Trivia / Last of the Summer Wine

• The Character Died with Him: The show generally wasn't shy about having characters die at the same time that their actors did, with the most memorable onscreen funeral being that of Compo, who had been a central character from the beginning. His actor, Bill Owen, who had died the year before, was even buried in the town of Holmfirth where the series was filmed, even though he was actually from London. Prior to that, Sid (Ivy's husband) and Wally (Nora's husband) both died when their actors did.
• Character Outlives Actor: There were occasional exceptions to the rule of killing off characters after their actors' deaths. Most notably, legendary battleaxe Nora Batty was said to have emigrated to Australia after a 35-year run following her actress Kathy Staff's death. Recurrent incidental character Eli was earlier left in limbo forever after actor Danny O'Dea died, even though he appeared in most episodes over 15 years; since he was rarely crucial to the plot and wasn't closely related to any other characters, his ultimate fate remained unmentioned.
• Costume Backlash: Kathy Staff hated all the padding she had to wear as Nora Batty.
• Creator Backlash: Tom Owen complained that the show's finale was anticlimactic, stating that, had he been in control, the swan song would have been much more spectacular.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Peter Sallis' pesonal favourite episode was "Full Steam Behind".
• The Danza: Tom Simmonite (Tom Owen), following in the footsteps of his dad William "Compo" Simmonite" (Bill Owen).
• Hostility on the Set:
  • According to Peter Sallis, the series almost didn't get off the ground because of this. The original trio consisted of him, Bill Owen, and Michael Bates. Prior to filming the cast went out for dinner and Bates and Owen got into a blazing row about politics (Bates being very Conservative, Owen being very left-wing). It got so bad that the producer had to come in and read them The Riot Act. For the sake of the series, they agreed to never talk about politics again.
  • Tom Owen apparently had a very poor relationship with co-star Kathy Staff, claiming in a newspaper interview, that she constantly criticised and complained about him to other cast members behind his back.
• Real-Life Relative: Tom Owen as the son of his late father's character Compo.
• Reality Subtext: As noted, most cast members' deaths were written into the series, and the more elderly actors increasingly appeared in only marginal roles toward the end. Peter Sallis (Clegg) is the best example of this, although he still managed to be the only member of the cast to appear in every single episode ^note  and, by playing Clegg's dad in the prequel, Sallis also appeared in every episode of that as well.
• Recast as a Regular:
  • June Whitfield played Delphi Potts in "Potts in Pole Position" before she was cast in the recurring role of Nelly.
  • Trevor Bannister played a tailor in "Who's Got Rhythm?" before being cast as the Golf Captain in the series' later years.
• Tourist Bump: Holmfirth, the West Yorkshire town where the show was filmed, has benefitted a lot from this. The building used for Sid and Ivy's Cafe is now an actual cafe that looks just like the one in the show (sometimes, there's a life-size model of Compo outside so fans can have their photo taken with 'him'). 28 Huddersfield Road, better known as Nora Batty's house, is now a Summer Wine themed holiday cottage.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Roy Clarke was initially 100% against having Bill Owen as Compo. It was only when producer James Gilbert showed him a tape of Owen playing a Yorkshireman that Clarke changed his mind.
  • Compo was supposed to appear in all ten episodes of Series 21, but Owen's death resulted in last-minute rewrites to the final seven to replace Compo with his son, Tom.

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