Jean Alexander, Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden, dies aged 90 | Television & radio | The Guardian Jean Alexander, Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden, dies aged 90 Much-loved actor starred in the TV soap and Last of the Summer Wine Jean Alexander as Hilda Ogden in the Street. Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock Jean Alexander, Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden, dies aged 90 Much-loved actor starred in the TV soap and Last of the Summer Wine Close This article is 3 months old Former Coronation Street actress Jean Alexander, who starred as Hilda Ogden in the soap for over two decades, has died aged 90. Alexander, who was best known for playing Ogden in the soap but also starred in Last of the Summer Wine, passed away in hospital on Friday. Her family had been hoping to celebrate her birthday this week, Alexander’s niece Sonia Hearld told the Guardian. “She was a great person and she will be missed,” Hearld said on Friday night. Jean Alexander obituary Read more She added: “At the moment, it is a shock to the family and we are really just getting round to coming to terms with it.

We were hoping to be celebrating her birthday this week, but that hadn’t happened.” “She was in Coronation Street and Last of the Summer Wine. She had a very well-known face – she was once dubbed the all-time favourite soap star, I believe. She was part of people’s lives. She was very well liked in her time.” Pinterest Jean Alexander as Hilda with her on-screen husband Stan Ogden, played by Bernard Youens. Photograph: Granada TV Alexander has previously been quoted as saying that she was confused by her own popularity. “I think probably because she was a downtrodden, poor little soul. I think people were sorry for Hilda,” she said in 2005. “She went plodding away, doing her best all the time, always aspiring to better things. I liked playing her. She was a gift to play, but I wouldn’t want her living next door to me.” On Friday, Hearld said her aunt was a “very private lady” who was “dedicated to her work and determined to be professional”. She added that Alexander was “very generous” with fans who approached her.

“She was always very good to her fans – she said, ‘They put me where I am.’ People used to stop her just to say hello and how much they missed her. She was a great person and she will be sadly missed.” Hearld said Alexander was taken into hospital on Tuesday and was discharged after a couple of days and allowed to return to her nursing home. But on Tuesday, Alexander was readmitted to hospital, where she died peacefully on Friday. “I saw her last week when we went to see her in hospital. She was feeling a little bit poorly but she was talking to me and my husband quite happily,” Hearld said. “There was nothing telling us anything was wrong – she was just generally weak and under the weather. We have not had the details.” Alexander brought a lot of her own personality to her role and “was very observant about people”, Hearld said. “She was very glamorous – I remember when I was about four or five seeing her get ready for an evening, wearing really pretty clothes and high heels. She occasionally let me traipse around the house in them.

She was a good role model and she had a drive that carried her through.” Alexander played Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street for 23 years to 1987 and, after leaving, took a role in Last of the Summer Wine as Auntie Wainwright. In 2010, she revealed that she had come under pressure to put back on her curlers and return to Coronation Street as Hilda, but had always turned the idea down. “It would be impossible for me to re-create Hilda,” the Liverpool Echo reported her as saying. “She would be totally different from the scrubber who left the Street. My agent said they had tried a number of times to get me back, but the answer was always the same.” Pinterest Arthur Leslie as Jack Walker, Doris Speed as Annie Walker and Jean Alexander as Hilda Ogden pictured together in the Rovers Return pub in 1967.

Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images “I didn’t hear anything about the money involved but no, I’m sorry, after 23 years I couldn’t recreate that character as she would be now – and I didn’t want to play her as she was.” Four years later, it emerged that she had another problem with the programme: there was too much sex in it. “The only stories they seem to have in mind is who is jumping into whose bed next. I lost interest,” she told the Daily Mirror. “Things have to move on, I know, but in the days of Hilda Ogden, Annie Walker and co, the Street was gentle, funny and human. The humour has all but gone out of it.” Alexander won an RTS award in 1985 and was nominated for the Bafta television award for best actress in 1988. She was born Jean Hodgkinson in Liverpool in 1926 and reportedly worked as a library assistant in the city before beginning her acting career. Aunty Wainwright (Character) Aunty Wainwright (Character) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff.

