"Last of the Summer Wine" Who Made a Bit of a Splash in Wales Then? (TV Episode 1977) Poster

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7/10
Comfort friend
Prismark1015 July 2016
We never figured out the time scale of Foggy joining up with Compo and Clegg. In the episode Jubilee he only seems to have found out that Compo is a socialist. Yet the way they reminiscence and talk about old acquaintances that have fallen seem to suggest that Foggy has been with them for some time.

In the previous episode Foggy did not want to talk about his love life. Out of the three it is only Compo who is the amorous one. If we did not know that Clegg was previously married and now widowed, I would have thought he was gay.

Foggy has suddenly has gone off in Wales visiting a lady friend who lives with her mother in law. Of course in the first episode of Foggy's appearance, The man from Oswestry, I will assume he has known her previously and had continued a friendship.

Foggy is actually happy with her and content, the mother in law dislikes him and he does not seem so keen on her.

Back in Yorkshire, Compo and Clegg miss their daft friend and along with Sid and Ivy they go to Wales to visit him in a hired car. Clegg drives, for the first time in years as he is rather nervous and gets lost.

Ivy is going to be dropped off at her sister's house hence the reason why they all got together. Sid is looking forward to visiting the pubs after wards to get an eyeful of the barmaids. Creepily, Compo seems to have spent the car journey touching up Ivy.

When they arrive to see Foggy, Clegg's parking does not go down well but I am not sure whether Foggy is happy to escape with them or not. Maybe the monstrous mother in law was a deal breaker.

Like going to Scarborough in the previous series, we see the gang out and about from home turf. We also see a different domestic side to the old soldier, someone who is more than just barmpot.
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8/10
Welcome to Wales
keysam-0261026 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Foggy having been away for a fortnight visiting his lady friend (a widow, living in Wales & looking after her Mother-in-Law), the remaining lads & Sid decide to go and fetch him at the end of his stay. Ivy goes too to see her sister. Sid's plan involves Welsh pubs & barmaids....

It's quite a trek from Yorkshire to Wales even now & you'd need an early start and to come back in the dark for a day trip (which is what the plan is) to make any sense. Still, this is TV time, not reality!

It's quite fun listening out for the leitmotifs which the composer has started inserting into the background music - snippets of other, more familiar tunes, or near copy inserted alongside the original SW themes. In one episode you could hear hints of Singing in the Rain; in this one King of the Road is playing lightly under the scenes where Clegg collects the hire car.

Clegg is back to his hesitant self this time; goodness knows how long it took them to drive the route! Sid of course can also drive, but wants to be able to drink. You'd think he would at least get them there!

Anyway, having made it to Wales, they immediately injure Foggy, proceed to be quite mean to him about that, Compo really hits it off with the MiL & finally Foggy gets a bit of his own back.

It's quite a lot packed into one half hour and as noted there are a few plot holes (not sure how everyone fits into the car, including injured Foggy & his luggage to get back again either) but it's actually good fun and Foggy deserves his little victory.
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Should it have been Blamire?
ForceTen21 April 2020
I did often wonder if this episode should really have been the lads visiting their old friend Blamire, who was supposed to have departed for Oswestry after hearing that a woman he was once interested in was now a widow? (Oswestry is close to the Welsh border).

If you replaced Foggy in this episode with Blamire it would probably make a lot more sense, especially in terms of continuity. This episode was made in December 1977 according to IMDB, but Michael Bates, who had left the show due to suffering with Cancer, and was already busy working on the equally successful 'It aint half hot Mum', passed away in January 1978, so possibly a late change to the original plan?

We'll never know for sure, but it would have been nice to have had all four of them in together, even just this once. Michael's last appearance in IAHHM was in November 1977, so it would tie up with a late change.
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