Billy Hardcastle

I think that Keith Clifford SHOULD have become the third
man! He fit in well with Clegg and Truly, he seemed to
live a similar lifestyle, and he was barmy!!

Tom had too many things going on. (Waldo is probably one of
my very favorite characters), but Tom was too busy with
all his schemes.

Again with Alvin. Too busy, too crazy.

Cleggy, Blamire, Foggy. Seymour, Truly, Compo, and Billy were
moderately barmy and very quiet and lovely. Alvin and Tom had too
much going on. And like Hobo, they demanded too much
attention.
 
Yes, I agree about Alvin and Tom. Demanded too much attention and too much going on, too crazy. Alvin in particular, I think he must be my least favourite character. Too obvious as Compo´s replacement and just didn´t really fit in, in my opinion.
 
cciaffone said:
I think that Keith Clifford SHOULD have become the third
man! He fit in well with Clegg and Truly, he seemed to
live a similar lifestyle, and he was barmy!!

Tom had too many things going on. (Waldo is probably one of
my very favorite characters), but Tom was too busy with
all his schemes.

Again with Alvin. Too busy, too crazy.

Cleggy, Blamire, Foggy. Seymour, Truly, Compo, and Billy were
moderately barmy and very quiet and lovely. Alvin and Tom had too
much going on. And like Hobo, they demanded too much
attention.
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Fido was a great idea. Tom had a lot of schemes in the beginning but eventually settled down with Smiler and Auntie. He was good as an extra. Like Chuck and ****, I never got into Alvin so much. He just had a great debut to the show with his hang gliding.

Billy would have been a good third person but I think at times they needed someone even more "barmy" than Billy.
 
I have a disabled son who wishes he could have gone to England to be in the
show with Billy Hardcastle....he wanted to be a merry man!!! ;)
 
Billy was one of my favourite characters.He seemed to fit straight into the group and like Compo before him,refused to let age spoil his fun.
 
cciaffone said:
I think that Keith Clifford SHOULD have become the third
man! He fit in well with Clegg and Truly, he seemed to
live a similar lifestyle, and he was barmy!!
Click to expand...

This comment really puzzles me. I suppose one could quibble over "third man" (and I am not talking cricket). At the time that was Truly. But Billy WAS categorically one of the TRIO in Series #22 to #25. In some ways, although I very much appreciated him, the surplus character was Alvin. There was really no need to go to a quartet in Series #26. As always, what made the show and each character was the Roy Clarke script and he did give Billy some great dialogue and antics. I particularly appreciated the frequent interface between Billy and Clegg, Roy Clarke's alter ego.

I thought it a tragedy when Billy left and would have sacrificed Alvin if that would have produced a bit more loot to have enticed Keith Clifford to stay.
 
Big Unc said:
cciaffone said:
I think that Keith Clifford SHOULD have become the third
man! He fit in well with Clegg and Truly, he seemed to
live a similar lifestyle, and he was barmy!!
Click to expand...

This comment really puzzles me. I suppose one could quibble over "third man" (and I am not talking cricket). At the time that was Truly. But Billy WAS categorically one of the TRIO in Series #22 to #25. In some ways, although I very much appreciated him, the surplus character was Alvin. There was really no need to go to a quartet in Series #26. As always, what made the show and each character was the Roy Clarke script and he did give Billy some great dialogue and antics. I particularly appreciated the frequent interface between Billy and Clegg, Roy Clarke's alter ego.

I thought it a tragedy when Billy left and would have sacrificed Alvin if that would have produced a bit more loot to have enticed Keith Clifford to stay.
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I'm of the opinion that the 'third man' generally means the one who's appeared the least. Compo and Clegg appeared consistently for 27 years with several changes of the authority figure, known by LOTSW fans as the third man.

But things altered with the death of Bill Owen. Truly had done three series, and went on with Clegg to appear consistently till 2008. So the company they kept could, in my opinion, be considered the third man. Not an authority figure though.

Then, there's Hobbo years. I suppose that would make Hobbo the third man as he is the newcomer, and Clegg and Truly are not even part of the trio now as they only have cameo parts.

I agree with your point about the quartet. It was always a trio before, so why change it?

 
wstol said:
I'm of the opinion that the 'third man' generally means the one who's appeared the least. Compo and Clegg appeared consistently for 27 years with several changes of the authority figure, known by LOTSW fans as the third man.

