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 King's Head Theatre, but garnered a negative response, with Barker stating it got "the worst notices of any play in the history of the theatre." Just over a decade after retiring, Barker was persuaded to make occasional appearances on television again. In 1997 he appeared with Corbett at the Royal Command Performance, driving on stage in a motorcycle as the Two Fat Ladies, and in 1999 he was reunited with Corbett for "Two Ronnies Night" on BBC One, and the following year for "A Tribute to the Two Ronnies". In 2002, director Richard Loncraine persuaded Barker to appear as Winston