Still Open All Hours

Still Open All Hours is a British sitcom created for the BBC by Roy Clarke, and starring David Jason and James Baxter. It is the sequel to the original sitcom Open All Hours, which both Clarke and Jason worked on throughout its 26-episode run from 1973 to 1985, following a 40th Anniversary Special in December 2013 commemorating the original series.[1] The sitcom's premise focuses on the life of a much older Granville, who now runs his late uncle's grocery shop with the assistance of his son, continuing to sell products at higher prices alongside seeking to be with his love interest.

Still Open All Hours
Opening titles
GenreComedy
Created byRoy Clarke
Written byRoy Clarke
Directed byDewi Humphreys
Starring
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original language(s)English
No. of series6
No. of episodes41 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)Gareth Edwards
Production location(s)Dock10 studios (2013)
Teddington Studios (2014)
Pinewood Studios (2015—)
Running time30 minutes
Production company(s)BBC
DistributorBBC Worldwide
2entertain
ABC (Australia, home video)
Release
Original networkBBC One
Picture format1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Audio formatDolby Digital 5.1
Original release26 December 2013 (2013-12-26) –
present
Chronology
Preceded byOpen All Hours
Related showsSeven of One
External links
Still Open All Hours at BBC Comedy

Unlike the original series, the cast for Still Open All Hours included a more regular group of characters and additional side-plots, and featured the return of Lynda Baron, Stephanie Cole, and Maggie Ollerenshaw as their respective characters from Open All Hours. Although the special garnered less than favourable reviews, it attracted positive viewing figures, with the sitcom airing a total of 41 episodes across six series to date.

Premise

Like Open All Hours, the sitcom is set within a small grocer's shop in the suburb of Balby, within Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and focuses on the life of Granville (David Jason) - now much older and the shop's owner, having grown into the same sort of person his late uncle Arkwright was by learning from him his many ways of selling to customers. Assisting him with the running of his shop is Leroy (James Baxter), Granville's son by one of his previous girlfriends, who maintains a rather robust love life with several girls but struggles to cope with the work and sales approach of his father, much like Granville did in his youth with Arkwright.

Like his uncle, Granville maintains a love life with the sweet but absent-minded Mavis (Maggie Ollerenshaw) who loves him in return, but finds his path to her often blocked by her sister Madge (Brigit Forsyth), a miserable woman who does not like men and chooses to keep Mavis from following a relationship with Granville. Both are regular customers of the shop, alongside others from the neighbourhood whom Granville tries to offload products onto, which he has bought and had little success selling on under their original identity and price.

Characters
Main article: List of Open All Hours characters

Granville
Main article: Granville

Since Open All Hours, having lived his youth as a nice, yet shy and awkward man who struggled with shop life, Granville has changed into a more toned-down version of his uncle Arkwright, who thanks to his uncle's training, now exhibits a similar manner of selling goods at inflated prices, fabricating stories to sell useless and/or unsaleable items to hapless customers, and keeping a close watch on the money he spends, often through employing the use of a special money belt that cause slight issues and embarrassment at times. During his uncle's training, Granville engaged in relationships with several girlfriends, in which a fling in Blackpool resulted in the procreation of his son Leroy, whom he was left in charge of by the boy's mother. Following his uncle's death, Granville inherited his shop, which he runs alongside Leroy, often teasing his son over the identity of his mother, secretly concealing the fact he knows who it is, while subjecting him to practical jokes and teaching him some of the tricks that his uncle taught him. In Still Open All Hours, he maintains a belief that his uncle lives on through the shop's till, often referring to it as Arkwright in later episodes, due to the nature of it opening up or closing shut suddenly at times for various reasons, such as when there is mention of spending considerable money on something.