But things altered with the death of Bill Owen. Truly had done three series, and went on with Clegg to appear consistently till 2008. So the company they kept could, in my opinion, be considered the third man. Not an authority figure though.

Then, there's Hobbo years. I suppose that would make Hobbo the third man as he is the newcomer, and Clegg and Truly are not even part of the trio now as they only have cameo parts.

I agree with your point about the quartet. It was always a trio before, so why change it?
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It will be interesting to see what others think - though I am inclined to agree with whoever it was who suggested recently that we should not over-analyse.

But to me the "third man" was always, ipso facto, the authority figure, the one who came up with the schemes and ploys, the one who put the Compo figure at risk. So it was Blamire, Foggy, Seymour, Foggy again, Truly and eventually Hobbo. Nothing changed in this respect with the sad demise of Compo. Clegg was the always present until reduced to cameo and was then sort of supplanted by Entwistle - ridiculous - it is no wonder the Hobbo years were a mere pale shadow of what had gone before. Do we call Clegg the "first man". For many years there was Compo, the fall guy for the "third man's" ploys. A brief interlude with Tom and then Billy also prone to risks conceived by Truly. One point of introducing Alvin was, I suppose, that, having introduced Billy as married (and what with wife's sister it was a good source of humour), it allowed restitution of the Nora teasing line.

No, to me there was always a clear designation of the "third man", the authority figure, Blamire, Foggy, Seymour, Foggy again, Truly and finally Hobbo.

One point I must reiterate from earlier, Billy WAS a member of the TRIO!
 
Agree Unc Billy was a third man and a very good one to I liked the way he was a part but not as integral as Foggy he didnt come up with to many daft ideas but he participated in many.
 
Big Unc said:

It will be interesting to see what others think - though I am inclined to agree with whoever it was who suggested recently that we should not over-analyse.

But to me the "third man" was always, ipso facto, the authority figure, the one who came up with the schemes and ploys, the one who put the Compo figure at risk. So it was Blamire, Foggy, Seymour, Foggy again, Truly and eventually Hobbo. Nothing changed in this respect with the sad demise of Compo. Clegg was the always present until reduced to cameo and was then sort of supplanted by Entwistle - ridiculous - it is no wonder the Hobbo years were a mere pale shadow of what had gone before. Do we call Clegg the "first man". For many years there was Compo, the fall guy for the "third man's" ploys. A brief interlude with Tom and then Billy also prone to risks conceived by Truly. One point of introducing Alvin was, I suppose, that, having introduced Billy as married (and what with wife's sister it was a good source of humour), it allowed restitution of the Nora teasing line.

No, to me there was always a clear designation of the "third man", the authority figure, Blamire, Foggy, Seymour, Foggy again, Truly and finally Hobbo.

One point I must reiterate from earlier, Billy WAS a member of the TRIO!
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With all the theories thrown up and the debates about the post-Compo era, I wonder if CLarke and Bell were experimenting with the right combination all along with Billy, Tom, Alvin,etc.

Perhaps they interchanged the third man depending on what character they thought would most fit into each particular plot.

Its just a thought. Also, good hearing from you again Big Unc!
 
Billy was most definitely a member of the Trio. And for my money, the Trio of Clegg, Truly and Billy was the second best of all the main three line ups, behind the classic of Clegg, Compo and Foggy.
Losing Billy was a real blpw to the series and it never quite recovered. There were brilliant moments after he left, but there wasn't quite that consistent bonding and togetherness after he went.
 
Chuffer Enwright said:
Billy was most definitely a member of the Trio. And for my money, the Trio of Clegg, Truly and Billy was the second best of all the main three line ups, behind the classic of Clegg, Compo and Foggy.
Losing Billy was a real blpw to the series and it never quite recovered. There were brilliant moments after he left, but there wasn't quite that consistent bonding and togetherness after he went.
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Agreed. Also during that time Clegg's minutes were lessened due to his age. However, Truly did a good job holding down the fort for a while longer.
 
Keith Clifford's Yorkshire accent and the use of thee's and thaa's seemed to replace Compo's in that both appear to be natural and not "put on".
I loved Billy.
Geoff :)
 
geoffg said:
Keith Clifford's Yorkshire accent and the use of thee's and thaa's seemed to replace Compo's in that both appear to be natural and not "put on".
I loved Billy.
Geoff :)
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Do so concur. Keith Clifford did, of course, have benefit of coming from Halifax, Yorkshire, whereas Bill Owen was a Londoner.
 
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