Sitting watching an early episode (with Michael Bates - if you ever watch it, you'll know this really means 'early') sitting in Reno, Nevada made me look at the reviews of this wonderful show. OK, it's not cutting edge (whatever that means), it has no dramatic twists, it has little or no bad language (some of the early episodes did have some), it is devoid of some of the tawdry innuendo of series like Two and a Half Men and definitely does not have the stag-night humour of Sex in the City (but it does have humorous scenes about innocent, nothing-ever-happens relationships featuring Nora and Compo plus Marina and Howard). I started to watch this when I was 21 and thought it brilliant. As I got older I thought it evocative of what was and what would be. Now, as I near 60, I enjoy re-runs the same way as I watch re-runs of M*A*S*H - I watch a comedy which is out of the ordinary. LOTSW relies on human interaction of a type which really exists in Northern England, where political correctness is irrelevant, sarcasm and irony is the norm and no-one expects it any other way. Simply put, LOTSW, is real, 'nice', Northern humour.

This is hilarious. True, I do prefer the earlier episodes, and it wasn't the same without Compo, but that doesn't deter me from putting on the television and relaxing for 45 or so minutes. The men's antics are a tad predictable, but they are still hilarious, like the episode with Compo dressing up as the ice cream man, with a duck-caller. Another priceless gem was when Seymour, Compo and Clegg try and help Howard escape, and their inflatable boat sinks, and all four men end up in the river. But for me, my favourite episode has to be Das(Welly)Boot. And of course, I love any episode with Foggy. The performances are first rate, especially Bill Owen as Compo. I noticed on the laughter track he got the most laughs. But Peter Sallis as Clegg, Brian Wilde as Foggy and Michael Aldridge as Seymour were a delight as well. I mustn't forget Kathy Staff as Nora Batty. The newer episodes are good, but it's not the same without those lovable characters, because Peter Sallis I think is the only one of them still alive, and over the years is subdued to cameo appearances. All in all, a hugely satisfying comedy series, that still looks good after 30+ years thanks to the amazing countryside scenery. 10/10 Bethany Cox

One of the saddest sights on television in recent years has been the continued presence of Roy Clarke's 'Last Of The Summer Wine' on our screens, a show well past its sell-by date. It is easy to forget just how good it was when at its peak, from the mid-'70's to late-80's.Peter Sallis once called it 'Just William with pension books', and I think that's about right. The adventures of three mature men - 'Blamire' ( Michael Bates ), 'Compo' ( Bill Owen ) and 'Clegg' ( Sallis ) - whose zest for life has not diminished with time. They have nothing to do all day except wander the cobblestoned streets and leafy lanes of Holmfirth, either reminiscing about the past, or getting into new mischief. A regular port of call was the café, run by henpecked Sid ( the marvellous John Comer ) and fearsome Ivy ( Jane Freeman ). The early shows had them calling on the library a lot, hence the working title: 'The Library Mob'. Clarke's scripts were full of wonderfully funny lines and situations ( although the later shows tended to rely too heavily on stunts for my taste ). Compo had a crush on the local battle axe 'Norah Batty' ( Kathy Staff ), who, in her curlers and wrinkled stockings, regularly used to hit him about the head with a broom. Bill Owen loved doing the show so much he came to regard himself as a native of Yorkshire ( that is where he is buried ), despite being a Cockney.Bates left after the second season and Brian Wilde replaced him as 'Foggy' Dewhurst, a ex-military man who keeps coming up with stupid ideas to make the world a better place, such as erecting a Union flag on a hillside in Jubilee year ( 1977 ), turning 'Compo' into a superhero called 'The Phantom', and taking a drive in 'The Loxley Lozenge'. After Owen died, the show carried on with the likes of June Whitfield, Frank Thornton, Burt Kwouk, Stephen Lewis, Norman Wisdom and others, but it never reached those heights again. The show has had its detractors over the years. Jeremy Clarkson put it on 'Room 101', for instance ( which is where he belongs ). Jezza seemed to think the audience for the show is composed entirely of pensioners, whereas it is enjoyed by families.At its best 'Last' was the perfect tonic; the sun always shines in Holmfirth, everybody gets on well with everybody else, and nothing unpleasant ever seems to happen. Ronnie Hazlehurst's gentle theme seems evocative of a simpler, nicer age. Had it ended at the time of 'Getting Sam Home', I think that today it would be as fondly remembered as 'Steptoe & Son' and 'Hancock's Half-Hour'.

Like many people I occasionally turn on the TV on a Sunday evening and come face to face with Last of the Summer Wine. With a shock I realise that I am not watching an episode from years ago but part of a new series of the show. Not that it makes much difference because all episodes of the programme are essentially identical. The writer Roy Clarke deserves some sort of award for endlessly recycling the same material and persuading the BBC to film it. He did a good job of this on 'Open all Hours' with Ronnie Barker , which ran for a few series but he's been doing it with LOTSW for 32 incredible years. The show now provides a cosy pension for much-loved British character actors like Jean Alexander and (incredibly) Burt Kwouk, Kato in the 'Pink Panther' films. Of course nearly all the original cast are dead and many of their replacements too. I always felt that Sunday evenings were morbid but there is no better reminder of mortality than the sight of Bill 'Compo' Owen's son, who I remember as a juvenile lead in a kids' TV show 'Freewheelers', appearing in the show as an old man himself.