Like his uncle, Granville has a love interest of his own in Mavis, a woman he met during his youth and whom he still fondly loves. Unlike his uncle, Granville must struggle to be with Mavis since the end of her previous marriage, due to her sister Madge desiring to keep them apart. To try to distract Madge and hopefully remove her as an obstacle, Granville spends his time grooming one of his regulars, Gastric, into becoming Madge's love interest. In later episodes, he also finds himself trying to stop the advances of widower Delphine Featherstone, one of his uncle's customers whom he accidentally sent a love note to that was meant for Mavis, by convincing a fellow widower, Wilburn Newbold, into entering a relationship with her and maintaining it, despite Mrs Featherstone's presence unnerving him.

Leroy

Leroy was born to a mother whom his father met during a fling in Blackpool, but whom he does not know about, despite Granville secretly knowing who she is; although his mother is talked about during the first series, including a visit by her to see Leroy, references about her become rare and non-existent in later episodes. Left into his father's care by his mother at a young age, Leroy suffers similar issues like Granville did in his youth, such as having to be up early to open the shop and thus being on the receiving end of his father's practical jokes, and handling the deliveries of purchases to customers. Unlike his father, Leroy maintains an active social life with many young women, most having boyfriends that they don't mind ignoring to spend time with him, much to his father's dismay, while displaying a firm dislike of his father's practices for unloading products he buys cheaply but cannot sell. By the fourth series, Leroy becomes committed to winning the affection of a local librarian, despite her values and her lifestyle as a vegan.

Main
Character Played by Series Episode count
1 2 3 4 5 6
Main Characters
GranvilleDavid Jason
41
LeroyJames Baxter
41
Mrs FeatherstoneStephanie Cole
41
MavisMaggie Ollerenshaw
41
MadgeBrigit Forsyth
41
Eric AgnewJohnny Vegas
40
GastricTim Healy
40
CyrilKulvinder Ghir
40
Kath AgnewSally Lindsay
36
Wilburn NewboldGeoffrey Whitehead
31
Mrs HusseinNina Wadia
22
BethKatie Redford
17
Nurse GladysLynda Baron
13
RubySophie Willan
11
Mrs RossiSue Holderness
10
WillisDean Smith
7
JasmineArchie Panjabi
4

Episodes
Main article: List of Still Open All Hours episodes
SeriesEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
Special26 December 2013 (2013-12-26)
1626 December 2014 (2014-12-26)25 January 2015 (2015-01-25)
2627 December 2015 (2015-12-27)24 January 2016 (2016-01-24)
371 January 2017 (2017-01-01)5 February 2017 (2017-02-05)
477 January 2018 (2018-01-07)11 February 2018 (2018-02-11)
577 October 2018 (2018-10-07)12 November 2018 (2018-11-12)
6718 October 2019 (2019-10-18)20 December 2019 (2019-12-20)

Forty-one episodes of Still Open All Hours, all written by Roy Clarke, have been produced for the BBC. The show began airing on 26 December 2013 with an anniversary special of original series, Open All Hours All episodes had a running time of 30 minutes. Between Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, there have been a total of 67 episodes and ten series broadcast between 1973 and 2019.

Production

Series development

Still Open All Hours was broadcast on 26 December 2013, with Jason reprising his role of Granville from Open All Hours. The new one-off episode written by Clarke showed Granville now running the shop with his son Leroy (played by James Baxter), after inheriting it from Arkwright.[2] Clarke wrote the script in two weeks, and production began in October 2013. The exterior scenes were filmed at the original location at Lister Avenue in Doncaster from 18 to 20 November 2013. The interior scenes were recorded on 3 December 2013 at dock10 studios in Salford in front of a studio audience. A 30-minute documentary accompanying the show's return, entitled Open All Hours: A Celebration, aired on 27 December 2013, the day after the new episode was broadcast, on BBC One.[3][4][5]

On 30 January 2014, the BBC commissioned Still Open All Hours for six new episodes beginning on 26 December 2014.[6][7] The controller of BBC comedy commissioning, Shane Allen, said: "The resounding success of the Christmas revival showed the huge and enduring audience affection for this much-loved classic. Roy has done a terrific job of updating the characters whilst keeping what was warm-hearted and enjoyable about the world of the original series."[8]

