Last of the Summer Wine Barry trying to better himself (at the insistence of Glenda), and Tom trying to stay one step ahead of the repo man. "Last of the Summer Wine" is the longest-running comedy programme in Britain, and the longest running situation comedy in the world. Each series has between six and twelve episodes; most were thirty minutes in length, with some specials running longer. There were 295 episodes and 31 series between 1973 and 2010, counting the pilot, all episodes of the series, specials, and two films. In 1978, the BBC commissioned a "Last of the Summer Wine" Christmas special instead of
Comedy Playhouse (series 1) which was broadcast at 8:40pm. Comedy Playhouse (series 1) The first series of Comedy Playhouse, that continued to be a long-running BBC series, broadcast from 15 December 1961 to 16 February 1962. All the episodes were written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The first series, which was in black and white, consisted of ten episodes, each of which had a different cast and storyline. Only the fourth episode, "The Offer", made it to its own series becoming "Steptoe and Son"; all other episodes of this series of "Comedy Playhouse" are lost. The episodes were broadcast on Friday at 8:45pm,