Summer 1999
Submitted by Annette Brooke, freelance journalist
Last press interview with Bill Owen before his death

I FIRST met Bill Owen about 15 years ago.

Which is a strange thought really because being a native of his adopted hometown of Holmfirth in West Yorkshire, I felt - like many in the valley - as though I had known him for all my life.

You cannot scarcely turn a corner in the small Pennine town which has been the backdrop to television’s Last of the Summer Wine series for 27 years - without encountering evidence of the loveable be-wellied Compo character which turned Bill into a household name. 

There’s Sid’s Café in the churchyard, a Summer Wine exhibition in Compo’s house below Nora Batty’s steps, The Wrinkled Stocking café and Summer Wine walk and talk tours touting for business near the Post Office.

But the usual hustle and bustle of this busy market town has been muted and subdued this last week with the sad news of Bill’s death from cancer.

He will be buried today (Monday) in a graveyard overlooking the valley and the town which he so loved – and whose gentle folk loved and respected him in return.

I have lived in West Yorkshire for more than 20 years and was fortunate enough to interview Bill several times during his stays in Yorkshire.

I was also privileged to have the last interview with Bill when I travelled as a freelance reporter with the Summer Wine crew to France for the filming of the Millennium Special.

Many people outside Yorkshire may find it difficult to fully understand why Bill chose to be buried high on a hillside far away from his birthplace, family and friends in London.

  But in that interview, only last month, Bill - more than anything - tried to explain exactly why he felt the way he did about the valley, and articulated his love for the town which will today (Monday) become his final resting place.

  He said:  ``It is the first place I have ever been in my 85 years that I have really felt I belonged.’’

Sitting on a beautiful beach in Braydunes, just north of Dunkirk, Bill screwed his eyes up from the sun and told me how immensely proud he was that over the years the normally reticent and surly Yorkshire folk had slowly but surely accepted – and then openly embraced – their famous adopted son from ``the Smoke’’.

  He very much wanted to be a part of the county and his vivid blue eyes misted over when he recalled the first time that he ever stepped foot into Yorkshire.

``It was during the war and I’d been posted to the Officer Cadet Training Corps in Bradford,’’ he said slowly - smiling at the memory.

``Myself and this other fella got off the tram and were starving hungry.  We asked someone where we could get something to eat and he said `aye, you walk darn street, turn t’reet an’ t’ mate `n’ taddy shop is on t’other side of the road.’

  ``We didn’t understand a word and just looked at each other open-mouthed.’’

  A fascinating confession from the mouth of one who - in years to come - was to portray the archetypal Yorkshireman.

  ``I discount that really though as my first impression of Yorkshire,’’ he continued wistfully.

  ``Because then I got to know the county visiting when I was in plays.  It went on for years – you played Leeds, York, Sheffield and Hull, over and over again.

  ``The point about it is though, my only knowledge of Yorkshire then was the theatre stage door, the digs where I was staying and the nearest pub to the stage door.

  ``That’s all I knew about Yorkshire until the day we came to start to make Summer Wine and that was when I was first introduced to Holmfirth.’’

  As he spoke about Holmfirth during that hot day in June, his eyes twinkled and he revealed how he had always somehow felt that he owed a debt of gratitude to the town for allowing the cameras in.

Because of this he worked tirelessly raising money for local charities and never turned down an offer to help.

Even when I asked him about his own personal plans for Millennium night, he said that he had no ideas – unless the people of the Holme Valley wanted him to do something special.

``There’s really not a great deal left to do when you get to my grand old age,’’ he reflected.

  ``I’ll be 86 at the millennium so I have no plans to celebrate but if there’s anything the people of Holmfirth want me to do, then I’ll be more than happy to oblige.’’

  ``Compo, on the other hand,’’ he smiled, ``would simply go out and get drunk. Yup, the scheme of things is not usually beyond that.  He’d go over to the White Horse and sit down there with Ron the landlord, get rather drunk and wind his way home.  Then he’d probably get up feeling like hell in the morning.’’

  Get drunk he might do but there would – he revealed somewhat prophetically - be no Millennium kiss for Nora Batty whom his alter ego had fruitlessly pursued for as long as the two had shared the small screen…..

