Still Open All Hours
Still Open All Hours is a British sitcom created for the BBC by Roy Clarke, and starring David Jason and James Baxter. It is the sequel to the original 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. The sitcom's premise focuses on the life of a much older Granville, who now runs his late uncle's grocery shop with the assistance of his son, continuing to sell products at higher prices alongside seeking to be with his love interest.
Unlike the original series, the cast for Still Open All Hours included a more regular group of characters and additional side-plots, and featured the return of Lynda Baron, Stephanie Cole, and Maggie Ollerenshaw as their respective characters from Open All Hours. Although the special garnered less than favourable reviews, it attracted positive viewing figures, with the sitcom airing a total of 41 episodes across six series to date.
Premise
Like Open All Hours, the sitcom is set within a small grocer's shop in the suburb of Balby, within Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and focuses on the life of Granville - now much older and the shop's owner, having grown into the same sort of person his late uncle Arkwright was by learning from him his many ways of selling to customers. Assisting him with the running of his shop is Leroy, 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, much like Granville did in his youth with Arkwright.Like his uncle, Granville maintains a love life with the sweet but absent-minded Mavis who loves him in return, but finds his path to her often blocked by her sister Madge, 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 under their original identity and price.
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 unsaleable 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 the boy's 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 in Mavis, a woman he met during his youth and whom he still fondly loves. Unlike his uncle, Granville must struggle to be with Mavis since the end of her previous marriage, due to her sister Madge desiring to keep them apart. To try to distract Madge 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
Forty-one 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 had a running time of 30 minutes. Between Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, there have been a total of 67 episodes and ten series broadcast between 1973 and 2019.Production
Series development
Still Open All Hours was broadcast on 26 December 2013, with Jason reprising his role of Granville from Open All Hours. The new one-off episode written by Clarke showed Granville now running the shop with his son Leroy, after inheriting it from Arkwright. Clarke wrote the script in two weeks, and production began in October 2013. The exterior scenes were filmed at the original location at Lister Avenue in Doncaster from 18 to 20 November 2013. The interior scenes were recorded on 3 December 2013 at dock10 studios in Salford in front of a studio audience. A 30-minute documentary accompanying the show's return, entitled Open All Hours: A Celebration, aired on 27 December 2013, the day after the new episode was broadcast, on BBC One.On 30 January 2014, the BBC commissioned Still Open All Hours for six new episodes beginning on 26 December 2014. 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."
Production for series one started in August 2014, exterior filming started on 15 September and location recording was completed on 26 September 2014. Interior scenes were recorded in front of a studio audience from 10 October until 21 November 2014 at Teddington Studios.
The show later returned for a second series, beginning on 26 December 2015. with production starting in September 2015. Exterior scenes were filmed on location from 14–24 September 2015. Interior scenes were recorded in front of a studio audience at Pinewood Studios from 9 October until 20 November 2015.
In January 2016, David Jason revealed that a third series would be produced in 2016. The series began airing on 26 December 2016. Production started in September 2016 with on location for exterior scenes being shot in Balby Doncaster from 12 September 2016. Lynda Baron could not reprise her role as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel as the filming dates clashed with Baron's current contract with EastEnders.
David Jason announced that a fourth series would be filmed in 2017. Filming began in September 2017 with David Jason seen on location in Doncaster with co-star Tim Healy. The series began airing on 28 December 2017. 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.
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.
In January 2018, it was revealed the show will return for a fifth series late 2018. The fifth series was officially confirmed on 2 May 2018, with filming due to commence in the summer
On 21 December 2018 the BBC confirmed that a sixth series had been commissioned for transmission later in 2019.
. The series premiere aired on BBC1, on 18 October 2019.
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 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.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.