Open All Hours Open All Hours Open All Hours is a British television sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. It ran for 26 episodes in four series, which premiered in 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1985. The programme developed from a television pilot broadcast in Ronnie Barker's comedy anthology series, "Seven of One" (1973). "Open All Hours" ranked eighth in the 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom poll. A sequel, entitled "Still Open All Hours", was created in 2013. The setting is a small grocer's shop in Balby, a suburb of Doncaster in South Yorkshire. The owner, Arkwright (Ronnie Barker), is a
Ronnie Barker Mr Thwaites in "Double Image" in 1956 (with Olivier), "Camino Real" (directed by Hall) in 1957, French gangster Robertoles-Diams in "Irma La Douce" for two years from 1958, Lord Slingsby-Craddock in "Mr Whatnot" in 1964 and Birdboot in "The Real Inspector Hound" in 1968. He also appeared in several Royal Court Theatre productions, including "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as Quince. Barker's theatrical success enabled him to move into radio work. Barker, who had previously been known by his birth name "Ronald", was now referred to as the less formal form "Ronnie", after a director changed it in the credits, although