Last of the Summer Wine "Heartbeat". Alan J. W. Bell responded that Radio Times has always been anti-"Last of the Summer Wine", and Roy Clarke remarked that people who dislike the show "shouldn't switch it on" unless they are "too idle to turn it off". A 2008 survey by "County Life" magazine, which named the show the worst thing about Yorkshire, was disputed by members of the Holme Valley Business Association, who said the show was good for business. The BBC wanted to cancel "Last of the Summer Wine" for years in favour of a new programme aimed at a younger audience, but the show
Last of the Summer Wine The original cast of "Last of the Summer Wine" also included a handful of characters with whom the trio regularly interacted. Kathy Staff was chosen to play Compo's neighbour, Nora Batty. Gilbert was initially sceptical about casting Staff but changed his mind after she padded herself to look bigger and read from a scene between her character and Owen's. This group was rounded out by characters at two locations frequented by the trio: John Comer and Jane Freeman as Sid and Ivy, the quarrelling husband-and-wife owners of the local café; and Blake Butler and Rosemary Martin as Mr Wainwright and