Episode Numbers

cciaffone

cciaffone

Dedicated Member
Comparing the several online sources for a SW episode guide,
there seems to be a discrepancy as to the position of
the Merry Christmas Father Christmas episode. Some lists
have it as episode 63, immediately following Uncle of
the Bride, while others have it later as episode 75, just
before Big Day at Dream Acres. Is there a "correct" listing?
Or is this just an open wound never to be healed??

chuck
 
cciaffone said:
Comparing the several online sources for a SW episode guide,
there seems to be a discrepancy as to the position of
the Merry Christmas Father Christmas episode. Some lists
have it as episode 63, immediately following Uncle of
the Bride, while others have it later as episode 75, just
before Big Day at Dream Acres. Is there a "correct" listing?
Or is this just an open wound never to be healed??

chuck
Click to expand...

This is the old Series 9 controversy - was it broadcast in 1986 or 1987 - and hence did Merry Christmas Father Christmas, broadcast 28 December 1986, come before or after Series 9. Since I have seen online Radio Times for beginning of 1987 showing Series 9 starting 4 January 1987 with "Why Does Norman Clegg Buy Ladies' Elastic Stockings?" I am adament that Merry Christmas Father Christmas came before Series 9 and is therefore Episode 63.
 
I have read somewhere that Merry Christmas Father Christmas
was the last Wally. Does that square with moving MCFC ahead
of all of series 9??? Gonna have to watch some to see whether
Wally was there after Wally died. Hmmm.
 
cciaffone said:
I have read somewhere that Merry Christmas Father Christmas
was the last Wally. Does that square with moving MCFC ahead
of all of series 9??? Gonna have to watch some to see whether
Wally was there after Wally died. Hmmm.
Click to expand...

From Wikipedia:
"When You take a Good Bite, Yorkshire Tastes Terrible" 22 March 1987
Final appearance of Wally Batty, Joe Gladwin died 11 Days - (almost 2 weeks) before the broadcast of this episode."

To quote Andrew Vine, "On 11 March, three days after "Edie and the Automobile" was aired, Joe Gladwin died at the age of eighty-one".

"Merry Christmas Father Christmas" was filmed very much in conjunction with Series 9 - Vine talks of thirteen episodes beginning with a Christmas Special. It could be that the very last bit of filming which included Wally was for "Merry Christmas Father Christmas"
 
Taking my cue from the lists in the Bright and Ross books - but these do not agree with the lists in the original SW exhibition (before it moved into the Compo residence) and nor with my own lists from video recordings made at the time:

series 9 - 12 episodes transmitted January to March 1986 (this is the one the DVD set splits into 9 & 10)
Merry Christmas, Father Christmas - transmitted 28 December 1986
Big Day at Dream Acres - transmitted 31 December 1987.

Note Wally is in episode 11 of series 9 - he is out with Norah on the combination - as well as MCFC.

Series 9 and MCFC are all noted as produced in 1986 and according to my own lists series 9 was shown in 1987. This would fit better with the production date, I have MCFC as episode 63.

As an example in series 16 (The Glory Hole etc) transmitted from January 1995 the production date is 1994.

It is possible for Bright and Ross to be wrong - the original exhibition which is where I got the list of episodes long before the internet was occasionally wrong within a series as filming did not always line up with transmission but not in terms of overall blocks.

It will be intriguing to see what others make of it.
 
"Merry Christmas Father Christmas" - broadcast 28th December 1986 - there seems to be no disagreement on that point. At the end of the transmission there was a trailer for "Why Does Norman Clegg Buy Ladies' Elastic Stockings?", first episode of Series #9, clearly indicating Series #9 was broadcast in 1987. There is an upload of that on You Tube somewhere.
Radio Times for first week in 1987 includes "Why Does Norman Clegg Buy Ladies' Elastic Stockings?" broadcast on the Sunday (4th January 1987).
The authentic "Last of the Summer Wine" by Andrew Vine clearly indicates Series 9 was broadcast in 1987 AFTER "Merry Christmas Father Christmas"and that Joe Gladwin died (11 March 1987) during the broadcast of the series.
Dates of transmission would mean that LOTSW was broadcast on a Saturday if they were for 1986. LOTSW never went out on a Saturday. For 1987 dates are correctly for Sundays.

