1. Premise

2. Characters
    Granville  Leroy  Main 

3. Episodes

4. Production
    Series development  Filming locations 

5. Broadcast and reception

6. DVD releases

7. References

8. External links

• David Jason
• James Baxter
• Lynda Baron
• Stephanie Cole
• Maggie Ollerenshaw
• Brigit Forsyth
• Johnny Vegas
• Kulvinder Ghir
• Nina Wadia
• Sally Lindsay
• Tim Healy

Still Open All Hours is a British sitcom created by Roy Clarke for the BBC set in Balby, Doncaster, starring David Jason. It is the sequel to the 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] Like the original series, the story focuses on the life of Granville as he continues to run his uncle Arkwright's shop, with the assistance of his son Leroy, while seeking to be with his love interest. Unlike the original series, the cast includes a more regular group of characters and additional side-plots concerning them, and features the return of Lynda Baron, Stephanie Cole, and Maggie Ollerenshaw as their respective characters in Open All Hours.

Following the 2013 special, the show has run five full-length series, with the first of them premiering on 26 December 2014.

Premise

Set within the same small grocer's shop in Balby, a suburb of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, the show focuses on the life of Granville (David Jason), now much older and the owner of Arkwright's shop after his uncle's death. Granville has since grown into the same person as his uncle, having learned from him how to sell 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.

Like his uncle, Granville maintains a love life with Mavis (Maggie Ollerenshaw), an absent-minded but sweet woman who loves him in return, but who lives across the road alongside 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.

Characters

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 unsalable 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 his 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 within Mavis, a woman he met during his youth and whom he still fondly loves. Unlike his uncle, Granville struggles to be with Mavis since the end of her previous marriage, due to her sister Madge desiring to keep them apart. To try to keep Madge distracted 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

Episodes

thirty-four 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 have a running time of 30 minutes. Between Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, there has been a total of 60 episodes and nine series broadcast between 1973 and 2018.

Production

Series development

On 30 January 2014, the BBC commissioned Still Open All Hours for six new episodes beginning on 26 December 2014.^[7][8] 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."^[9]

Production for series one started in August 2014, exterior filming started on 15 September and location recording was completed on 26 September 2014.^[10][11] Interior scenes were recorded in front of a studio audience from 10 October until 21 November 2014 at Teddington Studios.^[12]

The show later returned for a second series, beginning on 26 December 2015.^[13][14] with production starting in September 2015. Exterior scenes were filmed on location from 14^[15]-24 September 2015.^[16] Interior scenes were recorded in front of a studio audience at Pinewood Studios from 9 October until 20 November 2015.^[17]

In January 2016, David Jason revealed that a third series would be produced in 2016. The series began airing on 26 December 2016.^[18] Production started in September 2016 with on location for exterior scenes being shot in Balby Doncaster from 12 September 2016.^[19] Lynda Baron could not reprise her role as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel as the filming dates clashed with Baron's current contract with EastEnders.^[20]

David Jason announced that a fourth series would be filmed in 2017.^[21] Filming began in September 2017 with David Jason seen on location in Doncaster with co-star Tim Healy.^[22] The series began airing on 28 December 2017.^[23] 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.^[24]

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.^[25]

In January 2018, it was revealed the show will return for a fifth series late 2018.^[26] The fifth series was officially confirmed on 2 May 2018, with filming due to commence in the summer. The series premiere aired on BBC1, on 7 October 2018.^[27]

On 21 December 2018 the BBC confirmed that a sixth series had be commissioned for transmission later in 2019.^[28]

Filming locations

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.^[29]

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.^[30] Final viewing figures showed that it was watched by 12.23m and was the most watched programme for that week.^[31] 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.^[32] Ben Lawrence of The Telegraph said it "felt like a relic of another era" criticising the jokes and Jason's performance.^[33] 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".^[34] 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, followed by Season 5 which began on 7 October 2018

DVD releases

Although filmed and broadcast in High-definition, no Blu-ray releases have been announced to date. Series One 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 Five was released on 7 January 2019.

References

External links

• {{BBC programme}}
• {{IMDb title|id=3425318|title=Still Open All Hours}}
• {{British Comedy Guide|tv|still_open_all_hours}}.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110519111154/http://picasaweb.google.com/lez.briddon/FamousePlacesArkwrightsShop/photo#5087838304152135906 Image of Arkwright's shop in April 2007]

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