First of the Summer Wine original series making an appearance in the prequel. With the success of "Last of the Summer Wine", the BBC approved a new series which Roy Clarke would carry over characters of the original show. With the new series, Clarke hoped to show the lives of his characters as they were in the "first summer" of their lives, as opposed to the last summer depicted in "Last of the Summer Wine". While there would still be the "shadow of the Grim Reaper" hanging over them, this time it would be because of World War II, not due to their old age.
Last of the Summer Wine themes from "Last of the Summer Wine". Ronnie Hazlehurst used the resulting list for an independently released CD collection titled "Last of the Summer Wine: Music from the TV Show". BBC Radio released audio-only versions of episodes starting in 1995. Peter Sallis provided narration to compensate for the loss of the televised visual elements. All twelve audio episodes were released in CD format. In 1976, a selection of early scripts from the series was published as "Last of the Summer Wine Scripts". A companion guide to the show, "Last of the Summer Wine: The Finest Vintage", was released in 2000.