No doubt, on this one Bright and Ross got in wrong.
 
Can one of y'all please send me, or point me to, a
complete and mostly-correct list?? Many that I have
seen disagree on several points, including whether
the pilot is 0 or 1, the place of MCFC, etc. I have followed
my list for many years now, but would prefer to have
an "oaf-ficial" list if one exists.

thanks,

chuck
 
cciaffone said:
Can one of y'all please send me, or point me to, a
complete and mostly-correct list?? Many that I have
seen disagree on several points, including whether
the pilot is 0 or 1, the place of MCFC, etc. I have followed
my list for many years now, but would prefer to have
an "oaf-ficial" list if one exists.

thanks,

chuck
Click to expand...

I feel it is totally up to you whether you call the pilot "0" and say that there are 294 episodes or call it "1" and say there are 295. I am a 295 man myself and am more than happy with Wikipedia at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Last_of_the_Summer_Wine_episodes
 
OK, many thanks. I have updated my list.

The Pilot is now episode 1.

And the 25 years and 30 years and Funny Side of Xmas
are now non-episodes (hunh??).

Never sure just how these decisions are made, but
at my age I ought to just go along with them.
 
nother question ...

was the last Crusher Big Day at Dream Acres or The
Treasure of the Deep??

And was the first Tony Capstick Big Day at Dream Acres??
 
cciaffone said:
OK, many thanks. I have updated my list.

The Pilot is now episode 1.

And the 25 years and 30 years and Funny Side of Xmas
are now non-episodes (hunh??).

Never sure just how these decisions are made, but
at my age I ought to just go along with them.
Click to expand...


That tends to be the majority view - the 25 and 30 years were more in the nature of documentaries and the Funny side was ashort part of a larg programme.

I have just remebered hearing somewhere that although MCFC was broadcast before series 9 it was the last filmed thus correct in that it was the last occasion Joe Gladwin was filmed as Wally Batty.
 
cciaffone said:
nother question ...
was the last Crusher Big Day at Dream Acres or The
Treasure of the Deep??
And was the first Tony Capstick Big Day at Dream Acres??
Click to expand...

I think answer to both is "Big Day at Dream Acres". Mind, Tony Capstick essentially did not appear as PC #2. He was on his own. He did not appear with Ken Kitson until "That's not Captain Zero". By then Ken Kitson had had three earlier appearances, "Getting Sam Home" on his own and "Downhill Racer" and "Three Men and a Mangle" with Louis Emerick. Tony Capstick took over from Louis Emerick I vaguely recall because Emerick had other commitments.

Crusher did not appear in any Series 10 episodes
 
barmpot said:
That tends to be the majority view - the 25 and 30 years were more in the nature of documentaries and the Funny side was ashort part of a larg programme.
I have just remebered hearing somewhere that although MCFC was broadcast before series 9 it was the last filmed thus correct in that it was the last occasion Joe Gladwin was filmed as Wally Batty.
Click to expand...

I concur that analysis. Was it not a bit similar for Bill Owen. The last episode filmed in which he appeared was "Last Post and Pigeon" but that was shown before three episodes in Series 21, "Lipstick and Other Problems", "Under the Rug" and "Magic and the Morris Minor"
 
On the dates I have checked in the quite authorative Lewisohn (Radio Times to TV Comedy) and that shows series 9 as following the 35 minute MCFC.

Interestingly that book, which is very useful for those whop appreciate a lot of Tv comedy going all the way back to 1936, only has 162 episodes of which just one was with Truly as the "new" third man. So 133 have followed since 1998 when it was published.
 
nother q: when does Nora go to Australia??

I have both at The Coming of the Beast and Beware
of the Hotdog.

Which izzit????
 
cciaffone said:
nother q: when does Nora go to Australia??
I have both at The Coming of the Beast and Beware
of the Hotdog.
Which izzit????
Click to expand...

I make it "The Coming of the Beast" from two sources. She does get mentioned in "Beware of the Hotdog".
To quote Wikipedia: "Nora Batty's absence is explained by her leaving to visit relatives in Australia; the episode opens with a faraway shot of her departing for the airport".

 
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