Digitally re-mastered for the 21st century, the BBC releases all 255 episodes of Last Of The Summer Wine on DVD

A “Special Edition” DVD box set of all 255 episodes of Last of the Summer Wine is to be released in September. But, in a twist that is becoming more common, the episodes have been digitally re-mastered. Len Gafferprone, producer of the first 93 episodes, and the man that led the re-mastering project, said that the DVD version of the series would be ‘cleaned up and given a lick of paint,’ and that nothing substantial in the timeless plotting or magnificent dialogue would be changed. ‘It’s more of a restoration really. We did however take the opportunity to correct a gaff. In one of the episodes where Compo goes down a hill in a bath, just before we cut to Compo landing in a pond, if you’re eagle-eyed you might just spot that’s a stuntman in the bath!’

 Gafferprone said that fans can expect plenty of extras too, a prerequisite for any DVD release these days. ‘We’ve got a rare 1962 interview with Peter Sallis on the set of Series 3. There’s also a ‘Behind the Scenes’ documentary on the making of such classic scenes as Compo rolling down a hill, Compo rolling down a hill in a bath, Compo accidentally pushing Clegg down a hill, Compo accidentally pushing Clegg down a hill in a bath and a more recent episode featuring Comp’s son rolling down a hill in a bath.'

The release is timed to coincided with the airing of the latest series on BBC1.

In an attempt to embrace the digital age of the 21^st Century, the first episode of the new series will include a computer generated bath rolling down a computer generated hill. ‘There’s nothing we can’t do now, thanks to the magic of computers. If we want a shot of one of our characters rolling down a hill in a bath, it’s only a few clicks away. Want to see a bath floating in a pond, then slowly sinking while one of the cast give a salute? That's no problem to our technical team.

Plans to include a CGI version of the late Thora Hird have been shelved for the new series, although it remains a possibility for Series 38.

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