Judy Flynn
Judy Flynn
Judy Flynn is a British actress most notably known for her role as Julie in the sit-com The Brittas Empire.-Filmography:*Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom as Mrs...
as Lena, and Linda Davidson
Linda Davidson
Linda Davidson is a Canadian-British former actress, writer and a media corporate. She played the wayward punk, Mary Smith in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. Mary was one of the serial's original characters and Davidson played her from March 1985 to May 1988...
as Anita Pillsworth.
The adults around the young people act as supporting characters. Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis, OBE is an English actor and entertainer, well-known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.Sallis is best known for his role as the main character...
and Maggie Ollerenshaw
Maggie Ollerenshaw
Maggie Ollerenshaw is a British actress most famous for her role as Mavis on the sitcom Open All Hours. She also played Mrs. Clegg in the short-lived series, First of the Summer Wine. She became a more familiar television face after playing Florence Ranby in The House of Eliott terrorising the...
play Mr. and Mrs. Clegg, Norman's parents. Derek Benfield
Derek Benfield
Derek Benfield was a British playwright and actor.He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, and educated at Bingley Grammar School. He was the author of the stage farce Running Riot and the second actor who played Patricia Routledge's character's husband in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...
portrays Mr. Scrimshaw, the owner of the shop where Ivy, Dilys, and Seymour work.
Scenario
First of the Summer Wine takes place between May and September 1939, in the months leading up to World War II. The series revolves around the diary entries of the young Norman Clegg. Each episode begins with him resting on his bedroom windowsill and greeting the day; the words "the diary of Norman Clegg, aged 18 years" introduce the theme of each episode.Episodes revolve around the antics of the young men of a small Yorkshire village and their usually level-headed female counterparts, all of whom are grappling with the world around them, their youth, and their experiences with the opposite sex. With rumblings of war on the European continent as Hitler’s Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Great Britain become increasingly poised for war, the lives of the young men and women will be changed forever.
Episodes
First of the Summer Wine ran for two series, each of which contained six episodes. The pilot episodeTelevision pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
aired on 3 January 1988, and was produced and directed by Gareth Gwenlan
Gareth Gwenlan
Gareth Gwenlan is a British television producer, best known for his work on shows such as The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, To the Manor Born, Only Fools and Horses, and High Hopes. In 1983 he was appointed Head of Comedy for BBC.-External links:...
. The first series of episodes aired between 4 September 1988 and 9 October 1988. A second series was produced and aired the following year between 3 September 1989 and 8 October 1989. All episodes from both series were produced and directed by Mike Stephens
Mike Stephens
Mike Stephens is a British television producer and director, most famous for his role as producer and director of the show, Allo 'Allo!. He also produced and directed both series of the short lived series, First of the Summer Wine.-Notes:...
. Including the pilot, thirteen entries were produced and aired. All episodes of the show were written by Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke
Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...
.
DVD releases
Acorn Media UKAcorn Media UK
Acorn Media UK is a DVD publisher which distributes and sells home video products with a particular focus on British television.- Company history :The company was founded in 1997 when Lesley Fromant set up a branch of parent company Acorn Media in the UK....
will release series 1 on region two
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
DVD on 6 June 2011.
External links
- First of the Summer Wine at the BBC Guide to Comedy, archived through Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
- First Of The Summer Wine at phill.co.uk.
- First of the Summer Wine from the Summer Wine Appreciation Society.