Open All Hours.

P

Pete.

Dedicated Member
I read a couple of posts on here recently about Open All Hours,which was also written by Roy Clarke.
Arkwrights shop is only about five miles from where I live,and I pass it on my way home if I go to Doncaster,
I passed it this morning,and got out of the car to take a couple of quick photos to show you how the shop looks now,the BBC were here not long ago converting it back into Granvilles shop for Still Open All Hours,its always been the same hairdressers between filming,
Pete x
 

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Thank you Pete, its great to see how it looks now. It looks a lot like the street I grow up on, I can just me running down there with a newspaper kite. :D
 
why this shop

Too much thinking time on my hands but often wonder what process they use to select these establishments to be used in TV programmes ? There must be loads of streets in Doncaster of this type with lots of shops so why this one ? I assume it would be lucrative for the owner and it must be great to basically be not only paid to use the property but also perhaps use the money to pay for a few weeks abroad whilst they convert/film/restore.

Having not yet been to see Holmfirth in the flesh wonder why they decided to relocate to Marsden to set up Auntie's shop when there must have been other choices in Holmfirth itself .
 
captain clutterbuck said:
Too much thinking time on my hands but often wonder what process they use to select these establishments to be used in TV programmes ? There must be loads of streets in Doncaster of this type with lots of shops so why this one ? I assume it would be lucrative for the owner and it must be great to basically be not only paid to use the property but also perhaps use the money to pay for a few weeks abroad whilst they convert/film/restore.

Having not yet been to see Holmfirth in the flesh wonder why they decided to relocate to Marsden to set up Auntie's shop when there must have been other choices in Holmfirth itself .
Click to expand...

Re OOH shop possibly chosen as Roy Clarke worked in the Doncaster area and maybe had a connection with the owner,so they started there with the pilot episode and continued to used it.

Re Aunties shop I read somewhere when the BBC first went to use it it was a empty building,when they returned to film the following year someone had bought it and turned part of it into their home,I recall seeing the window area of the shop left empty so the BBC could keep coming back year after year,so maybe the money was worth it
 
I was in Waterstones today, and picked up a copy of the new book "Still Open All Hours" by Graham McCann (foreward by Roy Clarke) that tells the story of the series. I haven't got far yet, but can tell you that the shop location for the Pilot was in London, but never felt right. When the series was commissioned it was decided to film in the North, so a suitable shop, a beauticians, was used.
 
On the subject but off topic, I bought the all four series on DVD from Tesco for a tenner! I was surprised.
 
They used a different shop for the pilot. This was shop was in Ealing, and also happened to feature in Carry On Constable!

It was felt for the series they only way to ensure it looked like a northern shop was to actually select a location up North.

Thankfully, for the sake of continuity and now nostalgia, they have used the same location ever since.

I don't think it would work anywhere else now, but would be interested to know what the next most similar location would actually be, if the owener happened to refuse permission.

EDITED for poor grammer.
 
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Happened to see the recording of what is supposed to be Episode Four. Extremely good, a very worthy successor to the original series.
 
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