Roy Clarke

Royston Clarke OBE, usually known as Roy Clarke, is an English comedy writer best known for creating the sitcoms Last of the Summer Wine, Keeping Up Appearances, Open All Hours and its sequel series, Still Open All Hours.

Works

7.0

Comedy Classics: Keeping Up Appearances

Keeping Up Appearances remains one of Britain's best loved series. Running for 5 years throughout the 90s, millions of viewers tuned in to watch the delightfully monstrous Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) as she attempted to climb the social ladder, only to be endlessly let down by her family. In this 90-minute celebration we feature the very best and most hilarious moments from the series, and cast, crew and celebrity fans pay tribute to the show and share backstage secrets. Featuring an exclusive interview with Dame Patricia Routledge, who shares her memories of the show, we learn how she came to be cast, how she developed the character, and what happened when the cameras stop rolling.

Release Date: 2023-01-14

Character: Self (archive footage)

Vote Count: 2

Last Of The Summer Wine: 30 Years Of Laughs

This new special reveals the secrets of the long-running sitcom's extraordinary success. Helped by former cast and crew members, families of the stars no longer with us, and celebrity fans, we learn the secrets of this comedy classic and get to see previously unseen interviews and rare behind-the-scenes archive footage.

Release Date: 2022-03-05

Character: Self (voice, archive)

5.4

Young Hyacinth

Set in the 1950s, this prequel to Keeping Up Appearances looks at the life, relationships, and aspirations of 18-year-old Hyacinth. Long before she becomes Mrs. Bucket (pronounced Bouquet), young Hyacinth is already dreaming of matching china and a bedroom in pastel shades. If only her family were more like the upper-class Cooper-Smiths in whose home Hyacinth works as a maid.

Release Date: 2016-09-02

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 16

Funny Valentines
6.0

Funny Valentines

Funny Valentines is a comedy collection of nine original short films exclusive to BBC iPlayer, written and starring many of Britain's finest comedians. Each comedian was invited to create a short Funny Valentine to bring their unique take on the international day of love.

Release Date: 2015-02-13

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 1

Still Open All Hours
6.0

Still Open All Hours

Still Open All Hours is a sitcom set in a grocer's shop. It is a sequel to the series Open All Hours, written by original series writer Roy Clarke and featuring several of the permanent cast members of the original series

Release Date: 2014-12-26

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 32

The Best of Ronnie Barker

The Best of Ronnie Barker

Sketches and clips from his greatest television comedy performances

Release Date: 2005-01-01

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 1

Spark
6.0

Spark

Following the death of his long time terminally ill mother, Ashley, enthusiastically aided and abetted by his sister-in-law, Colette, decides that he needs a wife if only for something to do with his big, now empty house. However, the task of finding a wife turns out to be not as easy as it seems, as Ashley has not had much contact with women in recent years and then there is always the delicate problem of the dull, safe, ever present Gillian to be solved. She and her mother have already settled the question of a wife for Ashley if only Gillian would do something about it!!

Release Date: 1997-11-10

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 6

Vote Count: 1

9.0

The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket

Daisy and Onslow find the secret diary of Hyacinth and start reading in it. The rest of this TV-special are clips from prevous episodes.

Release Date: 1997-05-20

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 1

The Wanderer
7.0

The Wanderer

The Wanderer is a television series of British origin, first transmitted in 1994 and comprising 13 episodes. Every episode brings a new adventure, and the story of long-ago brothers Adam and Zachary, Princess Beatrice, and Lady Clare slowly unfolds as the present-day Adam searches for the original Zachary's grave, a magic stone, and a lost book of power. The show was created by Tom Gabbay, who also served as Executive Producer of the series, which was filmed on locations in Austria, Germany, Spain, and England, including Helmsley Castle and the Yorkshire Moors, by FingerTip Films for Yorkshire Television, ZDF, Antena 3, and SkyTV. In the United States, The Wanderer was transmitted primarily in first-run syndication.

Release Date: 1994-09-14

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 13

Vote Count: 2

Ain't Misbehavin'
7.0

Ain't Misbehavin'

When Clive and Sonia discover that their respective partners are having an affair, they join forces in an attempt to save their marriages.

Release Date: 1994-03-20

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 12

Vote Count: 1

A Foreign Field

Nostalgic comic drama in which Cyril and Amos, two veterans of the Normandy landings, return to France to visit the grave of their wartime buddy. They encounter Waldo, an American on a similar mission, and the meeting sparks memories of an old girlfriend from the past. With the mysterious American lady Lisa in their wake, Cyril and Waldo decide to try and track her down.

Release Date: 1993-09-10

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Keeping Up Appearances
7.6

Keeping Up Appearances

Hyacinth Bucket (whose name, she insists, is pronounced "Bouquet") is a suburban housewife in the West Midlands. She would be the first to tell you that she is a gracious hostess, a respected citizen, and a well-connected member of high society. If you don't believe that, just ask her best friend Elizabeth, held captive in Hyacinth's kitchen; or the postmen and neighbours who bristle at the sound of her voice; or Richard, her weary and compliant husband. In fact, Hyacinth's reputation could be as perfect as her new lounge set, if not for her senile father's love of running wild in the nip. Oh, and she would prefer it if her brother-in-law was a sharper dresser. And that her husband was more ambitious. And that her sisters were more presentable. And do take your shoes off before you come in the house, dear. Mind that you don't brush against the wallpaper.

Release Date: 1990-10-29

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 40

Vote Count: 149

The World of Eddie Weary

Alex Conway is an actor who plays the part of 'Eddie Weary', a sympathetic, down-at-heel, shabby, Northern, working-class private detective, in a TV show. Except Conway is actually a complete idiot in real-life: stuck up, pretentious and selfish, the constant focus of tabloid interest for his bad, usually drunken behaviour. But then he discovers he gets truckloads of mail from fans who think he really is Eddie Weary, asking for his help, so he decides to help them - with the aid of his assistant, Birdie.

