For more than three decades, Last of the Summer Wine brought the rolling hills, stone-built streets and wonderfully eccentric characters of Yorkshire into millions of British homes.
Created and written by Roy Clarke, the comedy began with a pilot broadcast as part of the BBC’s Comedy Playhouse in January 1973. It went on to become one of Britain’s longest-running and best-loved sitcoms, with Holmfirth in West Yorkshire providing its instantly recognisable setting.
At the heart of the programme were a group of older men who appeared determined to prove that growing old didn’t necessarily mean growing up.
Compo, Clegg and the Gang
The original trio consisted of the scruffy, mischievous Compo Simmonite, played by Bill Owen; the thoughtful and cautious Norman Clegg, played by Peter Sallis; and the rather more serious Cyril Blamire, played by Michael Bates. Over the years, the line-up changed, with characters including Foggy Dewhurst, Seymour Utterthwaite and Truly Truelove joining Clegg and Compo on their adventures.
The formula was wonderfully simple.
A quiet day in Yorkshire could somehow turn into an elaborate experiment, a homemade contraption, a romantic misunderstanding or an excursion across the countryside that inevitably ended with somebody falling into a hedge, rolling down a hill or discovering that the latest brilliant idea wasn’t quite as brilliant as expected.
But alongside the hills and country lanes, there was another important location where the characters regularly gathered.
The café.
Welcome to Sid and Ivy’s Café
For fans of Last of the Summer Wine, the little café became almost as familiar as the main characters themselves.
Run in the early years by the married couple Sid and Ivy, it provided somewhere for Compo, Clegg and their companions to stop for a cup of tea, something to eat and, inevitably, another conversation about whatever ridiculous adventure they were contemplating.
Sid, played by John Comer, was often more willing than he probably should have been to become involved with the trio’s schemes. Ivy, played by Jane Freeman, generally had considerably less patience with the nonsense going on around her.
The relationship between Sid and Ivy provided another layer of comedy. Their arguments and exchanges became a regular feature of the early series, with one of the first café arguments between the pair appearing during the programme’s first series in 1973.
It was exactly the sort of fictional establishment viewers could imagine finding in a Yorkshire town: uncomplicated food, cups of tea and plenty of local characters passing through the door.
More Than Somewhere to Buy a Cup of Tea
The café worked so well because it gave the programme a meeting place.
Characters could arrive separately, exchange gossip, discuss their problems and formulate plans.The café therefore helped connect many of the show’s stories together.
Compo might arrive looking dishevelled, Clegg might quietly observe the latest madness unfolding around him, and Foggy might attempt to explain another of his supposedly foolproof plans.
Meanwhile, Ivy could usually be relied upon to bring proceedings firmly back down to earth.
The café scenes also reflected one of the great strengths of Last of the Summer Wine. Despite the slapstick and increasingly ambitious adventures, much of the humour came simply from people talking.
A cup of tea and a table were sometimes all Roy Clarke needed to create a memorable comedy scene.
From Television Set to Real Café
One of the most interesting parts of the story is that the café eventually became part of the real Holmfirth.
The building used for the exterior was originally associated with an ironmonger’s and was dressed to look like a café for filming. As visitors increasingly came to Holmfirth looking for locations from the programme, it was eventually transformed into an actual working café.
Today, Sid’s Café remains closely associated with Last of the Summer Wine and Holmfirth’s connection with the programme.
It’s a wonderful example of television fiction spilling over into real life.
A building that helped create the illusion of a small Yorkshire café became a genuine café partly because viewers wanted to experience a little piece of the programme for themselves.
A Very British Institution
Perhaps that’s why the café feels so important to Last of the Summer Wine.
The British café has always been about more than simply food.
It’s somewhere to meet friends, exchange gossip, warm up with a mug of tea and watch the world go by. In Last of the Summer Wine, it became the perfect headquarters for a collection of characters who might have been getting older but certainly weren’t ready to behave themselves.
The series changed enormously during its long run, and many beloved characters came and went. Yet the café remained one of those reassuringly familiar elements of the programme.
And that familiarity was a major part of its charm.
From Sid’s Café to the Modern Café Kitchen
Of course, while we can look back nostalgically at the traditional British café portrayed in programmes such as Last of the Summer Wine, running a café or any other food business today comes with significant responsibilities.
Modern food preparation requires careful attention to cleanliness, hand hygiene, preventing cross-contamination, safe food storage and the hygienic cleaning of work surfaces, utensils and equipment.
Food handlers need to understand when hands must be washed and when additional protective equipment may be appropriate. Where disposable gloves are used for suitable food-handling tasks, they need to be food-safe, changed appropriately and never treated as a replacement for proper hand washing.
From disposable gloves and aprons to cleaning chemicals, paper products and other everyday hygiene essentials, the equipment may have moved on considerably since the early days of Sid and Ivy’s café.
But one thing hasn’t changed.
Whether it’s a fictional café in Holmfirth or a busy food business today, customers still expect somewhere clean, welcoming and safe to enjoy their food — preferably with a good cup of tea.
© AA Film Archive / Alamy.com
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