Production for series one started in August 2014, exterior filming started on 15 September and location recording was completed on 26 September 2014.[9][10] Interior scenes were recorded in front of a studio audience from 10 October until 21 November 2014 at Teddington Studios.[11]

The show later returned for a second series, beginning on 26 December 2015.[12][13] with production starting in September 2015. Exterior scenes were filmed on location from 14–24 September 2015. Interior scenes were recorded in front of a studio audience at Pinewood Studios from 9 October until 20 November 2015.[14]

In January 2016, David Jason revealed that a third series would be produced in 2016. The series began airing on 26 December 2016.[15] Production started in September 2016 with on location for exterior scenes being shot in Balby Doncaster from 12 September 2016.[16] Lynda Baron could not reprise her role as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel as the filming dates clashed with Baron's current contract with EastEnders.[17]

David Jason announced that a fourth series would be filmed in 2017.[18] Filming began in September 2017 with David Jason seen on location in Doncaster with co-star Tim Healy.[19] The series began airing on 28 December 2017.[20] Interior scenes were recorded at Pinewood Studios in front of a live-studio-audience on 7, 14, and 21 October and on the 4, 11, 18, and 24 November 2016.[21] In early 2017 a fourth series was commissioned production started in August 2017. On location exterior scenes for the fourth series commenced on 11 September 2017 in Doncaster.[22]

In January 2018, it was revealed the show will return for a fifth series late 2018.[23] The fifth series was officially confirmed on 2 May 2018, with filming due to commence in the summer</ref> On 21 December 2018 the BBC confirmed that a sixth series had been commissioned for transmission later in 2019.[24] . The series premiere aired on BBC1, on 18 October 2019.

Filming locations
Lister Avenue in Balby is used for the filming of Still Open All Hours; 'Beautique' (sic) on the right, doubles as Arkwright's

The exterior shots reused the original shop from the series, on Lister Avenue in Balby, a suburb of Doncaster. The shop had to be extensively redressed (for both programmes) to resemble a traditional corner shop, as it has been a hair salon since 1962. This process took two days, before filming on location for three consecutive days.

The studio recordings for the 2013 special were recorded at Dock10 at MediaCityUK. For the first series, Teddington Studios were used and the second, third, fourth and fifth series were all recorded at Pinewood Studios.

Broadcast and reception

The special was broadcast on BBC One on 26 December 2013 and received 9.43m (39.9% of the audience) viewers according to overnight figures and was the most watched programme on that day.[25] Final viewing figures showed that it was watched by 12.23m and was the most watched programme for that week.[26] It received generally poor reviews from critics. Will Dean of The Independent, referencing Arkwright's trademark stutter, called it "a w-w-worthy effort" but criticised the attempt to revive the show without the late Ronnie Barker.[27] Ben Lawrence of The Telegraph said it "felt like a relic of another era" criticising the jokes and Jason's performance.[28] Jacob Mason, writing on the Radio Times website, described the show as "warmly nostalgic", whilst others noted it as "a fitting tribute to Ronnie Barker". On 21 November 2014, the BBC confirmed that Still Open All Hours would return for a full series in 2014. This began airing on 26 December 2014 and finished on 25 January 2015. Series 2 began on 26 December 2015 with a run of 6 episodes and finished on 26 January 2016, Season 3 which began airing on 26 December 2016 with 7 episodes, Season 4 which began airing on 28 December 2017, Season 5 which began airing on 7 October 2018, followed by Season 6 which began on 18 October 2019. An 7th Season has been ordered.

DVD releases

Although filmed and broadcast in High-definition, no Blu-ray releases have been announced. Series 1 and the 2013 Christmas Special was released on DVD on 2 February 2015 by 2 entertain. Series 2 was released on 1 February 2016. Series 3 was released on 13 February 2017. Series 4 was released on 19 February 2018. Series 5 was released on 7 January 2019. Series 6 was released on 6 January 2020.

