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
The Inbetweeners Awards; the show was nominated for "Best New British Television Comedy (Scripted)" and Simon Bird was nominated for "Best Male Comedy Newcomer". Both won their respective categories. The show was also voted by the British Comedy Guide website as the "Best New British TV Sitcom 2008". It was nominated for "Best Situation Comedy" at the British Academy Television Awards 2009, ultimately losing out to "The IT Crowd". It then won the Audience Award at the British Academy Television Awards 2010. The first episode of series two, which aired on E4 at 10 pm (BST) 2 April 2009, averaged 958,000 viewers,