  Thankfully though his own love affair with the Holme Valley was far from being so one-sided. 

  As the years went by the people of Holmfirth began to accept the inevitable disruptions to normal life with the annual arrival of Summer Wine and the town itself began to prosper – as Bill acknowledged in Braydunes.

  He said:  ``When I was first introduced to Holmfirth, the town was in a bad way.  I think we did something for Yorkshire and I suppose the majority of folk living there have settled for us now – I know they have settled for me…’’.

  In fact they did far more than ‘just settle’ for him as the actor made many close friends in Holmfirth. 

Contrary to popular belief he never actually bought a house in the town but moved into a timber-faced bungalow owned by retired couple Harry and Ruby Beaumont.

The Beaumonts, for their part, would move out of their home for the two or three months that Summer Wine was in town, and – showing true Yorkshire hospitality - live in a caravan on the driveway.

``He simply loved it round here,’’ said Mr Beaumont this week.  ``And we didn’t mind moving out.  We enjoy caravanning.’’

Another great friend was local greengrocer Andrew Bray who helped to choose the plot where Bill will today (Monday) be buried following the private family funeral in St John’s Church, Upperthong.

Andrew said that Bill had chosen the church some years ago as his final resting place, after filming a Christmas special there.

``Bill really thought this valley was heaven on earth,’’ said Andrew.  ``He liked nothing better than to walk down Dunford Road and potter around Holmfirth when he was up here filming.  He loved the friendliness of the place and enjoyed it when people stopped him to say hello or waved and shouted Compo.

  ``He was a very dedicated, caring person who was very generous with his time.  He really made you appreciate what we have here.’’

  And the truth is that as much as Bill loved Holmfirth, the town probably owes his character and the programme a similar debt of gratitude as it would not – could not - possibly be the vibrant, bustling town it is today without Summer Wine and without Compo.

Producer Alan Bell told me in France that he had been asked many times why they continued to film here – when ostensibly there were so many other places around the country just like Holmfirth.

``But what they don’t understand is that there isn’t anywhere like it anywhere else,’’ he explained.

``The Holme Valley is unique with its picturesque steep, green valleys; its tumbling river and its higgledy-piggledy stone houses.  We just couldn’t film anywhere else.’’

Bill, in his last interview, was acutely aware of the effect the scenery had on the impact of the programme and believed it played a large part in the continued success of Summer Wine.

``There was a time when I was invited to a showing of 50 years of BBC comedy and they didn’t even bother to show an episode of Summer Wine.  I left totally insulted.

``Not any more though because now it has this fantastic revival again. It is popular because people have grown up with the programme - their children and grand-children watch it.

``I also think the governors and bosses at the BBC allow the show to continue because they, too, have a soft spot for Summer Wine and its gentle humour.’’

  But Bill wouldn’t be drawn on the future of the programme – with or without his character.

``I don’t know when – or if – the show will ever stop or how long it will carry on.  Who can tell because it is getting more and more expansive,’’ he pondered.

``The three main characters of Compo, Cleggy and Truly are no longer quite as central to the plots as they once had been.

``They are still the lashing post for everything but other characters have been introduced, which is good, and the viewers have other relationships to worry about.’’

Despite this, it was still Bill’s character which the nation took to its heart.  Viewers young and old loved to watch the loveable rogue get into scrapes and falls, and guffaw his way out of them all with that mischievous grin.

And in Holmfirth a couple of years ago we finally got the chance to say thankyou to our adopted son at a huge party to mark the 25^th anniversary celebrations of Summer Wine in the town’s Civic Hall.

Bill was presented with a special plaque from the valley and in an impromptu speech to a packed audience he movingly spoke about how much he wanted to belong to Holmfirth and went out of his way to belong.

``I want to promise you,’’ he said,  ``that I won’t go away.’’

  On behalf of the valley which you grew to truly love Bill, I believe I can truthfully say that we feel deeply honoured, immensely proud and greatly humbled that you have kept that promise.

  And we welcome you back today (Monday) to our beautiful part of the country with open arms.

  May you rest in peace.