Quite simply Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in the world. It premiered 37 years ago in 1973 & after 31 series it finally came to an end last year
- even though all its original protagonists
- Compo Foggy even Nora Batty
- are now dead. Remarkably for a series of such longevity & international appeal it is all about elderly people has little action or plot & is set & filmed in & around the small Yorkshire town of Holmfirth. Now Andrew Vine the deputy editor of Yorkshires daily newspaper has written the definitive history of this television phenomenon. It covers the shows inauspicious beginnings with low ratings its endless reinvention as participants like Bill Owen Michael Bates Brian Wilde & Kathy Staff retired or died the appearance of a string of guest stars from John Cleese & Norman Wisdom to Thora Hird & Russ Abbott (both of whom soon found themselves fixtures in the cast) & the ingenious plot contrivances as the protagonists became too old & frail to attempt any of the slapstick stunts with runaway prams
- indeed any outdoor action. Holmfirth is now a year-round tourist attraction & endless repeats & new DVD box sets will ensure a readership for this book for years to come.



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The genuine & only INSIDE STORY of Last of the Summer Wine! Roy Clarkes Last of the Summer Wine was the longest running TV comedy series in the world largely due to the passion dedication & creativity of its producer/director ALAN J W BELL. In this book Alan takes us on the set & into the studio to get up close & personal with the series & its actors. You will laugh out loud cry in places & also guffaw as your jaw drops at reading these astonishing anecdotes all told as only Alan can from the inside! Despite being one of the most-watched BBC shows with huge international sales the programme was unceremoniously dropped by sending Alan an email! A torrent of public protest ensued only to fall on deaf BBC ears. Last of the Summer Wine: From the Directors Chair" provides a powerful critique of BBC management style from the man who was the very last in the long line of traditional comedy producer/directors who made programmes with little or no executive interference. What was so special about a TV series that was the favourite of the Queen; a TV series that was shown for over 36 years in more than 25 countries? Alan J W Bell remembers the series with the passion & emotion he brought to each episode. The series is finished but in this memoir we can still relive that little bit of Yorkshire held so dear to the viewing public." ...

The story of Last of the Summer Wine is one of the most remarkable in all television history. It is the longest-running comedy series in the world spanning 37 years & 295 episodes growing from uncertain beginnings into Britains favourite sitcom at its peak uniting a third of the population in laughter with its quirky & hilarious tales of three elderly adolescents getting up to mischief in the glorious Yorkshire countryside. Last of the Summer Wine made stars of a faded movie idol & two journeymen actors in middle age as its classic trio of Bill Owen Peter Sallis & Brian Wilde as Compo Clegg & Foggy achieved a magical on-screen rapport
- even as their relationship behind the scenes was often marked by antipathy & bitter clashes. Roy Clarke who has written every single episode created a comic world centred on Holmfirth with its landmarks including Sids Cafe & the stone steps where the scruffy Compo relentlessly pursued the fearsome Nora Batty of the wrinkled stockings & the three protagonists regularly ended up hurtling down hillsides on fantastic contraptions like three-seater bicycles or a runaway sofa. Now the definitive story of this classic comedy series has been told for the first time. Again & again it reveals writer & producers were forced to reinvent it as ageing cast members died or became too frail to continue
- & what began as a series that gave middle-aged actors the chance to play old men eventually turned into an institution offering genuinely elderly actors an Indian summer in the autumn of their careers
- with redoubtable participants like Thora Hird & Peter Sallis continuing late into their eighties. Premiering back in 1973 when British Leyland would still sell you a new Austin Allegro it was still going out for its final series in 2010 in the world of Facebook & the iPhone. As the years
- indeed decades
- went on comedy veterans like Michael Bates Frank Thornton Russ Abbot & Burt Kwouk increasingly enriched the series & were joined by guest stars of the calibre of John Cleese Norman Wisdom Eric Sykes & Ron Moody. Along the way situation comedy was transformed & a dilapidated mill town in the Pennines became a teeming tourist attraction. Featuring new interviews with cast members producers & directors & Roy Clarke himself by turns funny deeply moving candid & revealing Last of the Summer Wine
- The Story of the Worlds Longest Running Comedy Series salutes not only one of the greatest of all sitcoms but also a golden age of entertainment.





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In 1940 against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain 66 Quadrons commanding officer Squadron Leader Athol Forbes asked ten of his pilots to record their experiences of flying one of the greatest aerial battles ever waged. The Ten Fighter Boys" published in 1942 comprised the first-hand accounts of pilot officers & sergeant pilots from all walks of life among them was Sergeant Jimmy Corbin who wrote the third chapter. He was 23
- old by pilot standards
- & like the rest of the squadron based at Biggin Hill Kent. Now sixty years later Flight Lieutenant Jimmy Corbin Spitfire pilot tells his extraordinary wartime story. He describes how an ordinary working-class boy from Maidstone was propelled into the thick of action in the skies over Kent during the summer & autumn of 1940. As the sole survivor of the original Ten Fighter Boys Jimmys story is all the more poignant now that the men who fought the Battle of Britain pass from living memory."

