{"id":363835,"date":"2026-03-25T05:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363835\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T05:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:56:21","slug":"last-of-the-summer-wine-writer-says-sitcom-would-not-be-made-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363835\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Of The Summer Wine writer says sitcom would not be made today"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Last Of The Summer Wine would not be made today, comedy writer Sir Roy Clarke said as he was knighted by Britain’s Prince of Wales.<\/p>\n

Clarke, 96, received the Honour of Knighthood in the 2026 New Year Honours list for his services to entertainment, and was awarded the title during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The writer told the Press Association we live in a \u201cdifferent world now\u201d to the one in which the hit BBC sitcom was created.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Last Of The Summer Wine was what I grew up with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"InvestituresSir Roy Clarke is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle (Jonathan Brady\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different world now, and I\u2019m very glad my time was in the world I knew. I don\u2019t know how far I would get now, the show probably wouldn\u2019t be made these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favourite episodes I ever wrote were the ones around Compo\u2019s funeral, largely because there was a time pressure on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to do the three episodes in not much more than a weekend and I\u2019ve never worked at that pace before, and in a funny way, I think that gave them more strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke saw the character Clegg from the BBC sitcom as a \u201cmouthpiece\u201d for himself.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cClegg was my favourite character I ever wrote. He used to get all the best lines and he was my mouthpiece in many ways. He used to say the things I would say and the things that I believed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke, who wrote 295 episodes of the show, added: \u201cI think leisure is an important element of anybody\u2019s career. If you work like a dog all the time, especially if you\u2019re writing, the results are going to be dismal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree scenes a day was the secret for me. Sometimes I could do those three scenes in a couple of hours. Sometimes, it took the whole day. But if they only took a couple of hours, I didn\u2019t do four, five or six, I knocked off, and I think that balance is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the Prince of Wales said he liked his sitcom work and after the ceremony, Clarke said: \u201cI feel taller than I did yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InvestituresJonathan Davies after being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Andrew Matthews\/PA)<\/p>\n

Also honoured on Tuesday was Welsh rugby star Jonathan Davies.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed \u201cJiffy\u201d, Davies was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to people with cancer and broadcasting.<\/p>\n

Davies, who won 37 caps for Wales Rugby, said William, who is a patron of the Welsh Rugby Union, spoke to him about the team\u2019s Six Nations win against Italy on March 14th.<\/p>\n

The result was Wales\u2019 first win in a Six Nations game in three years.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the current state of Welsh Rugby, Davies added: \u201cIt has been tough for Wales on and off the field, with uncertainty around regions and finances.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully things can be resolved and the win will give them momentum and give all the future Welsh players the best opportunity to perform at international level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been rough, but it was so pleasing to see them win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pundit now hosts cycling challenges to raise money for cancer charities in Wales following the death of his wife, Karen, and father, Ken \u2013 from different cancers.<\/p>\n

\"InvestituresPiers Linney after being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Andrew Matthews\/PA)<\/p>\n

Another recipient at Tuesday\u2019s investiture was Jonathan Piers Linney, who was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to small business, to entrepreneurs, investors, banking and to diversity and social mobility.<\/p>\n

The former Dragons\u2019 Den star turned artificial intelligence start-up boss said the Prince of Wales asked him about the pros and cons of AI.<\/p>\n

Linney said: \u201cAI is an arms race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether AI becomes sentient or conscious is where it becomes more dangerous. With super intelligence, we\u2019re not going to understand how it works and we won\u2019t be able to keep it in a box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to get out and that is why ethics and international alignments are the most important things. It will be as if an alien species lands on this planet in 10 years, maximum.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ruled out a return to Dragons\u2019 Den in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Last Of The Summer Wine would not be made today, comedy writer Sir Roy Clarke said as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-363835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}