Last of the Summer Wine of "Last of the Summer Wine". While presenting an OBE to Roy Clarke in 2002, Prince Charles said that his grandmother, the Queen Mother, had introduced him to the show. The Queen told Dame Thora Hird during a 2001 meeting that "Last of the Summer Wine" was her favourite television programme. A 2003 survey by "Radio Times" found that "Last of the Summer Wine" was the programme readers most wanted to see cancelled. With nearly 12,000 votes in the survey, the show received one-third of the total vote, and twice as many votes as the runner up in the poll,
Last of the Summer Wine regular character starting in "Uncle of the Bride". The increasingly large cast ensured a sense of continuity with the changing configuration of the trio, especially following the death of Bill Owen. When Alan J. W. Bell took over as producer, the plots of "Last of the Summer Wine" moved away from the original dialogue-packed scenes in the pub and the library; guest actors were brought in to interact with the trio in new situations. Although many of these guest appearances lasted for only one episode, some led to a permanent role on the show, as in the cases of Gordon