Series Three

[Pearl]

Series three, was of cause Foggy's debut and in my humble opinion was a great series.

The Scarborough double was fantastic as was Going To Gordon's Wedding.

I'd say it was a good introduction to Foggy and set the tone for the next few series.

 

[maltrab]

Yes the start of great things to come,if I had to pick it would be the first episode for me,the introduction of Foggy

 

[Nicko12345]

Yep, this was the start of greatness with Foggy making the show cuddlier and more lovable.

Also, when I watched it again recently I was struck once more by how much more mature some of the subjects were than what would follow later. It may be my bad memory but I think there is a joke about STDs in there somewhere?

 

[happyjack]

Yes a good introduction for Foggy. I think the first two episodes were best. "The Man from Oswestry" and "Mending Stuarts Leg"

 

[onyx(John)]

Great year for Summer Wine. Foggy slipped seamlessly into the show and there isn't a bad episode in series 3. I absolutely love the Scarborough episodes, two of the all time best in my book. The Man from Oswestry is a real gem too. I love the chat Sid and Compo are having at the start before Clegg arrives fretting about the oil stains on his trousers. And a great line from Sid when Clegg asks if he's got any petrol, "Oh God, is he off tea and coffee and all?"

 

[Sarkus]

I would agree with most that the Scarborough episodes are my favorite, which is an interesting popularity considering they were directed by Ray Butt and not Lotterby. ;-)

I do think some of the episodes suffer from being originally written for Blamire and then Clarke having to quickly re-do them for Foggy. It mostly works out alright, though. And Isometrics and After was a great episode to end the series on.

What I like most about Series 3, though, is that Clarke finally gave up on trying to make the librarians major characters and that really allowed them to give Sid, Ivy, Nora, and Wally more screen time. Which really pays off in the next few series of the show.

 

[brendalovescompo]

Great year for Summer Wine. Foggy slipped seamlessly into the show and there isn't a bad episode in series 3. I absolutely love the Scarborough episodes, two of the all time best in my book. The Man from Oswestry is a real gem too. I love the chat Sid and Compo are having at the start before Clegg arrives fretting about the oil stains on his trousers. And a great line from Sid when Clegg asks if he's got any petrol, "Oh God, is he off tea and coffee and all?"

Agree
Scarborough was a wonderful short series. They should have had the show when the men went to the seaside, when they got thrown out of the pub!

 

[brendalovescompo]

Great year for Summer Wine. Foggy slipped seamlessly into the show and there isn't a bad episode in series 3. I absolutely love the Scarborough episodes, two of the all time best in my book. The Man from Oswestry is a real gem too. I love the chat Sid and Compo are having at the start before Clegg arrives fretting about the oil stains on his trousers. And a great line from Sid when Clegg asks if he's got any petrol, "Oh God, is he off tea and coffee and all?"

It really show the strength of friendship, rather than customers in the cafe

 

[Marianna]

Maybe someone can shed some light on this apparently conflicting information.

On pages 79-80 of his book, Andrew Vine writes, "Jimmy Gilbert said: 'It was really due to the success he [Michael Bates] had in Summer Wine that he was offered a job in pantomime at Bristol, and he was having a jousting match. They had these poles and he got struck, and It seemed it triggered off a tumour. He went to the doctor, the hospital, he went to the physio at Bristol City football club to see whether they could do something about it, but it never went away, it got worse and I think it spread then. It was a great shame.' The seriousness of the injury to Bates's groin was not immediately apparent, but it rapidly became clear that he could not cope with the rigours of location work he so loved, being able to walk only with the aid of a stick, and even then with difficulty."

According to http://www.its-behind-you.com/spotlightbarbarawindsor.html, about a third of the way down the page, Michael Bates played in panto from December 27, 1976 to March 5, 1977 in Bradford. It is certainly the same Michael Bates. There's an image of the poster with his face on it. Unfortunately the poster doesn't show the year. http://www.its-behind-you.com/bradfordpantos.html shows him performing there in the same season. I don't find any other references to Bates playing in panto. An injury during the '76-77 panto season couldn't have put him out of commission for filming Last of the Summer Wine Series 3, which began airing on October 31, 1976. The latest that series could have been filmed was during the summer of 1976, so the injury would have to have been sustained in the '75-76 panto season to have put him out of commission for the summer of '76.

The web information about the panto season could be wrong and the error perpetuated by the tendency of web sites to feed off one another.

Or '76-77 could have been Bates' second season in panto, with him playing a role that didn't require mobility. (Given the nature of panto, that seems unlikely.) Other web sources say that the tumor resulted in his giving up all roles except the one on It Ain't Half Hot, Mum. Vine says that he was able to continue in that role because he could play the part seated.

Or since Andrew Vine doesn't say that he verified the information that he got from Jimmy Gilbert, that information might be wrong.

 

[codfanglers]

What I like most about Series 3, though, is that Clarke finally gave up on trying to make the librarians major characters and that really allowed them to give Sid, Ivy, Nora, and Wally more screen time. Which really pays off in the next few series of the show.

Interesting point. Although the phasing out of the librarians might have had something to do with the trio becoming more family friendly. I think the librarians were there so the trio has people to rebel against. I believe there weren't meant to be comical themselves, but to compliment the main characters.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[codfanglers]

I had another snow day yesterday so I got to watch Summer Wine twice. What is interesting is that the two stations that air Summer Wine in the afternoons are only one season apart from each other when they have usually been about 15 years apart. So I see a lot of episodes twice. Last week there was a snow day in which I saw New Mobile Trio followed by Wind Instrument and Canoe.

