Television series

Last of the Summer Wine

Name: Last of the Summer Wine
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1973
Cast: Peter Sallis, Bill Owen, Frank Thornton, Brian Wilde, Michael Aldridge

The longest-running sitcom in the world, and proudly so: three, later more, old Yorkshiremen amble round the Dales getting into scrapes with home-made go-karts, bicycles, and each other's patience. Nothing much happens, gloriously. It's plotless, gentle telly comfort food, built for Sunday evenings — a show about growing old without ever growing up, best watched slowly, one flask of tea at a time.

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Dad's Army1968

Another beloved British ensemble comedy built on bumbling older men, hopeless plans, and endless bickering — the same warm, silly, very English engine, just with Nazis on the horizon instead of hills.

But The humour is broader and the jokes have been repeated so often on British telly they can feel over-familiar.

Open All Hours1976

Written by the same man, Roy Clarke, and just as fond of small-town eccentrics — David Jason's miserly, stuttering shopkeeper is cut from similar cloth to Compo and company.

But It's sharper and more verbal than visual, so if you loved the slapstick and scenery here, this one talks more than it wanders.

All Creatures Great and Small1978

Same Yorkshire hills, same unhurried pace, same pleasure in watching odd characters rub along — just swap flat caps and go-karts for vets and livestock.

But It has more plot and heart-tug than Summer Wine ever bothered with, so the mood is warmer but less purely daft.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Wrong Trousers1993

Peter Sallis voices Wallace exactly as he plays Clegg: soft, patient, faintly bewildered by the world's mechanics — the same comic register in an entirely different medium.

Peter Sallis — the gentle, unflappable voice of Clegg — is also the voice of Wallace, and here you get to hear him narrate a plasticine inventor's daft schemes instead of a pensioner's. Same warmth, entirely different scale of chaos.

But It's a half-hour stop-motion short aimed as much at children as adults, so don't expect the gentle melancholy of the original.

Heartbeat1992

More cosy Yorkshire scenery and gentle nostalgia, this time filtered through a small-town police drama — perfect if the landscape was doing half the work for you already.

But It takes itself slightly more seriously and has actual crime plots, so the daftness quotient drops considerably.

Waiting for Godot1961no page yet

A retirement-home sitcom with real bite — old age played for comedy again, but with sharper tongues and a more cynical, less pastoral sense of humour.

But It swaps rolling hills for a residential home and warmth for waspishness, so the tone is notably more acidic.

Keeping Up Appearances1990

Another slow-burn British sitcom that mines endless comedy from small social embarrassments and a handful of recurring eccentrics you come to love.

But It's one joke — Hyacinth's snobbery — stretched impressively thin, with none of Summer Wine's outdoor slapstick.

The Vicar of Dibley1994

Village life, silly set pieces, and a beloved cast of oddballs pottering about doing very little with great enthusiasm — the same comfort-food energy, different parish.

But It's punchier and more joke-dense; if you liked the meandering pace here, Dibley moves at a noticeably faster clip.

Doc Martin2004

Trade the Dales for Cornwall and swap gentle warmth for a curmudgeonly doctor, but the pleasure of watching a small community's rhythms repeat week after week is exactly the same.

But The lead is deliberately unpleasant rather than lovably daft, so it's a colder, spikier kind of comfort.

Ballykissangel1996

An Irish village, a wandering priest, and a slow, low-stakes rhythm of local eccentrics and gentle comedy — proof the formula travels well across the Irish Sea.

But It leans more into romance and drama than pure comedy, so expect more heart and less outright silliness.

The Titfield Thunderbolt1953

Same DNA decades earlier: English whimsy, elderly eccentrics, a rural setting resisting change, and slapstick set-pieces played entirely straight-faced.

A vintage Ealing comedy about a village of eccentrics fighting to save their local railway line, powered by exactly the same fondness for stubborn old-timers refusing to let the modern world win.

But It's a black-and-white film with an actual plot, so the meandering, episodic pleasure of the sitcom isn't really on offer here.

Nebraska2013

Both find comedy in ageing men refusing to accept diminishment, but Nebraska strips away the sitcom safety net and lets the mortality Summer Wine only glances at sit heavier.

Alexander Payne's dry, black-and-white road movie about an old man chasing a sweepstakes prize finds comedy in stubbornness and old age, but plays it with American deadpan and a far sadder undertow.

But It trades cosy village comfort for something quieter and more melancholic — genuinely funny, but with real grief underneath the jokes.