Last of the Summer Wine Holmfirth any more. The situation escalated to the point that Bell filmed a scene in which Nora Batty put her house up for sale. Every episode of "Last of the Summer Wine" was written by Roy Clarke. The "Comedy Playhouse" pilot and all episodes of the first series were produced and directed by James Gilbert. Bernard Thompson produced and directed the second series of episodes in 1975. In 1976, Sydney Lotterby took over as producer and director. He directed all but two episodes of the third series – Ray Butt directed "The Great Boarding House Bathroom Caper" and "Cheering up
Last of the Summer Wine job down as he felt that the BBC's idea for a programme about three old men was a dull concept for a half-hour sitcom. Instead, Clarke proposed that the men should all be unmarried, widowed, or divorced and either unemployed or retired, leaving them free to roam around like adolescents in the prime of their lives, unfettered and uninhibited. Clarke chose the original title, "The Last of the Summer Wine", to convey the idea that the characters are not in the autumn of their lives but the summer, even though it may be "the last of the summer". BBC producers