Open All Hours with Roadshow released "Series One: Episodes 1–3 Comedy Bites" in 2010. In 1984, at which time no new episodes of the series had been produced for two years, a spin-off was proposed based around Lynda Baron's character, Nurse Gladys Emmanuel. Given the working title "Call the Nurse", this spin-off series would have followed Nurse Gladys as she visited various eccentric and demanding patients. The characters of Arkwright and Granville were not written to appear, and Roy Clarke was keen to develop a new set of supporting characters rather than rely on those already built up for "Open All Hours". A
Frances Barker & Son (1819–1875), the founder, was a practicing Christian and Freemason who formerly worked for James & George Simms, first as a child apprentice and then as a skilled precision mechanic and engraver. He later acquired J & G Simms, which traded between about 1822 and 1855 and build a reputation for finely engraved instrument dials and reticles. Barker used his considerable reputation as a skilled craftsman and those early social networks to establish his business. Frances Barker (1845–1920), the son of the founder of the same name, was one of eleven children. He married Elizabeth Weeks, whose father was a maker