Last of the Summer Wine (series 4) Last of the Summer Wine (series 4) Last of the Summer Wine's fourth series originally aired on BBC1 between 9 November 1977 and 4 January 1978. All episodes from this series were written by Roy Clarke and produced and directed by Sydney Lotterby. The fourth series was released on DVD in region 2 as a combined box set with series 3 on 26 July 2004. A box set featuring just series 4 was released for region 1 on 9 September 2008. The trio in this series consisted of: Regular series Christmas Special (1978) The box set for series 3 and
Last of the Summer Wine (series 31) axing in December 2008, whilst director Alan J.W. Bell also credited the series to fan reaction. The series continued with the same trio from series 30, with Russ Abbot (Hobbo), Burt Kwouk (Entwistle), and Brian Murphy (Alvin). Peter Sallis (Clegg) and Frank Thornton (Truly), who were previously central characters, remained, but were now secondary characters, only taping studio scenes owing to the cost of insurance for actors of their advanced age on location. Jane Freeman (Ivy) also filmed only in-studio scenes. On 2 June 2010, the BBC announced that the 31st series would be the last, despite the show still