Well I've finally managed it......

Barrychuckle

Barrychuckle

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Last night I watched How Not To Cry At Weddings ie the 295th and last episode of LOTSW having watched every single episode in strict order as they were broadcast. This includes the 10 minute Christmas special, each of the 25th & 30th documentaries & even the Royal Variety Performance sketch, perhaps I have OCD :D
I did attempt this a few years back but for various reasons never completed them all. But I started again in earnest in 2022, expecting to have seen them all within a year but it's actually taken me 18 months!

Interestingly this endeavour is what brought me to this wonderful site in the first place. I bought the BBC boxset and the labeling is atrocious and they're in a random order. So I searched on Google for the episode listings as a reference point and I found the episode listings on this site and that's how I joined this amazing community around 10 years ago. My first ever posts were even on the subject of watching all episodes from start to finish!!!!!!!!

I'm upset I've now got no new episodes to look forward to as it's become a bit of a routine to my life over the past 18 months. I don't feel I want to go straight back to the start just yet so I'm moving onto FOTSW which I've never seen before. It certainly takes a bit of commitment to watch them all as at 1 episode every night (which is very challenging) it would take 10 months, at one every other night nearly 2 years!!!!

I was wondering which other members have watched every episode in order from beginning to end, how long it took them, how many times they've watched all the episodes and any observations of the process or the series progression?

I'll still dip into each episode from time to time, but it'll be a few years before I watch from beginning to end again.
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It's been a couple of years, but for a while I had LOTSW on perpetual loop. That said, I'd often watch 2-4 episodes a night but not really be paying close attention at all times. At that rate I'd go through the whole lot in as little as six months on occasion.

That being said, there are a few episodes I have hard time with. First is "Big Day at Dream Acres," which I generally dislike. I've skipped that many times in my watch throughs. The next is as you get close to Bill Owen's death. That series is tough to watch and sometimes I've skipped the whole series, other times the trilogy where he passes, sometimes some other episodes, as the introduction of Tom at the end of that series has its own issues.
 
That was my main problem with my first watch through, I realised I wasn’t really concentrating properly on all the episodes.

I work full time and am often working away or working evenings so that has been my main challenge. But I may well watch them on a perpetual loop when I’m retired as I’ll hopefully have less distractions.
 
I have lost count: UKTV Gold used to show 3 episodes a day (weekday mornings), about the time I started researching for "Summer Wine Decanted". I watched them all in order as broadcast on Gold, sometimes on Gold +1 (so the Christmas and Specials were usually only on at Christmas). As it's Gold, they are repeated during the day, so I often watched the same-day repeats. Then I realised UKTV Drama were showing two each weekday evening, I have often watched those. If I have been at work, I had recorded them all on the Sky box to watch later. I have many on DVD, and all on digital files. I have watched some individual scenes many more times, some of them frame-by-frame to spot car registration numbers, and other small details. So, is that more than 10 times each? ... I'm still watching daily!
I'm now watching something else regularly...
 
The last time I watched it beginning to end was when I upgraded to the full boxset of everything. Sometimes you get a real flow of continuity others you get a clear disconnect as someone behaves 'out of character'. However as it progresses, the grimy look of the first few series is replaced by brighter and brighter colouring and ever more colourful characters to fit. Clegg devolves into someone not only not keen on ladies but on most forms of excitement and Compo weaves his indefinable magic to the end. Now and then you get a glimpse of the strong cohesion of the two which fuels the antipathy against their various would-be leaders. In turn the schemes get more outlandish and the ladies more scornful. The town's inhabitants get more plentiful and almost everywhere you look there's a barmpot and certainly a laugh around the corner.
 
mashibinbin said:
The last time I watched it beginning to end was when I upgraded to the full boxset of everything. Sometimes you get a real flow of continuity others you get a clear disconnect as someone behaves 'out of character'. However as it progresses, the grimy look of the first few series is replaced by brighter and brighter colouring and ever more colourful characters to fit. Clegg devolves into someone not only not keen on ladies but on most forms of excitement and Compo weaves his indefinable magic to the end. Now and then you get a glimpse of the strong cohesion of the two which fuels the antipathy against their various would-be leaders. In turn the schemes get more outlandish and the ladies more scornful. The town's inhabitants get more plentiful and almost everywhere you look there's a barmpot and certainly a laugh around the corner.
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You're a true Wordsworth Mashibinbin! I love reading your posts you have a real talent of using your words to paint vivid picture :)

I've never thought of it that way, but as always you're absolutely right, as the series progresses they take on more 'colour'. Quite literally in the later episodes where the likes of Nelly & Stella are wearing pastel colours unlike the more established ladies! The early series were so gritty at times i wonder whether they'd have been better broadcast in black & white.
 
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