Overview Auntie Wainwright is the elderly lady who runs the antique/bric-a-brac shop... See more » Alternate Names: Auntie Wainwright : In all my life I've never seen a more mangled, bent, twisted wreck, [to Smiler] Auntie Wainwright : I send you out with a perfectly good handcart... Smiler : Perfectly good! It's a bundle of firewood on wheels. Auntie Wainwright : It is now. Look at it. Have you ever seen anything in a more pathetic condition. Auntie Wainwright : It's a splintered, battered, mangled, twisted shambles... Tom : We need a new vehicle. [...] See more » Update You may correct errors and omissions on this page directly. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process. IMDb Everywhere Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Coronation Street star Jean Alexander dies aged 90 - BBC News BBC News Coronation Street star Jean Alexander dies aged 90 15 October 2016 Read more about sharing.

Close share panel Jean Alexander, who played Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden and Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine, has died aged 90. Alexander portrayed Hilda Ogden, a sharp-tongued, put-upon housewife who was one of Coronation Street's best known characters, from 1964 to 1987. She appeared as shopkeeper Auntie Wainwright, the "absolute favourite part" of her career, for 22 years. She died peacefully in hospital on Friday, her niece said. Alexander had been admitted to Southport hospital, Merseyside, for tests but was discharged after a couple of days and allowed to return to her nursing home, her niece Sonia Hearld said. But on Tuesday she was readmitted to hospital, three days before her death. "My aunt died sadly earlier today," Mrs Hearld, of Selby, North Yorkshire, said on Friday.

Not 'just' a soap star Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jean Alexander was best known for playing Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street By Ian Youngs, BBC News arts reporter With her curlers, headscarf and piercing voice that could not be ignored (no matter how much fellow Coronation Street character Annie Walker tried), Hilda Ogden was, to many, the most iconic character in Coronation Street's 56-year history. Jean Alexander ensured we always rooted for the downtrodden cleaning lady, who embodied classic-era Coronation Street's perfect balance of drama and comedy. In the hall of Alexander's home in Southport, pride of place was given to a signed photo of Laurence Olivier - a big fan. Soap stars do not often get much credit, but Olivier's recognition showed how highly Alexander was regarded by the very best - and that, perhaps, if Hilda had not kept her so busy, Alexander could have held her own in roles alongside some of them. So she should not be thought of as "just" a soap star - she was one of the finest British actresses of her time.

Image caption Alexander played shopkeeper Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine for 22 years Cast members of the show have been paying tribute to Alexander on Twitter. Sally Dynevor, whose character Sally Webster first appeared in the soap in January 1986 almost two years before Alexander left, wrote : "Jean Alexander, RIP. What a wonderful woman, and such an amazing and talented actress." Jennie McAlpine, who has played Fiz Brown since 2001, tweeted : "So sorry to hear about Jean Alexander. I would have loved to work with her. Thankful to have met her though. Rest in Peace Jean x." Media captionA friend of Jean Alexander talks to Radio 4's Today about the "joyful" actress And Antony Cotton, who has played Sean Tully since 2003, said Alexander was "magnificent", adding : "My favourite episode of Coronation Street ever, was Hilda singing 'Wish Me Luck...'" Daran Little, Coronation Street script writer from 2000 to 2010, said Alexander "reached into the hearts of viewers - she was everyone's nan, everyone's nosy neighbour".

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "I think the great thing about Jean playing Hilda is that Jean was absolutely nothing like Hilda - she was sophisticated and quiet, she was an ex-librarian, she used to love doing crosswords and she used to pad up coat hangers for charity. "And when she put the curlers on, she became something else." 'Playing against the script' Prior to her role as Hilda, Alexander had a brief appearance in Coronation Street in 1962 as a landlady who rented a room to a disturbed young woman. Eighteen months later Alexander, who was born in the Toxteth area of Liverpool, started her role as Hilda, forming a comedy double act with her on-screen husband, Stan, who was played by Bernard Youens. Speaking about Hilda, Alexander said: "The character was originally written as a rather stereotyped character, as Stan was, you know, big fat man and lazy husband and little nagging wife.

