Summer Wine - The News

Compo's Matchbox
An enquiry from a fan asking about the contents of Compo's famous Matchbox certainly sparked a response from readers. Here are a few comments. Meanwhile, keep your suggestions rolling in.

WHAT'S IN COMPO'S MATCHBOX?
JOJOHN600@aol.com

Has it ever been disclosed what was in the Matchbox that Compo would show (mostly women) and send them into a fit of hysterics?? I think I've seen all of the episodes available on PBS in the USA several times but have never been able to find out what kind of creature (or substance) was in the box.

Can anyone help???

EDITOR'S NOTE: We don't think it's ever been disclosed - but have YOU any ideas? Suggestions on an email please to summerwinetv@yahoo.com

SOME DISGUSTING CREATURE...

Hi all,
I think it’s a spider or some disgusting creature that women would scream at. I watched a video called “A Tribute to Bill Owen” and in it someone said they that Bill asked that the contents of the box NEVER BE REVEALED and Roy Clarke is honoring that wish. So..o..o..o, we will never find out. Your guess is as good as mine!

Dinky (June 2004)

DUPLICATING THAT CURLY-LIKE MANEUVER

I must agree with this writer:

I think the contents of the matchbox change. Reactions, especially Clegg's, change over time. I think that Compo just put any revolting thing he happened upon into the box.

Rob
Birmingham UK (November 2002)

Because if nothing else, Bill Owen contributed a wonderful ability for ad lib, showing off, for example, his dance moves [or other moves, when it came to Nora - go ahead, try to duplicate that Curly-like maneuver he would do when getting geared up 'for the ladies'].

So it stands to reason that Roy Clarke and AJW Bell would only ask for he and Clegg [or whomever] to work up a routine.

Tim Fulton (June 2004)

skabo@clogher45.fsnet.co.uk
We can only but guess about the contents of that box but a memory form my youth may help. This memory is rooted in the recollections from my own grandfather's shed where he kept most everything in small boxes, matchboxes, tobacco tins and smallish cardboard boxes. The whole point is that some of these boxes were originally left completely empty and as if by magic when open in a few years time they inevitably contained what may also have been the contents of Compo's matchbox......Beetles wings and spare parts for Daddy Longlegs, (how does that happen?).

susank@talkgas.net
Roy Clarke, Peter Sallis,and Kathy Staff, all said on the tribute to Bill Owen that they would never reveal the contents of the matchbox. But I think that Rob is probably right in thinking that it was any old thing that Compo found that day. The regulars would have known after a time what to expect and would have not reacted as they did.

Sue (December 2002)

A NOVELTY WATER PEN?

...much like those novelty water pens with the moving piece inside the glass tube that gives animation to the artwork inside the tube, it is most definitely a clothed women in one side and a nude woman in the other.

Charles Watson, New York, U.S.A. (December 2002)

ALL CHANGE!

I think the contents of the matchbox change. Reactions, especially Clegg's, change over time. I think that Compo just put any revolting thing he happened upon into the box.

Rob
Birmingham UK (November 2002)

I SAY! A SCANTILY CLAD LADY?!?

Dear Summer Wine,

I think there was a live pet mouse in Compo's matchbook (unless it was a very small matchbook, and then it was a picture of a scantily clad lady).

Alison Taylor (November 2002)

...WITH SALT FOR ADDED EFFECT!
dianew@hhp.ufl.edu
Several things are keeping me confused on the issue of what's in Compo's matchbox. In one episode, he bumps into a woman in a pub who is speaking with another man, pulls out the matchbox and opens it to show her, and the bottom of the box is in complete view showing no hole through which to put his finger. She expresses disgust and goes back to her conversation as Compo goes on his way chuckling. A large spider or other bug should have triggered a different reaction like a scream and/or jumping away.

In another episode the three friends are about to sit down in Sid's Cafe for tea, Compo brings out his matchbox, sprinkles some salt into it, and immediately shows it to (I think it was) Foggy. Foggy shows not only distate, but appears to feel almost ill at the sight of whatever it is.

So, I tend to think that he has a slug or snail in the box, occasionally with salt for added effect. Now that's disgusting!

Summer Wine fans,

Diane & Elliot from Florida USA (Nov 2002)

COMPO IN A SWIMSUIT!??!
OnlyRobinS@aol.com
Yes, I think I know what could be in that matchbox. Of course, the sources at the BBC will tell you it was something innocent, like Compo's finger wriggling through a hole in the box ... but I think its something else ... something much more frightening.

I think it was a photo of Compo in a swim suit!!! Can you imagine what horror that image would create??? And to think of what KIND of swim suit it would be ... maybe one that was tattered and torn like his other pieces of clothing?!
Anyway ... that's MY theory. =)

Robin from Arkansas USA

ferret droppings?
g.hayne@eclipse.co.uk
There is only one thing it can be in there if you think about it........ferret droppings! Mind you I could be lying - it might be a picture of his wife who " went off with a chuffing Pole!!"

Gerald D Hayne

PIECES OF LONG JOHNS!
castlejw@excite.com
I'm sure it contains holes from his
trousers. That's what seems to excite people the most. Or
maybe could it be pieces from his dingy Long Johns.

Robert Windsor, Idaho, USA

ORDEAL BY TROUSERS!
tony.waytekunas@baltsun.com

Hi, I thought it was alluded to in "Ordeal By Trousers" by Foggy that it was a gruesome, ugly spider in the box.

Tony, Baltimore, USA

FINGER-IN-THE-BOX TRICK?
sereena.burton@xtra.co.nz

Hi there
This was recently in our local magazine "The Listener".
."... Compo from the TV comedy Last of the Summer Wine is a different sort of nut. He likes to scare women. Writes Linley Marston from the North Shore, Auckland: "Just what exactly is it that Compo keeps in the matchbox? Ladies scream when Compo shows it to them, but Clegg just smiles indulgently when Compo shows him."

When you think about it, Compo probably wouldn't have anything flashy, high-tech or newfangled in his matchbox. It would be a mummified frog, an arthritic cockroach... or even the old finger-in-the-box trick.

Bingo! The nice people at the BBC tell me that's exactly what it is. Compo has cut a hole in the back of the matchbox, possibly painted this finger a sort of dead-flesh colour and put it through the hole. Then he waves it around under the delicate noses of the womenfolk of Holmfirth to give them conniptions!"

Delicate Ladies?!? Does everyone agree with this idea. Personally I have my doubts.

I hope that the BBC will bring out all the series on DVD. We are starved for Last of the Summer Wine here in New Zealand.

Keep drinking in that Summer Wine
Sereena Burton