'TWILIGHT SUNSHINE' INTRODUCTION & INDEX

LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE
Very late in life I tripped over a UK series called 'Last of the Summer Wine'; actually a friend who followed the show put me on to it. I had seen part of a couple of episodes in my travels but never taken much notice, indeed, once I think it was dubbed into some Asian language.
I have been told it's the longest running comedy series in the world, this means it must have an edge.
Now I don't profess to be any kind of Einstein when it comes to trying to work stuff out, but to my mind the formula is quite simple.
Everybody (as the years get shorter) knows that only a fool of the first order thinks you can ever go home again, it just can't happen; as it should, everything passes to make way for the new, however... .

LOTSW lasted so long because, each generation ages, grows tired and remembers kinder days (even if the fact wasn't recognised at the time), so there will always be an audience primed to enjoy seeing people who actually went home/or stayed home, even if the adventures are all from the mind of one man. We all did the stuff they do in the show. So, the formula is simple, the show just says to those concerned 'Come on, let's go and live some of the good times again', total escapism but who cares.
Sadly, on seeing some of the up to date (or almost) episodes, I feel the show has lost its way, there are still aging types around, but it has become silly and the theme and pathos of the show has been overtaken by bad scripts that have no connection to what made the show great in the first place.

The stories in Twilight Sunshine were remembered during multiple and a lengthy times in hospital, being semi-conscious does allow the old brain to recall long forgotten times, places and events. In my case it was over 40 years since I gave the place and people a thought but it just goes to show that, even after such a time, it's all still there somewhere.

In the show they stroll around the sweeping Yorkshire hills and dales, in my youth we strolled the sweeping hills of the southern part of the North Downs and into adjacent valleys, we all did the same things and I guess this applies to wherever you grew up in the world, be it England, USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy ... everywhere and anywhere. The place doesn't matter, only the dream has value.

Harry