"After a few weeks we thought this was going to get a bit boring so we started playing against the script - same words but trying to give them a bit more character, rounding them out a bit." Image copyright PA Image caption Alexander as Hilda with Stan, played by Bernard Youens, and Ken Barlow, played by Bill Roache Mr Little said that Alexander began to draw out Hilda's hen-pecking of Stan, moving away from being a battered wife. "She used to talk regularly about how Stan used to wallop her and she was very much in his shadow and then she just, they decided together to turn it around - not that Hilda ever hit Stan but she certainly did with her vocal chords." After Youens died in 1984 Stan's character was written out. Following Stan's death, a scene in the soap showed Hilda silently unwrapping a parcel of his belongings and breaking down when she opened his glasses case. Alexander left the soap three years later.

Media captionKate Robbins, who appeared with Jean Alexander on Last of the Summer Wine: "Jean was so kind to me" HILDA OGDEN'S GREATEST SCENES The muriel In 1976, a proud Hilda acquired her "muriel" - the wallpaper with a mural of a mountain range to which she pinned her famous flying ducks. Woman, Stanley Hilda won a night in a luxury hotel for a second honeymoon in 1977. After kissing Hilda, Stan asked what her lipstick tasted of. The reply came: "Woman, Stanley. Woman." Stan's death After actor Bernard Youens died in 1984, his character Stan was written out. Hilda was seen silently unwrapping a parcel of his belongings and breaking down when she opened his glasses case. Hilda's departure Hilda decided it was time to move in 1987, and half the nation tuned in to watch as her neighbours finally showed some affection for her by throwing a surprise party in the Rovers Return. She later joined Last of the Summer Wine in 1988 as the junk shop owner Auntie Wainwright, a role she would play for 22 years.

But Hilda Ogden was the character she remained best known for. In 2005 a TV Times poll voted her the nation's favourite soap character. Jean Alexander Jean Alexander Born: 24 February 1926, Liverpool, Lancashire Married: Hilda Ogden (1964 - 25 December 1987) Jean Alexander was born on 24 February 1926 in Liverpool. Even though she always had aspirations to become an actress, Jean began her working life as a library assistant in Liverpool, but after five years the pull of the theatre became irresistible. She began her acting career in 1949 at the Adelphi Guild Theatre in Macclesfield, followed by touring around repertory companies in Oldham, Stockport and York. During this time she worked as an actress, wardrobe mistress and stage manager. Jean then moved to London where she made the 1951 film The Mob in which she played Doris. Her television debut was in the hit cop series Z-Cars. She first appeared in Coronation Street as landlady Mrs Webb. Two years later, Jean returned to Coronation Street and this time she played the unforgettable Hilda Ogden.

Over the next 23 years, Jean became one of the best loved actresses in the show. With her dangling fag and wrap-around pinny, Hilda became such a national treasure that Jean was voted the fourth most popular woman in Britain - only bested by the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and Princess Diana. In 1984-5 she received the Royal Television Society's Best Performance Award for her poignant portrayal of a bereaved Hilda. In 1987 TV Times readers voted Jean Best Actress. While these were proud moments for Jean, she felt keenly the loss of her long-time partner Bernard Youens - Stan to her Hilda. "Working without Bunny was like acting without an arm" she said, but she carried on bravely, just as she knew Hilda would. "I knew that Hilda would never let anyone see her cry - and that's how I played her." By Christmas 1987 Jean was ready to devote more time to her Southport garden. "I've worked hard all my life" she said, "and it's time to put my feet up".

Jean was then inundated with offers of work and made guest appearances in Boon and The Last of the Summer Wine before joining the children's series Woof!. She then teamed up with Patricia Hodge and Lionel Jeffries in the comedy series Rich Tea and Sympathy before working with John Hurt and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer in the film Scandal, playing Christine Keeler's mother. In 1992 she returned to The Last Of The Summer Wine as Auntie Wainwright and became a regular character. Jean also returned to Coronation Street for a charity Telethon and recorded Hilda's Memories on audio tape. Jean is single and lives in Southport and recently appeared as Hilda in a commercial for the sky channel Granada Gold. Jean also appeared in the quiz show Cludo and in the children's series The Phoenix and the Carpet as Lily.

