Norman Clegg

Norman Clegg, often nicknamed Cleggy, is a fictional character from the world's longest-running sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine.

Biography

Early life

Norman Clegg was the only child of a builder and decorator, David Clegg, and his rather temperamental wife Violet (Peter Sallis and Maggie Ollerenshaw). David, a war veteran, was very short and silent with his family, much to the annoyance of Norman, who thought his father didn't like him (Vi felt the same way). His mother was overprotective of her son, and fretted when he was walked home by a girl a year older than him.

Later years

Norman married his wife, Edith, in the 1940s; she died in 1971.^[1] Especially in earlier episodes, Norman reminisced about his wife and her traits: how she hated his camping phase; and her sharp tongue. After her death, he wandered around with his schoolfriends Compo Simmonite and Cyril Blamire. They divided their time between the local library, pubs, eating at Sid's Café and devising ridiculous daft exploits to stave off boredom. Clegg was a cynic, and more apprehensive of the schemes than the others, preferring to take a back seat and casually watch, for example, an antic involving three meat pies; Compo, Cyril and Sid; an alloy spoon and a very angry Ivy.^[2]

Norman enjoys watching Compo and the third man, usually Foggy, arguing trading insults such as "great long dollop" (Sid), "Elsie" (Foggy) and "Rex Hammond" (Cyril). He often goes along with the ideas just to keep the others quiet. Clegg aims for a quiet, respectable retirement following his redundancy from his job as a lino salesman, but is continually involved in the schemes of Foggy and the others. Perfectly content reading alone in his cosy home, he also finds fascination in some of the simpler things in life, such as Sid's skirting board and the price of beer. He is also so reserved and shy that he wears several layers of clothing: vest/long johns, shirt, jumper/sweater, waistcoat/suit vest, jacket/sport coat, and finally a plastic mac, which he just carries when it's not windy or raining. He is also the only one of the trio with a driving licence^[3] and so finds himself reluctantly pressured into driving on the very rare occasions that they are not merely strolling about locally and manage to find a vehicle but no driver. This invariably results in a panic attack for Clegg, who fumbles about uncontrollably with the gears and pedals, limiting his speed to about 3 mph (5 km per hour) (which is just to his liking). He sometimes could also be quite superstitious as in one episode he believed he, Compo had Foggy had aroused the anger of an old Yorkshire god named Earnshaw and in the episode where Compo is buried he believed Compo heard him shouting "Goodbye Compo" when in fact it was a random passerby who overheard him.

Clegg was the sounding-board for Compo's glee and the third man's authority, and was often instrumental in pointing out the pitfalls concealed within the schemes of the third man.^[4] Clegg is also well known for his philosophical asides, which have received praise for interjecting intellectual material into the series.^[5] In early episodes, Clegg was much more forthright and adventurous. Within a few years he became more retiring and cautious (although he was still seen to relish the odd practical joke or escapade), and the group came to be dominated by Foggy and the "third men" who succeeded him. In the two final series he became a secondary character, as Sallis and Frank Thornton were now over 80, leading to complications over insurance when on location filming, so his role was filled by Entwistle (Burt Kwouk). He was the only character to appear in every single episode of the programme.

References