'Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1991'
(Bill Owen, Peter Sallis, Brian Wilde, et al / DVD / Not Rated / 2012 / BBC Home Video)
Overview: Ah, what a year 1991 was! Once again, the vintage threesome are up to their old tricks. Compo is as smitten as ever with Nora, but Foggy is back working on his crackpot inventions-and poor Clegg is dragged into their mischief-making plots even though he knows better!
DVD Verdict: The 'Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1991' was also the thirteenth of the long-running series, and seemed to be running out of steam, it has to be said. Now only on one (1) disc, whereas it was usually two (2), this 1991 set of episodes also features the best episode of that time: the Christmas Special, 'Situation Vacant.'
Notably from the off, this series of the show was shot entirely on videotape. Prior to this, the show had used videotape for studio scenes and film for location footage. Indeed, from the following series until 2004, the show moved to being shot entirely on film.
With our band of merry (old) men up to their usual hotch-potch of ill-mannered trials and tribulations, Bill Owen, Peter Sallis, Brian Wilde take their respective characters (Compo, Clegg and Foggy) on many a trip into disaster!
From this short six episode season my favorites, save for the Xmas one (as they were ALWAYS great!) are when Compo's love for Nora Batty starts to overspill and soon his jealousy for her new lodger, Smiler, is known to all; when Clegg discovers a new type of Beetle, then loses is just as quickly, before they start to believe that the hills are getting steeper - thus a chair lift is built; and the episode where Nora is singing to herself, which gives Compo more food for thought - enabling him to act out once more!
And that lodger, the ironically-named Smiler, a mate of all three guys is actually Stephen Lewis from the classic British TV series On The Buses. But, that said, here all the episodes with Smiler in are a real let down. Morbidly slow, they put the episodes in reverse, sadly. These are all Full Screen Presentations (1:33.1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.
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