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| Last Of The Summer Wine: Complete BBC Series 1 & 2 Box Set [1973] | ![Last Of The Summer Wine: Complete BBC Series 1 & 2 Box Set [1973]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WG2SHRKKL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Actors: Michael Bates, Bill Owen, Peter Sallis, Jane Freeman, John Comer
Studio: Playback
Category: DVD
List Price: £29.99
Buy New: £9.97
You Save: £20.02 (67%)
New (14) from £9.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 1722
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Running Time: 390 minutes
Number Of Items: 4
Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.8 x 1
EAN: 3259190679436
ASIN: B000067NSC
Theatrical Release Date: November 12, 1973
Release Date: September 2, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 There is good news and bad news. July 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The good news is that this boxset is superb. Written and produced long before the poison that is political correctness pervaded the corridors of the BBC. Grown men swearing, smoking and drinking beer, what on earth were they thinking of? How dare they have opinions on politics and current affairs, let alone express them in public. Absolutely shocking!
The bad news is, that this only highlights all to tragically how poor the later series are. I for one welcomed new characters like Auntie Wainright, but now there are so many incidental characters, that the essential core of the programme that of the three old age delinquents has been almost entirely lost. Much of this is down to the passing of Bill Owen and the largely unsuccessful steps to replace him. But also the loss of Brian Wilde and the frailty of Peter Sallis.
Much as I hate to say it, because I love the programme in general, I think we have reached the dregs at the end of the bottle.
But go and buy this and the other currently available boxsets and wallow in the barmy adventures, first rate acting, superb writing and glorious countryside.
 Before the Lees. July 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
For the very few who are unfamilliar with the show from either watching it or because they haven't read any of the other reviews, these earliest examples are easily the funniest tales of three retirees' daleland rambles and philosophical musings between cups of tea and close shaves about the head from Nora Batty's mop, but please, don't let a misplaced sense of imagined rustic brotherhood allow you to criticize those who criticize the show; there's less resisitance in Nora's soggy tights than in those who discredit a gainsayer's opinions because of their spelling mistakes.
When this show was what it claimed to be, a comic character study of three men and their neighbours and adversaries, each not always belonging to the same group, trying to fit in some fun whist excusing their largely wasted lives with reasons for still doing nothing, which is a hard skill to learn, it was funny, it was worthwhile, and something from which we could all learn whilst laughing.
Later on, like the characters, it had the will to live, but the unfunny real world, streatching out into the electronic suburbs of the ether, reaching even the fictional counties, seemed to blunt Roy Clarke's mind and comic taste, as it, by degrees and by series, turned into a very unfunny pantomime of grotesques, increasingly shallow and unreal, relying on our viewing habits, nostalgia and best wishes, and it's beautiful scenery to succeed, whilst some peoples' attention surely strayed to imagining the different script the audience was listening to whilst having their canned laughter recorded; silent backgrounds create a wry ambience, which canned laughter entirely smothers.
Increasingly stupid characters, choosing the dales for their contrived appearances, or, seemingly, their landings from space to create chance meetings with the far more interesting but increasingly few attractive personalities left on the ground; the slow loss of any truth, or believability attaching to either place or person; wanderers slowly exhausted of any mental musings, idle speculations, or even new places to explore, (development of land being as much disallowed, here, as any new thoughts were inhibited by the ridiculousness of it all, let alone any aspirations), all left us with just the scenery; and for that, all the B.B.C. had to do was to advise viewers to watch Countryfile; reducing genuinely funny programme production investment, rather than the numbers of people reading the News from twelve back to one, again, helps to reduce costs.
These shows are funny, and worth watching, and you long for it to be followed by Esther Rantzen's good-natured That's Life, afterwards; alas, the bitterness of the times has affected that type of show, too, and I don't see Esther breaking the speed limit with impunity chasing a drug dealer on Police, Camera, Action, which is what these shows have become; it would leave no time for Cyril Fletcher's odd odes.
Thank Goodness for discs; if there was any appreciation for sensibility left, or even an apprehension of its existence and possibilities among television producers to-day, they might allow them to be embarrased into reform after watching them;but the lack of demand partly explains why Summer Wine became as unsubtle as it did. Still, it does teach you what to avoid yourself, later on, in life, whether you'll find yourself in the dales or not.
One of the best British comedy shows......ever!! April 10, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
What can I say? I remember this show from my childhood (the later shows, anyway) and I have always loved it as it gives me a warm, nostalgic feeling and always makes me smile.
It is a gentle show and has some very understated jokes and the earlier series are refreshingly non-PC (just like Britain was in the 70s). The trio of Compo, Clegg and Blamire (and later Foggy, Seymour, Truly and a host of other memorable characters) are all the more comical as most people can identify with them in some way or know someone like them (the way that Compo laughs is the spitting image of the way my Dad does).
I would highly recommend this show to anyone, although set in a little Yorkshire village (with some stunning scenery) it crosses all cultural boundries and is a fun, family show.
I would have given it more than five stars, but I can't.
Stone Past January 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I like these shows. They're gritty, adult, not so nauseatingly sticky-sweet. The landscape is more open than today, expansive, with derelict buildings in the middle of nowhere, covered with at least a century of coal soot. We're only a few years from the Age of Steam. The characters drink a lot, and smoke heavily, and even talk about sex - in the past tense, except for Compo, who really lusts after Nora Batty - and personal failure. They're real. Compo isn't just scruffy, he's a malcontent, and Clegg has a nasty streak which comes out in bitter little comments.
The scripts aren't loaded with gimmicks - some, but not too many - writer Roy Clarke has to rely on character and dialog, walk a higher wire. I really began to wonder if the show didn't actually "jump the shark" when Foggy came on board. I'd much rather spend time in the company of these guys than the sappy people in the current show...just as long as I didn't have to eat "drippings."
Considering how good the preservation and transfer is on this, why is it cut? Some of the shows begin with the characters in the middle of dialog! Was there some dialog under the end credits, as there is today? Who knows? Why do people think they have to nibble around the edges of old shows and movies? If we're going to watch a thirty-year-old show, don't you think we want it all? Where do you guys get the arrogance?
I give the show four stars, and take a star away because of the clowns who cut it.
first summer April 23, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I still like these programs after all these years .A couple of points however . Firstly the pilot program is missing from this issue which is rather suprising given that UK Gold etc have shown it along with the episodes in these DVDs . Michael Aldrich wasn't in those early episodes as detailed above ,in fact Michael Bates played Blamire in the first two series .
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