Release Date: 1990-01-01

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

First of the Summer Wine
5.8

First of the Summer Wine

Sitcom prequel to Last of the Summer Wine set in a small Yorkshire village in 1939 as Britain becomes poised for war.

Release Date: 1988-09-04

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 12

Vote Count: 6

5.8

Hawks

Two terminally ill patients in a hospital yearn for relief from their predicament. With little or no friends, they form an uneasy alliance and plot an escape for one last wild time.

Release Date: 1988-08-05

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 16

Pulaski
4.0

Pulaski

Pulaski is a British television drama series produced by the BBC in 1987. Created by Roy Clarke, the series was a parody of detective dramas centred around Larry Summers, an American actor starring in a British detective series in the title role of Pulaski, who finds himself involved in real life cases. He was assisted by his co-star Kate Smith, who played his sidekick Briggsy in the series. The theme music was performed by The Shadows.

Release Date: 1987-10-02

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 1

The Magnificent Evans
6.0

The Magnificent Evans

The Magnificent Evans is a 1984 BBC situation comedy written by Roy Clarke and starring Ronnie Barker, Sharon Morgan and Myfanwy Talog.

Release Date: 1984-09-06

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 6

Vote Count: 4

8.0

Getting Sam Home

Three old chums agree to take the ailing Sam on one last trip to see his flousy girl-friend, Lily Bless Her, in the middle of the night.

Release Date: 1983-12-27

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 1

Pictures

Pictures

Ruby L. Sears, a saucy flapper with an unswerving determination to become a silent-film star, enters script writer Bill Trench's life when she gate-crashes a film-studio party.

Release Date: 1983-02-11

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 7

Flickers
6.0

Flickers

Arnie Cole (Hoskins) and his wife Maud (de la Tour) are an odd couple, having entered into the state of matrimony for purely practical reasons. However, their marriage of convenience gives way to genuine partnership as Maud becomes caught up in Arnie's ambitions to start his own film production company.

Release Date: 1980-09-17

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 6

Vote Count: 3

The Bass Player and the Blonde

George Mangham is a former composer and bass player in a band struggling for money. Stuck in an engagement with Mrs Merino, a wealthy older woman, while on the run and owing money to gangsters who are after him for debts he owes them, life is not great for George. But it gets even more complicated when he literally bumps into Terry Weston, daughter of gangster Charlie Weston, who has run away from home with her marriage to the rich but nerdy Nigel only a few days away. Little do either realize just what trouble and turmoil lays ahead for both of them...

Release Date: 1977-06-14

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Open All Hours
7.9

Open All Hours

Open All Hours is a BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke and starring Ronnie Barker as a miserly shop keeper and David Jason as his put-upon nephew who works as his errand boy.

Release Date: 1976-02-20

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 25

Vote Count: 54

The Growing Pains of PC Penrose
5.5

The Growing Pains of PC Penrose

Earnest new recruit PC Penrose has left his home town and joined the force in the Yorkshire town of Slagcaster. He's young and naive but seasoned officer Sergeant Flagg takes him under his wing and shows him the ropes, though his methods can be a little unconventional.

Release Date: 1975-09-02

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 7

Vote Count: 2

Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!
6.3

Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!

Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! is an ITV sitcom that ran from 1974 to 1977 starring Bill Maynard as the council labourer, Scarsdale Working Men’s Club secretary, hapless handyman and all-round public nuisance Selwyn Froggitt. It was created by Roy Clarke, who wrote the pilot episode transmitted in 1974, though the series was mostly written by Alan Plater. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television With outdoor location filming of the series filmed in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire and Elvington, North Yorkshire

Release Date: 1974-09-30

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 3

Dial M for Murder

Dial M for Murder

Release Date: 1974-05-20

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 1

That Sinking Feeling

At the gathering of a North Country wedding, the prospective husband starts to have doubts about going ahead as he observes what marriage has done to the guests.

Release Date: 1973-11-13

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Last of the Summer Wine
7.1

Last of the Summer Wine

Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.

Release Date: 1973-01-04

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 269

Vote Count: 39

8.0

Will Amelia Quint Continue Writing 'A Gnome Called Shorthouse'?

They write so many innocent words, but what are the authors of your children's stories really like?

Release Date: 1971-09-29

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 1

The Misfit

The Misfit

The Misfit was an ATV sitcom series written by Roy Clarke and was broadcast from 1970 to 1971 on ITV.

Release Date: 1970-03-03

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 2

Manhunt
6.5

Manhunt

Manhunt is a World War II drama series consisting of 26 episodes, produced by London Weekend Television in 1969 and broadcast nationwide.

Release Date: 1970-01-02

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 3

Comedy Playhouse
6.0

Comedy Playhouse

Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010.

Release Date: 1961-12-15

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 2

The Sharp End
7.0

The Sharp End

The Sharp End was a 1991 British television comedy drama starring Gwen Taylor, James Cosmo and Philip Martin Brown. It was written by Roy Clarke and directed by Brian Parker and David Penn, and ran for eight episodes on BBC1 from 12 April 1991. Taylor took the leading role of Celia Forrest, a recent widow who had decided to take on the running of her late husband's Debt Collection Agency. However, her decision to do this was much to the displeasure of her more ruthless business rival, who tried everything in his power to close her business down. James Cosmo also starred as Carmichael, an illiterate hermit who was hired by Forrest as her assistant. He spent much of the series riding around on a pushbike with a tape recorder on which Forrest would record instructions of his tasks for the day. The duo managed to keep the company running, but the series was less successful, and was cancelled after one season.

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 1

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