Last of the Summer Wine enjoyed the show. The programme was nominated for numerous awards and won the National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Programme in 1999. There were twenty-one Christmas specials, three television films and a documentary film about the series. "Last of the Summer Wine" inspired other adaptations, including a television prequel, several novelisations, and stage adaptations. In 1972, Duncan Wood, the BBC's Head of Comedy, watched a comedy on television called "The Misfit". Impressed by writer Roy Clarke's ability to inject both comedy and drama into the sitcom, Wood offered Clarke the opportunity to write a sitcom. Clarke nearly turned the
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.