Last of The Summer Wine - Characters and Casting

Characters and Casting

Initially, the only certain cast member for the show was Peter Sallis. Clarke had already collaborated on a few scripts with him and the character of Norman Clegg was created especially for Sallis, who liked the character and agreed to play him. He was soon joined by an actor he had previously worked with, comedy actor Michael Bates as Cyril Blamire.

"The joy of Bill Owen's Compo is not what he does with the words but where he takes the character beyond what's in the script. He did this in a physical manner. It was only when I saw Bill on screen that I realized what a wonderful physical clown he was."

James Gilbert had seen film actor Bill Owen playing northern characters in the Royal Court Theatre and proposed to cast him as Compo Simmonite. Clarke, who initially saw Owen as an archetypal cockney who could not play as solid a northern character as Compo was meant to be, recognised Owen's potential only after going to London for a read-through with him.

On-screen chemistry with existing players determined the later changes to the cast. Brian Wilde, Michael Aldridge and Frank Thornton each brought a sense of completion to the trio after the departure of the preceding third man. Tom Owen provided a direct link between his father and himself after the death of Bill Owen. Keith Clifford was added following three popular guest appearances on the show. Brian Murphy was chosen as Nora Batty's neighbour because of his work on George and Mildred, where he played the hen-pecked husband to a strong-willed woman.

In 2008, the BBC announced that Russ Abbot would join the cast as a relatively more youthful actor in series 30. Abbot was cast to allow Sallis and Thornton to reduce their role on the show to only indoor scenes. Abbot portrayed Luther "Hobbo" Hobdyke, who formed a new trio with Entwistle and Alvin. Entwistle, played by Burt Kwouk, was formerly a supporting character brought in to replace Wesley Pegden after the death of actor Gordon Wharmby, but whose role on the show steadily increased in the previous two series.

The original cast of Last of the Summer Wine also included a handful of characters with whom the trio regularly interacted. Kathy Staff was chosen to play Compo's neighbour, Nora Batty. Gilbert was initially sceptical about casting Staff but changed his mind after she padded herself to look bigger and read from a scene between her character and Owen's. This group was rounded out by characters at two locations frequented by the trio: John Comer and Jane Freeman as Sid and Ivy, the quarrelling husband-and-wife owners of the local café; and Blake Butler and Rosemary Martin as Mr. Wainwright and Mrs. Partridge, the librarians having a not-so-secret affair. Butler and Martin, however, were dropped as major characters after the first series. According to Peter Sallis, Roy Clarke felt there was little more he could do with them.

Supporting cast members were added throughout the run of the show. The only addition with no professional acting experience was the Holmfirth resident Gordon Wharmby, who performed so well during his audition as mechanic Wesley Pegden that Alan J. W. Bell cast him in one episode. Pegden became a regular character after a positive audience reception.

When Alan J. W. Bell took over as producer, the plots of Last of the Summer Wine moved away from the original dialogue-packed scenes in the pub and the library; guest actors were brought in to interact with the trio in new situations. Although many of these guest appearances would last for only one episode, some led to a permanent role on the show, as in the cases of Gordon Wharmby, Thora Hird, Jean Alexander, Stephen Lewis, Dora Bryan, Keith Clifford, Brian Murphy, Josephine Tewson, June Whitfield, Barbara Young, and Trevor Bannister. Other noted guests on the programme included John Cleese, Ron Moody, Sir Norman Wisdom, Eric Sykes, Liz Fraser, Stanley Lebor, and Philip Jackson.