Open All Hours
| Open All Hours | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Roy Clarke |
| Directed by | Sydney Lotterby |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | Joseph Ascher |
| Opening theme | "Alice, Where Art Thou?" |
| Ending theme | "Alice, Where Art Thou?" |
| Composer(s) | Max Harris |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 26 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | James Gilbert (pilot episode) |
| Producer(s) | Sydney Lotterby (1973, 1976–1985) |
| Location(s) | England |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC Two (1973, 1976) |
| Picture format |
PAL (576i) (1973–1985) |
| Audio format | Monaural (1973–1985) |
| Original run | 25 March 1973 – 6 October 1985 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Still Open All Hours |
| Related shows | Seven of One |
| External links | |
| Open All Hours at BBC Comedy | |
Open All Hours is a BBC television sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. It ran for 26 episodes in four series, which premiered in 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1985. The programme developed from a television pilot broadcast in Ronnie Barker's comedy anthology series, Seven of One (1973). Open All Hours ranked eighth in the 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom poll.[1] A sequel, entitled Still Open All Hours, was created in 2013.
Premise
The setting is a small grocer's shop in Balby, a suburb of Doncaster in South Yorkshire. The owner, Albert E. Arkwright (Ronnie Barker), is a middle-aged miser with a stammer and a knack for selling. His nephew Granville Arkwright (David Jason) is his put-upon errand boy, who blames his work schedule for his lacklustre social life.
Across the road lives Gladys Emmanuel (Lynda Baron), a nurse occupied by her professional rounds and her elderly mother. Arkwright longs to marry her, but she resists his persistent pressures. Though short-tempered with Arkwright, she is concerned for his and Granville's welfare.
Albert Arkwright
Arkwright is a pragmatic, miserly man with old fashioned values, whose world seems to stop at his shop door, except for his uncontrollable lust for Nurse Gladys Emmanuel (Lynda Baron), which may prompt him on occasion to wander across the road, usually with a ladder, to gain access to her bedroom window. Arkwright is a devious, and mildly dishonest character, who has many crafty tricks to try to persuade a customer to leave his store having bought at least one thing, and will avoid spending his own money at all costs. He is also very conservative about his savings, keeping some in his pocket wrapped in a fine gold chain, and some in an old, battered Oxo tin that he hides under the kitchen sink. This includes, or so he claims, coins from before 1922, when they were 'solid silver'.
Granville
Granville is the son of Arkwright's sister. She died as a single mother when Granville was very young, leaving Arkwright to bring up the boy. Arkwright's jokes imply that his sister was promiscuous; he speculates that Granville's father is Hungarian. He is often referred to as a "youth" or "young lad", even though David Jason was over 35 when he first began playing the role.
Granville is shy and awkward, but kind. His priorities differ from those of his uncle. He always feels that life is passing him by. Occasionally, people from Granville's past come into the shop. To Granville, who is ever saddled with his shop duties and bearing his uncle's belittling, their lives seem richer and more fulfilling.
When Granville has a fling with the milk woman (played by Barbara Flynn), his uncle is unsupportive.
Theme tune
The show's theme tune is a song called "Alice, Where Art Thou?", written by Joseph Ascher. It was arranged for brass band and performed by Max Harris, who also wrote the incidental music for the programme.[2][3]
Series development
The shop is based on a little store called L E Riddiford in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire. Roy Clarke visited this small town whilst travelling around the South West and was said to have fallen in love with the shop layout and its owner, Mr Len Riddiford. This shop is referenced in numerous Open All Hours episodes by Arkwright.
Ronnie Barker proposed that Albert Arkwright should have a stammer, and this was written into the character. Barker also co-created the premise of the dangerous till. In the series, the shop's antiquated till has a drawer that tends to snap shut suddenly. Even though this terrifies Granville and Arkwright, Arkwright leaves it to avoid the cost of buying a replacement, and because he believes it discourages burglars.
Reception
At the time of the programme's airing, it was widely known that some viewers objected to the show's reliance on a speech impediment for some of its laughs. Even so, Ronnie Barker's character was so amiable and the humour good-natured enough that most deemed it an unmalicious portrayal. Barker also notes in his autobiography "It's Hello from Him" that he received a letter which begun "We are a family of stutterers..." that made his heart sink. Until he read on where the writer praised his portrayal and added that the whole family found his character hilarious.
