Of Funerals and Fish Of Funerals and Fish "Of Funerals and Fish" is the pilot episode of the world's longest running sitcom, "Last of the Summer Wine" (1973–2010), written by Roy Clarke. It was first aired on 4 January 1973 and became the first of 295 episodes. It was aired as a "Comedy Playhouse" episode. The plot involved the trio going around discussing life and death. It starred Bill Owen, Peter Sallis and Michael Bates. This also was the first appearance of Kathy Staff, although her character is at this point only known as Mrs Batty rather than Nora. Her husband, unseen in this
The Black Adder (pilot episode) the script of the pilot episode was used for the second episode of the first series, "Born to Be King", which contains many similar characters, situations and lines to the pilot. Like the first series, "The Black Adder", it was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson. However, the episode features a number of major differences to the aired first series. The pilot episode is introduced with on-screen scrolling text which announces that the setting is "Europe, 400 years ago" which, based on the date of production, places the episode during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. In this respect,