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Although the architect of the White's victory Auraya feels no joy. Her days are spent trying to reconcile the Dreamweavers & the priesthood while her sleep is filled with nightmares. The dead haunt her & the only one she trusts to help has vanished. Still struggling to come to terms with the increasingly powerful memories of the long-dead Mirar the Dreamweaver Leiard flees into the mountains with Emerahl perhaps the last of the Wilds. Emerahl is powerfully gifted & helps Leiard to make sense of his strange jumble of memories. What they discover will change his life & the world forever.. . ...

Last Orders is intended to assist anyone & everyone. It deals with that perennial taboo the subject of death. It is not a will nor should it be considered as such. It is however the essential guide to producing your Letter of Wishes & which once completed correctly should save incalculable amounts of stress to those you leave behind & take most if not all of the guesswork out of the administration of an estate. It will offer a vast amount of helpful information about whom your executors should contact the funeral you would wish for your finances your belongings & even your pets. This book is simple yet comprehensive. Its usefulness cannot be overstated. You may not feel you need such a book but consider this scenario: Imagine your child sibling or friend is executor to your will. When the sad time comes to wind up your estate where would they start? Would they be able for example to answer the following questions: Who do you wish to have informed of your passing? Is there a family cemetery plot & where is the paperwork to support that? Where are the deeds to your house? Where is your will? Have you registered as an organ donor? Who has spare sets of keys to your house? Who knows the code to your burglar alarm? Or does your home have a safe? Who is to take care of your pet poodle Pandora? Equally important who do you not want to take care of Pandora??? There are over 100 simple but pertinent questions which need to be answered by you in Last Orders. Those answers will eradicate doubt & offer clarity to the executors of your will & those you leave behind. In researching Last Orders Patricia C Byron consulted with solicitors funeral directors the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners The Law Society MENCAP but perhaps most telling of all is that she has personal knowledge & experience of administering estates. Since its launch in the Spring of 2010 & following the author being interviewed on the BBCs Radio 4 Womans Hour Last Orders sold out & went to reprint. It has since become a staple item for those wishing to put their affairs in order. Along with the general public there are now law firms within the UK Legal 500 using Last Orders for their Will-making clients as well as members of the Society of Trusts & Estate Practitioners estate planners & independent financial advisors. ...

Four men once close to Jack Dodds a London butcher meet to carry out his peculiar last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea. For reasons best known to herself Jack's widow Amy declines to join them. On the surface the tale of a simple if increasingly bizarre day's outing Last Orders is Graham Swift's most poignant exploration of the complexity & courage of ordinary lives. Last Orders confirms his reputation as one of the great contemporary chroniclers of landscape & memory' Observer His finest book to date; emotionally charged & technically superb' Times Literary Supplement Inspired.. . His finest novel yet' Guardian A triumph' Sunday Times Tragic comic & wonderfully compassionate' Daily Mail ...

Charity Mupanga is the widowed owner of Harrods International Bar (and Nightspot)
- a favourite meeting place for the movers &
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Having seen a depressed polar bear in the zoo Grandfather & his dog Roo set off on an expedition to find the last polar bears. After a treacherous journey on HMS Unsinkable they reach Walrus Bay & the fun really starts. Howling wolves & terible snowstorms delay the start of their trek & when theyre on the way their tent is blown away by the fierce winds. They struggle on hungry & cold to the top of Great Bear Ridge where they see the polar bears at last. ...

From the prize winning author of William Morris" comes a new biography of Edward Burne-Jones the greatest British artist of the second half of the nineteenth century. The angels on our Christmas cards the stained glass in our churches the great paintings in our galleries
- Edward Burne-Jones work is all around us. The most admired British artist of his generation he was a leading figure with Oscar Wilde in the aesthetic movement of the 1880s inventing what became a widespread Burne-Jones look. The bridge between Victorian & modern art he influenced not just his immediate circle but artists such as Klimt & Picasso. In this gripping book Fiona Mac Carthy explores & re-evaluates his art & life
- his battle against vicious public hostility the romantic susceptibility to female beauty that would inspire his art & ruin his marriage his ill health & depressive sensibility the devastating rift with his great friend & collaborator William Morris as their views on art & politics diverged. With new research & fresh historical perspective " The Last Pre-Raphaelite" tells the extraordinary dramatic story of Burne-Jones as an artist a key figure in Victorian society & a peculiarly captivating man."

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