'Open All Hours' is one of the few programs that deserves the epithet of 'classic British comedy'. The small world of the stammering Arkwright and his possibly Hungarian "assistant manager" is a microcosm of northern England and its distance from modernity and 'The Smoke' (London).
While the pilot aired as far back as early 1973, it was to be three more years before the first series arrived on our small screens in February of 1976.
The story plays through the random thoughts of shopkeepr, Arkwright. He's a mean, small-town, grouchy grocer, Granville is his unfulfilled nephew and nurse Gladys Emmanuel is the well fulfilled object of his fancy.
American viewers of Sunday night PBS television will be familiar with this. It was a constant fixture on the British comedy playlist.
What really made this series so successful were the ongoing characters who came into the shop to buy something. (Even a young Keith Chegwin popped his head in once, to play a paper-boy.)
Stephanie Cole was particulary memorable as the uptight Mrs Featherstone. And who can forget the scatty and indecisive Mavis, played by Maggie Ollerenshaw? Even the violent and aggressive cash register had an unforgettable personality!
There were several threads that kept the show together, too. The ongoing fantasy that Granville might be of Hungarian descent. The disparaging comments Arkwright makes about his sister (Granville's mother) and of course the flirtatious relationship between Arkwright and the nurse who lived across the street, and Granville and the milk delivery woman.
Each episode ended with the musings of Arkwright as he gets ready to close up for the night.
Even today (2018) this ageless 'classic' is something that can be enjoyed just as much as it was back then, nearly half a century ago... in large part because a lot of that world still exists today.
While the pilot aired as far back as early 1973, it was to be three more years before the first series arrived on our small screens in February of 1976.
The story plays through the random thoughts of shopkeepr, Arkwright. He's a mean, small-town, grouchy grocer, Granville is his unfulfilled nephew and nurse Gladys Emmanuel is the well fulfilled object of his fancy.
American viewers of Sunday night PBS television will be familiar with this. It was a constant fixture on the British comedy playlist.
What really made this series so successful were the ongoing characters who came into the shop to buy something. (Even a young Keith Chegwin popped his head in once, to play a paper-boy.)
Stephanie Cole was particulary memorable as the uptight Mrs Featherstone. And who can forget the scatty and indecisive Mavis, played by Maggie Ollerenshaw? Even the violent and aggressive cash register had an unforgettable personality!
There were several threads that kept the show together, too. The ongoing fantasy that Granville might be of Hungarian descent. The disparaging comments Arkwright makes about his sister (Granville's mother) and of course the flirtatious relationship between Arkwright and the nurse who lived across the street, and Granville and the milk delivery woman.
Each episode ended with the musings of Arkwright as he gets ready to close up for the night.
Even today (2018) this ageless 'classic' is something that can be enjoyed just as much as it was back then, nearly half a century ago... in large part because a lot of that world still exists today.