TV credits include: Deadline Midnight (BBC, 1961); Z Cars (BBC); Woof (Carlton); Top Secret; The Phoenix and the Carpet (BBC1) as Lily; Last of the Summer Wine (BBC1) as Auntie Wainwright; Jacks and Knaves; Harry (BBC1) as Irene Patterson; Cluedo (ITV, 1993) as Mariory Hunt; Boon (Central); Adam's Family Tree as Mrs Whisper; Film credits include: Scandal as Mrs Keeler Coronation Street star Jean Alexander dies aged 90 - BBC News BBC News Coronation Street star Jean Alexander dies aged 90 15 October 2016 Read more about sharing. Close share panel Jean Alexander, who played Coronation Street's Hilda Ogden and Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine, has died aged 90. Alexander portrayed Hilda Ogden, a sharp-tongued, put-upon housewife who was one of Coronation Street's best known characters, from 1964 to 1987.

She appeared as shopkeeper Auntie Wainwright, the "absolute favourite part" of her career, for 22 years. She died peacefully in hospital on Friday, her niece said. Alexander had been admitted to Southport hospital, Merseyside, for tests but was discharged after a couple of days and allowed to return to her nursing home, her niece Sonia Hearld said. But on Tuesday she was readmitted to hospital, three days before her death. "My aunt died sadly earlier today," Mrs Hearld, of Selby, North Yorkshire, said on Friday. Not 'just' a soap star Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jean Alexander was best known for playing Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street By Ian Youngs, BBC News arts reporter With her curlers, headscarf and piercing voice that could not be ignored (no matter how much fellow Coronation Street character Annie Walker tried), Hilda Ogden was, to many, the most iconic character in Coronation Street's 56-year history. Jean Alexander ensured we always rooted for the downtrodden cleaning lady, who embodied classic-era Coronation Street's perfect balance of drama and comedy.

In the hall of Alexander's home in Southport, pride of place was given to a signed photo of Laurence Olivier - a big fan. Soap stars do not often get much credit, but Olivier's recognition showed how highly Alexander was regarded by the very best - and that, perhaps, if Hilda had not kept her so busy, Alexander could have held her own in roles alongside some of them. So she should not be thought of as "just" a soap star - she was one of the finest British actresses of her time. Image caption Alexander played shopkeeper Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine for 22 years Cast members of the show have been paying tribute to Alexander on Twitter. Sally Dynevor, whose character Sally Webster first appeared in the soap in January 1986 almost two years before Alexander left, wrote : "Jean Alexander, RIP. What a wonderful woman, and such an amazing and talented actress." Jennie McAlpine, who has played Fiz Brown since 2001, tweeted : "So sorry to hear about Jean Alexander. I would have loved to work with her. Thankful to have met her though.

Rest in Peace Jean x." Media captionA friend of Jean Alexander talks to Radio 4's Today about the "joyful" actress And Antony Cotton, who has played Sean Tully since 2003, said Alexander was "magnificent", adding : "My favourite episode of Coronation Street ever, was Hilda singing 'Wish Me Luck...'" Daran Little, Coronation Street script writer from 2000 to 2010, said Alexander "reached into the hearts of viewers - she was everyone's nan, everyone's nosy neighbour". Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "I think the great thing about Jean playing Hilda is that Jean was absolutely nothing like Hilda - she was sophisticated and quiet, she was an ex-librarian, she used to love doing crosswords and she used to pad up coat hangers for charity. "And when she put the curlers on, she became something else." 'Playing against the script' Prior to her role as Hilda, Alexander had a brief appearance in Coronation Street in 1962 as a landlady who rented a room to a disturbed young woman.

