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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 149280" data-attributes="member: 23">Tonight I've watched the very last episode of Summer Wine, which was enjoyable. Not perfect, but still very satisfying indeed.First my biggest gripe, and it's something I knew about beforehand: Ivy not being in the final episode was plain wrong. She's one of only two characters remaining from the first episode, having been there for the entire run of more than thirty seven years, so for Jane Freeman to have been absent from one of its most important episodes was disappointing. I'd have been very happy to trade Stella for her (not that I dislike Stella at all - but last in, first out). I hope there was a good reason for it, since Roy Clarke was usually good at crossing "t"s and dotting "i"s.My only other complaint since my last post was that Morton's wife Monica showed up on screen during one episode. Some characters feel like they're meant to be unseen and Mrs Mulberry Smith is definitely one of those. It spoilt the magic a little, but it was mercifully brief.The final series was a good one. The lower episode count helped condense the goodness, and I appreciated it having more of a serialised approach to things, especially regarding Pearl throwing Howard out of the marital home.The coach trip in the last episode, with all the disparate characters thrown together and determined to have a good time in a way only the British can reminded me very much of the Brighton section of Carry On At Your Convenience.It's been quite the journey. Over ten months of viewing time. And I've been very impressed with how consistently enjoyable it was overall. There has been a noticeable drop in quality in its last few years, but it turns out even a poorer episode of Summer Wine is still good TV. There were certainly no majorly bad episodes or jump the shark moments (Tom's initial fellow travellers threatened to be so, but the series gained its footing fairly quickly).After such an investment, there was at least a little something riding on the final episode satisfying. And it turned out to do so. Howard and Pearl's reconciliation was the most obvious, but most of the characters seemed to reach denouements of sorts -  like the sudden pairing of Marina and Toby (who I still keep wanting to call "Mr Lucas").And there were lots of nice touches. Not least Clegg getting the last word.For some reason, a nice little scene shared by Clegg, Truly, Alvin, Entwistle and Hobbo felt very exciting. A little like those episodes of Charlie's Angels where Farrah returned and there were briefly more than we were used to seeing together - the old and the new.As hoped for, it's nice to get the sense that life goes on for these characters. Even now after so many of the actors have died, it still feels like things are carrying on in Holmfirth the way they have since before I was born.There'll be a Summer Wine shaped void in my life for a while. I'm very glad I took the opportunity to watch it in full. And I'm very tempted to go back and watch the Pilot and a couple of the feature-length episodes again.</blockquote>

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