Why did season three feature Gordon?

Hiyas bigcat,

Since you are making your way through the series of Last of the Summer Wine have you also checked out our forum member theatrically_inclined 's excellent "Summer Wine Decanted" series on YouTube? He has crafted a wonderfully informative set of videos on our much loved show. Quite possible the most comprehensive fan made production yet. A lot of good trivia, and facts about the show.

Since you are rounding up series 1 to 4 at the moment his "Trivia: Pilot and Series 1 to 5" might be worth a watch if you have not already.

Rick
 
Thanks gothic. Hopefully I don't overdue it as I've been known too.
Thanks to all you admins for a lovely message board.

Thanks RickAns. I watched that video and very much enjoyed it. I've subscribed to the channel as well.

Thank you theatrically_inclined for your lovely videos! They are nicely made and well worth watching.
 
Barrychuckle said:
When Michael Aldridge left the show he gave notice and did so very graciously (unlike Brian first time around) so I suspect Foggys return episodes would be written for him.

I strongly recommend that you read the Andrew Vine book for the definitive LOTSW story, I couldn't put it down when I read it! Also Summerwine Decanted videos on YouTube are very informative too.
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I don't believe its accurate that Wilde did not give notice. According to Alan Bell in his book, Wilde told them he was going to depart the show after "Getting Sam Home" and even sat down with BBC execs after it was done filming and said the same thing. He rather humorously ignored all of that and acted like nothing had happened when he heard they were actually talking to replacements for Series 8. However, Bell says Wilde was very consistent with saying Series 8 would be his last and they honored that request.

As for the original question, I do wish we had production schedule records, as that would tell us when people were around. Episodes were not always filmed in the order they later aired. It would not surprise me if those three episodes were filmed together. We do know that the two Scarborough episodes were filmed first that year, though, and that it had a different director than the rest of that series. Although it aired first, the introduction of Foggy was filmed later. The move from Bates to Wilde was pretty last minute so they had to give Roy Clarke time to write the introduction. I think thats why a few of those episodes, while good, seem a bit off. Several, such as the Scarborough episodes, were written with Blamire in mind and they just changed minimal parts of the script to stick Foggy in instead as they needed to start filming right away.
 
Sarkus said:
The move from Bates to Wilde was pretty last minute so they had to give Roy Clarke time to write the introduction. I think thats why a few of those episodes, while good, seem a bit off. Several, such as the Scarborough episodes, were written with Blamire in mind and they just changed minimal parts of the script to stick Foggy in instead as they needed to start filming right away.
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I think it was mentioned here before. I imagine the scene with Foggy going into the cold water was one of those minimal parts. I can't imagine Blamire doing this.
 
Sarkus said:
As for the original question, I do wish we had production schedule records, as that would tell us when people were around...
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The "BBC Written Archive" keep copies of programme documents that are over a certain age, it seems that's probably over 20 years old, or so. As I have been researching with them for "Summer Wine Decanted", they informed me that very little paper work exists for the "early" series - I'm guessing up to about series 10. So not even the BBC hold any records. :(
 
bigcat said:
From out of nowhere our trio goes on holiday with Gordon and he meets a girl. A bit later he marries her as we meet his mother, her parents and others. Then they all vanish from the face of the earth. A three odd episodes in a very quirky season.
Was it intended to set up a younger man and couple as series regulars as we would see with Barry and his wife much later? Was his mum or her folks to be a part of the show like Wesley and Edith? It seems there must have been some plan for the characters or why bother a whole episode that featured characters other than our trio or a simple guest star.
Any ideas?
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Well, Gordon was needed to drive the van to Scarborough and to provide someone that Compo could teach the facts of life to. And then there was the wedding. But having a normal couple would not have worked as there was no quirkiness. But who played Gordon? Why it's Philip Jackson who, later on, having filled out, grown a mustache and having developed a deeper voice -- played Inspector Japp on "Poirot." Is it possible when he did these three episodes that he picked up many acting tips from Bill Owen and company? Whenever I happen to catch him in an episode of "Poirot" I look for hints of LOTSW.
 
codfanglers said:
I think it was mentioned here before. I imagine the scene with Foggy going into the cold water was one of those minimal parts. I can't imagine Blamire doing this.
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Actually, that was an original Blamire moment. From Andrew Vine's book, a quote from Sydney Lotterby:
When I started, Michael was going to do the programme, and the scripts came in, and I sent one of them to him. There was a seaside scene and Michael had to go into the water with a swimming suit on. After a little while, before we actually started, he rang me and said he didn't think he could do it, which was a disappointment. He pulled out before we started the series.
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According to Vine, the plan for Series 3 was to make the trio more active, presumably because audiences had liked the Series 2 episodes where the characters were out and about - such as the classic "Ballad for Wind Instruments and Canoe."

As I said above, the two Scarborough episodes were the first location filming of that series, and as Bates had just left and been replaced by Wilde, they are likely minimally different from what Clarke wrote. They just didn't have time to do much to change them.
 
bigcat said:
From out of nowhere our trio goes on holiday with Gordon and he meets a girl. A bit later he marries her as we meet his mother, her parents and others. Then they all vanish from the face of the earth. A three odd episodes in a very quirky season.
Was it intended to set up a younger man and couple as series regulars as we would see with Barry and his wife much later? Was his mum or her folks to be a part of the show like Wesley and Edith? It seems there must have been some plan for the characters or why bother a whole episode that featured characters other than our trio or a simple guest star.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Series Three also had other recurring characters - Big Malcolm was in two episodes.

The Man from Oswestry wasn't going be part of Series Three - it was hastily written when Michael Bates decided he wasn't well enough to appear in that series to introduce Foggy. So, this probably gave Big Malcolm not one but two appearances in Series Three.

Series Three also saw two appearances of Wainwright the librarian, last seen in Series One.

As it happened, after Series Three, Gordon, Big Malcolm and Wainwright were never seen again.

And the library wasn't used again until many, many years later too.
 
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