22 February
Wine With No Charm
Last of The Summer Wine: is there anything quite as quintessentially British as this grand old TV show? I doubt it. I happen to be of the train of thought that this is a timeless classic, but alas some do not agree.
I was always going to be upset when I didn’t get to turn the TV on and see Compo’s ugly (yet strangely endearing) face. So how come some TV shows remain timeless, while others decompose quicker than cheese in a greenhouse?
It comes down to certain very specific magic elements, that’s my theory: you need all of the following–different depending on the show in question, of course–otherwise it just won’t work: Last Of The Summer Winehad these in abundance. OK, so I’m not going to say that this favourite of mine hasn’t dated at least a bit—because yes, it does look positively prehistoric next to The Office—but I will say that there have plenty that have done far worse.
Why Summer Wine worked:
1) Compo’s amazing ugly hagged face!: like something resembling something very old dangling horribly in the nether regions of an already very old man, the show would be nothing without this beauty.
2) The humour: the show never tried too hard, that was what made it. It was literally just a load of old men being grumpy to one another. It was all about proper acting and using the face to tell a hundred different stories. Not to forget the angry wives! Their faces were never less than horrendous!
3) The clothing: like all authentic old men in the North of England, the cast of Summer Wine gave not a monkeys uncle for fashion. They were the original TV vigilantes!
4) The old bikes that the men couldn’t ride: if they’d have just been walking it wouldn’t have been half as funny, would it? No. Compo on a bike was always a recipe for impeding doom and it never did disappoint!