Foggy, Auntie Wainwright era

[Author?]

I love Last of the Summer Wine and yesterday viewed (again!) the Warrior Returns/Return of the Warrior. The episodes featuring Foggy and Auntie Wainwright are the best. One thing that has always puzzled me about LoSW: Compo the sex pest. I can't understand how episodes were allowed showing him groping Nora and Ivy (I know he got a good bashing). Any ideas? (I believe the programme was 12-plus when it started). While he had a likeable side, he should have been a gentler character hands-wise. My ideal job would have been writing LoSW. Has that comedy had it? Ie the old battleaxe, scared husband, snob (Edie), etc. I'd have the following characters: saleswoman, competition enthusiast, and a husband in a long, happy marriage who obeys his bossy but loveable wife.

 

[Roger]

Compo's behavior would not be acceptable today but I remember people like him back in the 1970s. I liked the way that both Wally and Sid didn't seem at all bothered that their wifes were being groped.

 

[dick]

""You have to admire the quirkness of his taste !""( Wally about Compo )

 

[Author?]

Thanks. I recall the bum nippers of the 70s/early 80s but not gropers. For children, Nora Batty's brush was the important part - ie an episode wasn't one without her brush. It's nice to view the comedy as timeless (Keeping Up Appearances is) - but the groping takes away the timeless. Ie you then realise the show belongs in the past and not necessarily better days. Foggy and the cafe one of the better episodes. An emotional one is the episode where Nora Batty funds Compo's trip to France (wartime memories). At the end, there's an announcement to say the actor has died.

 

[codfanglers]

Compo's behavior would not be acceptable today but I remember people like him back in the 1970s. I liked the way that both Wally and Sid didn't seem at all bothered that their wifes were being groped.

Nora to Wally regarding Compo harrassing her, "Say something!"
Wally- "How'do Compo."

LOL

 

[Barrychuckle]

You could say the same things about Benny Hill or the Carry On's, would never be allowed these days so I'm glad of the less PC days or we wouldn't have got half our laughs!!!!

 

[maltrab]

You could say the same things about Benny Hill or the Carry On's, would never be allowed these days so I'm glad of the less PC days or we wouldn't have got half our laughs!!!!

Yet modern day so called comedians cans use language on TV that would embarrass a dock worker and that is acceptable, it's a strange world we live in these days

 

[Electrical Entwistle]

It may have been a Roy Clarke thing as it also showed up in Keeping Up Appearances with pervy characters like the Major and the Commodore.

 

[Barrychuckle]

It may have been a Roy Clarke thing as it also showed up in Keeping Up Appearances with pervy characters like the Major and the Commodore.

I found the Major character out of place and the same as Mr Wainwright just sleazy, whereas the Commodore at least had a comedic element to him

 

[Adrian Morris]

Compo's behavior would not be acceptable today but I remember people like him back in the 1970s. I liked the way that both Wally and Sid didn't seem at all bothered that their wifes were being groped.

I think Wally and Sid knew that their wives could handle things themselves.

 

[Stephen]

You could say the same things about Benny Hill or the Carry On's, would never be allowed these days so I'm glad of the less PC days or we wouldn't have got half our laughs!!!!

Couldn't have put it better myself.

I think people also tend to forget that this selection of characters had been friends since childhood and would simply have accepted his antics as the norm.

Besides, I believe that Compos foibles were purely friendly in nature and not suspicious in any way. You never really see him accosting people he does not know in the same way; and, if he does, it is exceedingly playful in nature.

 

[dick]

I think Wally and Sid knew that their wives could handle things themselves.

What about the time NORA and IVY "de-bagged "" Compo in the cafe kitchen "

 

[Barrychuckle]

A friend sent me this which amused me, but if you replace Five with The Trio it probably would give an idea of what LOTSW would look like if it were made today