Filming location
The exterior shots were recorded on Lister Avenue in Balby, a suburb of Doncaster; the shop itself was a hairdresser's salon, which closed for a Summer break each year in order to allow filming by the BBC. It remains a hairdresser's salon. The pilot episode (featured in the series Seven of One) used a shop front on the western intersection of Drayton Avenue and Manor Road, Ealing, London for exterior filming.
The same location was used for the sequel series Still Open All Hours.
In the first series, Gladys Emmanuel's street address is 34 Lister Avenue, Balby, Doncaster, South Yorkshire (although the number changes to number 32 in the second series).
The local council considered demolishing the shop used in Open All Hours. A fan created a web site to garner support for preserving it. The shop was to be auctioned in Leeds on 24 November 2008, and was expected to fetch between £120,000 and £130,000; however, all bids fell short of the reserve price.[4][5][6]
Three years earlier, a different sort of auction commemorated the programme. The BBC donated, to the British Stammering Association, two of the false moustaches worn by Ronnie Barker in the series. The BSA auctioned the moustaches at their London conference in September 2005 (shortly before Barker's death).
Recurring characters
| Character | Pilot | Series 1 | Series 2 | Series 3 | Series 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albert E. Arkwright | | ||||
| Granville E. Arkwright | | ||||
| Gladys Emmanuel | Shelia Brennan | | |||
| Milk Woman | | ||||
| Delphine Featherstone | | ||||
| Mrs. Blewett | | ||||
| Mavis | | ||||
| Mrs. Parslow | | ||||
| Cyril | | ||||
| Mrs. Ellis | Barbara Keogh | ||||
| Gordon | | ||||
| Thorndyke | | ||||
| Julie | Helen Cotterill | ||||
| Mrs. Bickerdyke | Sandra Voe | ||||
Merchandise
Books
Two books related to the progamme have been released in the UK. One was written by Graham McCann and published by BBC Books in October 2014 and the other one, a 'novelisation' based on scripts for the first series, was written by Christine Sparks and was published by BBC Books.
- Open All Hours
This was published in February 1981 which is based on the original progamme. Sparks, Christine (February 1981). Open All Hours:[Papercover]. BBC Books. ISBN 0563179244.[7]
- Still Open All Hours: The Story of a Classic Comedy
This was published on October 30, 2014. McCann, Graham (30 October 2014). Still Open All Hours: The Story of a Classic Comedy [Hardcover]. BBC Books. ISBN 1849908869.[8]
DVD releases
All four series have been released in Regions 2 and 4, both individually and in box sets. Region 1 has released the box set but the series have not been released individually. In Australia, the BBC with Roadshow released "Series One: Episodes 1–3 Comedy Bites" in 2010.
| DVD Title | Discs | Year | Ep. No, | DVD releases | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||||||
| Complete Series 1 | 1 | 1973 and 1976 | 7 | 30 September 2002 | 1 April 2003 | Includes the 1973 pilot | ||
| Complete Series 2 | 1 | 1981 | 7 | 29 September 2003 | 3 December 2003 | |||
| Complete Series 3 | 1 | 1982 | 6 | 4 October 2004 | 2 March 2005 | |||
| Complete Series 4 | 1 | 1985 | 6 | 31 October 2005 | 8 August 2006 | |||
| Complete Series 1–4 | 4 | 1973–1985 | 26 | 9 June 2009 | 13 November 2006 | 1 August 2007 | Includes the 1973 pilot | |
See also
References
- ↑ Britain's Best Sitcom:Top Ten, URL accessed 2 December 2006.
- ↑ Alice, Where Art Thou? (Joseph Ascher) with sound file example
- ↑ Credits at the Internet Movie Database.
- ↑ Famous TV shop faces demolition BBC News Online. Retrieved 4 April 2007.
- ↑ 'Open All Hours' shop to be auctioned
- ↑ "Open All Hours shop fails to sell". BBC. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2008.
- ↑ "Open All Hours". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
- ↑ "Still Open All Hours: The Story of a Classic Comedy". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
External links
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Open All Hours |
- Open All Hours at BBC Online Guide to Comedy.
- Open All Hours at BBC Programmes
- Open All Hours at the British Film Institute.
- Open All Hours at the BFI's Screenonline.
- Open All Hours at the Internet Movie Database.
- Open All Hours at the British Comedy Guide.
- Image of Arkwright's shop in April 2007
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