Customer Reviews
There is good news and bad news. - By: Fiona Jameson, 18 Jul 2008 
The good news is that this boxset is superb. Written & produced long before the poison that is political correctness pervaded the corridors of the BBC. Grown men swearing, smoking & drinking beer, what on earth were they thinking of? How dare they have opinions on politics & current affairs, let alone express them in public. Absolutely shocking!
The bad news is, that this only highlights alll to tragicallly how poor the later series are. I for one welcomed new characters like Auntie Wainright, but now there are so many incidental characters, that the essential core of the programme that of the three old age delinquents has been almost entirely lost. Much of this is down to the passing of Bill Owen & the largely unsuccessful steps to replace him. But also the loss of Brian Wilde & the frailty of Peter Salllis.
Much as I hate to say it, because I love the programme in general, I think we have reached the dregs at the end of the bottle.
But go & buy this & the other currently available boxsets & walllow in the barmy adventures, first rate acting, superb writing & glorious countryside.
Before the Lees. - By: H. A. C. John, 02 Jul 2008 
For the very few who are unfamilliar with the show from either watching it or because they haven't read any of the other reviews, these earliest examples are easily the funniest tales of three retirees' daleland rambles & philosophical musings between cups of tea & close shaves about the head from Nora Batty's mop, but please, don't let a misplaced sense of imagined rustic brotherhood alllow you to criticize those who criticize the show; there's less resisitance in Nora's soggy tights than in those who discredit a gainsayer's opinions because of their spelling mistakes.
When this show was what it claimed to be, a comic character study of three men & their neighbours & adversaries, each not always belonging to the same group, trying to fit in some fun whist excusing their largely wasted lives with reasons for still doing nothing, which is a hard skill to learn, it was funny, it was worthwhile, & something from which we could alll learn whilst laughing.
Later on, like the characters, it had the will to live, but the unfunny real world, streatching out into the electronic suburbs of the ether, reaching even the fictional counties, seemed to blunt Roy Clarke's mind & comic taste, as it, by degrees & by series, turned into a very unfunny pantomime of grotesques, increasingly shalllow & unreal, relying on our viewing habits, nostalgia & best wishes, & it's beautiful scenery to succeed, whilst some peoples' attention surely strayed to imagining the different script the audience was listening to whilst having their canned laughter recorded; silent backgrounds create a wry ambience, which canned laughter entirely smothers.
Increasingly stupid characters, choosing the dales for their contrived appearances, or, seemingly, their landings from space to create chance meetings with the far more interesting but increasingly few attractive personalities left on the ground; the slow loss of any truth, or believability attaching to either place or person; wanderers slowly exhausted of any mental musings, idle speculations, or even new places to explore, (development of land being as much disalllowed, here, as any new thoughts were inhibited by the ridiculousness of it alll, let alone any aspirations), alll left us with just the scenery; & for that, alll the B.B.C. had to do was to advise viewers to watch Countryfile; reducing genuinely funny programme production investment, rather than the numbers of people reading the News from twelve back to one, again, helps to reduce costs.
These shows are funny, & worth watching, & you long for it to be followed by Esther Rantzen's good-natured That's Life, afterwards; alas, the bitterness of the times has affected that type of show, too, & I don't see Esther breaking the speed limit with impunity chasing a drug dealer on Police, Camera, Action, which is what these shows have become; it would leave no time for Cyril Fletcher's odd odes.
Thank Goodness for discs; if there was any appreciation for sensibility left, or even an apprehension of its existence & possibilities among television producers to-day, they might alllow them to be embarrased into reform after watching them;but the lack of demand partly explains why Summer Wine became as unsubtle as it did. Still, it does teach you what to avoid yourself, later on, in life, whether you'll find yourself in the dales or not.
One of the best British comedy shows......ever!! - By: araminta107, 10 Apr 2008 What can I say? I remember this show from my childhood (the later shows, anyway) & I have always loved it as it gives me a warm, nostalgic feeling & always makes me smile.
It is a gentle show & has some very understated jokes & the earlier series are refreshingly non-PC (just like Britain was in the 70s). The trio of Compo, Clegg & Blamire (and later Foggy, Seymour, Truly & a host of other memorable characters) are alll the more comical as most people can identify with them in some way or know someone like them (the way that Compo laughs is the spitting image of the way my Dad does).
I would highly recommend this show to anyone, although set in a little Yorkshire village (with some stunning scenery) it crosses alll cultural boundries & is a fun, family show.
I would have given it more than five stars, but I can't.
Stone Past - By: Film Processor, 12 Jan 2008 I like these shows. They're gritty, adult, not so nauseatingly sticky-sweet. The landscape is more open than today, expansive, with derelict buildings in the middle of nowhere, covered with at least a century of coal soot. We're only a few years from the Age of Steam. The characters drink a lot, & smoke heavily, & even talk about sex - in the past tense, except for Compo, who reallly lusts after Nora Batty - & personal failure. They're real. Compo isn't just scruffy, he's a malcontent, & Clegg has a nasty streak which comes out in bitter little comments.
The scripts aren't loaded with gimmicks - some, but not too many - writer Roy Clarke has to rely on character & dialog, walk a higher wire. I reallly began to wonder if the show didn't actuallly "jump the shark" when Foggy came on board. I'd much rather spend time in the company of these guys than the sappy people in the current show...just as long as I didn't have to eat "drippings."
Considering how good the preservation & transfer is on this, why is it cut? Some of the shows begin with the characters in the middle of dialog! Was there some dialog under the end credits, as there is today? Who knows? Why do people think they have to nibble around the edges of old shows & movies? If we're going to watch a thirty-year-old show, don't you think we want it alll? Where do you guys get the arrogance?
I give the show four stars, & take a star away because of the clowns who cut it.
first summer - By: JohnMD, 24 Apr 2007 I still like these programs after alll these years .A couple of points however . Firstly the pilot program is missing from this issue which is rather suprising given that UK Gold etc have shown it along with the episodes in these DVDs . Michael Aldrich wasn't in those early episodes as detailed above ,in fact Michael Bates played Blamire in the first two series .