DVD Title No. of Discs Special features No. of Episodes Release Dates
Region 2 Region 4
Series 1 1 2013 Christmas Special 7 2 February 2015[29] 24 June 2015
Series 2 1 2015 Christmas Special 6 1 February 2016[30] TBA
Series 3 1 2016 Christmas Special 7 13 February 2017[31] TBA
Series 4 1 2017 Christmas Special 7 19 February 2018[32] TBA
Series 5 1 2018 Christmas Special 7 7 January 2019[33] TBA
Series 6 1 2019 Christmas Special 7 6 January 2020[34] TBA
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References
  1. Goodacre, Kate (7 October 2013). "Sir David Jason to star in 'Open All Hours' Christmas special". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  2. "Sir David Jason back for Open All Hours Christmas show". BBC News. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  3. "Open All Hours: A Celebration". BBC. 15 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  4. "Open All Hours special could lead to new series". Doncaster Free Press. 19 November 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  5. "BREAKING: New version of Open All Hours will be filmed in Doncaster". Doncaster Free Press. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  6. "Still Open All Hours commissioned for full series". BBC News. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  7. Glanfield, Tim (30 January 2014). "Still Open All Hours series confirmed". Radio Times. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  8. Plunkett, John (30 January 2014). "BBC commissions full series of Still Open All Hours". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  9. "Video: Open All Hours filming starts in Doncaster". Doncaster Free Press. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  10. "Open All Hours filming set to end in Doncaster". Sheffield Star. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  11. "Still Open All Hours Series 1". The Pinewood Studios Group. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  12. "The Chuckle Brothers: To me, to you... to Swansea!". South Wales Evening Post. 19 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  13. "Still Open All Hours series 2 confirmed". British Comedy Guide. 12 September 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  14. Burke Darren (30 September 2015). "Still Open All Hours to be filmed at world famous Pinewood Studios". Doncaster Free Press. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  15. "David Jason confirms Still Open All Hours will return and reveals his Hollywood dream". The Mirror. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  16. Staff, Radio Times (12 September 2016). "David Jason to return for new series of Still Open All Hours". Radio Times. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  17. Crockery, Claire (12 September 2016). "Still Open All Hours third series WITHOUT Nurse Emmanuel". Daily Express. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  18. "Only Fools And Horses reboot? Sir David Jason says he would play Del Boy one last time". The Mirror. 14 January 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  19. "David Jason is unrecognisable as he sports bushy beard for new sitcom series". 13 September 2017.
  20. "TV legend David Jason: Mrs Brown's Boys is too rude for family audiences". The Mirror. 11 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  21. Staff, BBC Shows and tours (12 September 2016). "Still Open All Hours shows and tours". BBC. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  22. "PICTURES: Still Open All Hours filming gets underway in Doncaster – but not at Arkwright's shop". Doncaster Free Press. 12 September 2016.
  23. "TV legend David Jason: Mrs Brown's Boys is too rude for family audiences". The Mirror. 11 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  24. "Still Open All Hours will return to BBC One in 2019 for a sixth series". BBC Media Center. 21 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018..
  25. Rigby, Sam (27 December 2013). "Still Open All Hours tops Boxing Day ratings with 9.4m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  26. Sweney, Mark (27 December 2013). "Top 30s". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  27. Dean, Will (26 December 2013). "Still Open All Hours review: It was a w-w-worthy effort – but there's only one Arkwright". The Independent. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  28. Lawrence, Ben (26 December 2013). "Still Open All Hours, BBC One, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  29. "Still Open All Hours Series One + 2013 Christmas Special [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 23 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  30. "Still Open All Hours: Series Two + 2015 Christmas Special [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 23 December 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  31. "Still Open All Hours: Series Three + 2016 Christmas Special [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 23 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  32. "Still Open All Hours: Series Four + 2017 Christmas Special [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 23 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  33. "Still Open All Hours: Series Five + 2018 Christmas Special [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 23 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  34. "Still Open All Hours: Series Six + 2019 Christmas Special [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
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