Yesterday, the first station aired Wind Instruments and Canoe! Anyway, what does this have to do with Series Three, you may ask. The second station aired Going to Gordon's Wedding. I always thought of this as a very good episode that doesn't get enough credit. The other, now expired, Summer Wine forum once a a really good thread on Summer Wine and class. Like KUA, social status is an underlying theme in this episode. It also reminded me of the time when I attended a friend's wedding back in my mid-20's. The social gap between the bride's side and the groom's side was very evident. I was on the groom's side. Like Gordon's, we were the rougher crowd. Back then, I was very much entertained by the dynamics of that wedding reception.

Anyway, watching Going to Gordon's Wedding for the first time in years lead to these questions.

1. In Man from Oswestry, wasn't the big guy in the pub that gave Foggy a hard time called Big Malcolm? Was he also the larger hooligan-type guy in Gordon's side of the wedding? Keep in mind that I haven't seen Man from Oswestry in a while.

2. I was never really high on Gordon like some others here. However, I was certainly OK with him, just not over joyed by him. Do you think the character of Smiler year later was influenced by Gordon. Seeing Gordon's Wedding, he had this slow moodiness that can be found in Smiler. Perhaps Clarke decided to return to a Gordon-type character later in the show.

 

[cciaffone]

In both Man from Oswestry and Gordon's Wedding the character
Big Malcolm was played by Paul Luty. Izzat it??

 

[codfanglers]

In both Man from Oswestry and Gordon's Wedding the character
Big Malcolm was played by Paul Luty. Izzat it??

That seems right, Chuck. Although in Man from Oswestry, he seems to be an acquaintence to Compo and Clegg, but in Gorgon's Wedding he seemed only to know Compo.

 

[Sarkus]

Interesting point. Although the phasing out of the librarians might have had something to do with the trio becoming more family friendly. I think the librarians were there so the trio has people to rebel against. I believe there weren't meant to be comical themselves, but to compliment the main characters.

Thoughts anyone?

I don't think they were phased out because of the show becoming more family friendly specifically. If I recall correctly Summerwine wasn't moved to an earlier "family friendly" timeslot until at least the Seymour years.

My take on the librarians has several elements. First, its clear that Clarke originally envisioned the show spending a lot of time in the library. I think he saw it as an opportunity to have the characters comment on current events and social issues. After the pilot aired the BBC looked at viewer feedback and some changes were made. One of those, I'm guessing, was to reduce the library time in episodes in favor of more outdoor scenes since that was one of the shows early hooks with viewers. They also seem to have toned down the relationship between Wainwright and Mrs. Partridge. In the pilot it seems clear they are in a full-blown relationship, but in series one that gets toned down to "almost all the way" in the last episode.

I believe that the general view when the BBC reviewed audience feeback to Series One was that the Wainwright/Partridge thing wasn't working. Clarke still wanted the library so he created Probert and Jones and gave them some significant time in Series Two. I've always found those two to be somewhat disappointing characters, in that Probert is stereo typically suggested to be a lesbian and Jones is a stereotypical librarian. Again, that clearly didn't work so they were dumped after Series 2.

Then Wainwright comes back in Series 3, but this time paired up with a single female in Miss Moody. This was Clarke's last attempt (at least until the later years) to make the library work. The relationship between Wainwright and Moody is just starting and nobody's marriage is threatened so it was a less controversial way to present things. Personally, I thought the actress playing Miss Moody wasn't very good.

This is all just a combination of my opinion and what I've picked up on from the books by Vine and Bell.

 

[codfanglers]

I don't think they were phased out because of the show becoming more family friendly specifically. If I recall correctly Summerwine wasn't moved to an earlier "family friendly" timeslot until at least the Seymour years.

My take on the librarians has several elements. First, its clear that Clarke originally envisioned the show spending a lot of time in the library. I think he saw it as an opportunity to have the characters comment on current events and social issues. After the pilot aired the BBC looked at viewer feedback and some changes were made. One of those, I'm guessing, was to reduce the library time in episodes in favor of more outdoor scenes since that was one of the shows early hooks with viewers. They also seem to have toned down the relationship between Wainwright and Mrs. Partridge. In the pilot it seems clear they are in a full-blown relationship, but in series one that gets toned down to "almost all the way" in the last episode.

I believe that the general view when the BBC reviewed audience feeback to Series One was that the Wainwright/Partridge thing wasn't working. Clarke still wanted the library so he created Probert and Jones and gave them some significant time in Series Two. I've always found those two to be somewhat disappointing characters, in that Probert is stereo typically suggested to be a lesbian and Jones is a stereotypical librarian. Again, that clearly didn't work so they were dumped after Series 2.

Then Wainwright comes back in Series 3, but this time paired up with a single female in Miss Moody. This was Clarke's last attempt (at least until the later years) to make the library work. The relationship between Wainwright and Moody is just starting and nobody's marriage is threatened so it was a less controversial way to present things. Personally, I thought the actress playing Miss Moody wasn't very good.

This is all just a combination of my opinion and what I've picked up on from the books by Vine and Bell.

I agree with you that the older librarians never really worked. I always thought the idea of Mr. Wainwright was good, - would one consider him an aging beatnik? He was somewhat of a rather educated, worldly man who had respect for the library but was sort of stuck in a small town environment and annoyed by having to deal with the likes of Compo. True, Mrs. Partridge didn't work, but the scene where the trio showed up at her house was great. I also agree that the season two librarians didn't work and only recall the female librarian in only one episode.

Ironically, after the early failed attempts at librarians, Miss Davenport seemed to be quite a good acquisition to the later years of the show.

 

[Norm]

Yes I think so too. Also for me Sid and Ivy were funnier characters for the three to work with and of course Nora and Wally. One of my favourites in that series is "Isometrics and After" but really I love them all.