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 (series 1) of episodes, premiering on 12 November 1973. The trio in this series consisted of: Compo (1973-2000) Clegg (1973-2010) Blamire (1973-1975) Sid (1973-1983) Ivy (1973-2010) Nora Batty (1973-2001, 2002-2008) Mr Wainwright (1973, 1976) Mrs Partridge (1973) (Only series the character is in) <onlyinclude><includeonly> </onlyinclude> The first and second series were released by Universal Playback as a combined box set in September 2002. The pilot episode is not included and some episodes have been altered from their original broadcast, prompting criticism from the show's fan base, however a re-release of the box set in 2011 had the altered episodes restored to original