Eighteen months later Alexander, who was born in the Toxteth area of Liverpool, started her role as Hilda, forming a comedy double act with her on-screen husband, Stan, who was played by Bernard Youens. Speaking about Hilda, Alexander said: "The character was originally written as a rather stereotyped character, as Stan was, you know, big fat man and lazy husband and little nagging wife. "After a few weeks we thought this was going to get a bit boring so we started playing against the script - same words but trying to give them a bit more character, rounding them out a bit." Image copyright PA Image caption Alexander as Hilda with Stan, played by Bernard Youens, and Ken Barlow, played by Bill Roache Mr Little said that Alexander began to draw out Hilda's hen-pecking of Stan, moving away from being a battered wife. "She used to talk regularly about how Stan used to wallop her and she was very much in his shadow and then she just, they decided together to turn it around - not that Hilda ever hit Stan but she certainly did with her vocal chords." After Youens died in 1984 Stan's character was written out.

Following Stan's death, a scene in the soap showed Hilda silently unwrapping a parcel of his belongings and breaking down when she opened his glasses case. Alexander left the soap three years later. Media captionKate Robbins, who appeared with Jean Alexander on Last of the Summer Wine: "Jean was so kind to me" HILDA OGDEN'S GREATEST SCENES The muriel In 1976, a proud Hilda acquired her "muriel" - the wallpaper with a mural of a mountain range to which she pinned her famous flying ducks. Woman, Stanley Hilda won a night in a luxury hotel for a second honeymoon in 1977. After kissing Hilda, Stan asked what her lipstick tasted of. The reply came: "Woman, Stanley. Woman." Stan's death After actor Bernard Youens died in 1984, his character Stan was written out. Hilda was seen silently unwrapping a parcel of his belongings and breaking down when she opened his glasses case.

Hilda's departure Hilda decided it was time to move in 1987, and half the nation tuned in to watch as her neighbours finally showed some affection for her by throwing a surprise party in the Rovers Return. She later joined Last of the Summer Wine in 1988 as the junk shop owner Auntie Wainwright, a role she would play for 22 years. But Hilda Ogden was the character she remained best known for. In 2005 a TV Times poll voted her the nation's favourite soap character. As Last of the Summer Wine finally ends...How Compo, Cleggie and Co. drove Nora Batty | Daily Mail Online comments The camera was ready, but whether the same could be said of the three nervous actors perched in a perilously wobbly canoe on Yorkshire's fast- flowing and very cold River Wharfe was rather less certain. Shooting on the penultimate episode of the second series of Last Of The Summer Wine, however, could not wait. 'Action!' called director Bernard Thompson. And so off went the canoe, carrying its anxious crew towards the famous bridge at Bolton Abbey.

Last of the great battle-axes: Kathy Staff with troublesome trio Peter Sallis, Bill Owen and Brian Wilde In the bow was Bill Owen, who as a young actor had once been under contract at Rank film studios and who was hoping that the role of 'Compo' Simmonite would give him a final tilt at fame. In the stern was Michael Bates, a former Gurkha officer who played the part of Cyril Blamire for the first two series. And in the middle was a shaking Peter Sallis, probably wishing he'd never accepted the part of Norman Clegg. Sallis, you see, couldn't swim. The canoe shot under the bridge, as planned. Then it started to wobble. And shudder. And then it went over. The non-swimming Sallis would later recall that he managed to escape the river only because he was able to put a foot on a hard object under the water and lever himself out on to the bank. RELATED ARTICLES Share That hard object turned out to be Owen's head. 'To have us row a canoe and shoot the bridge and come out the other side into this choppy water, there's no wonder the bloody thing turned over and no wonder I nearly drowned,' said Sallis.

The problem for Sallis, and indeed for many future members of the Summer Wine cast, was that the show's audience thought it was precisely this sort of knockabout comedy that was funny; very funny, in fact. It may have been only a couple of years since the pilot episode had been successfully aired at the beginning of 1973, but Roy Clarke's creation was already changing. There was less talking, more of the glorious Yorkshire scenery and, as the second series took shape, far more of the absurd stunts that kept the show on air for a record-breaking 37 years. The prolific Clarke, who would go on to write Open All Hours for Ronnie Barker, loved writing sharp dialogue. But he adored creating physical comedy, too. His comic hero was Buster Keaton - and it showed. Over 295 episodes, just about anything on wheels or capable of being put on wheels - beds, sofas, baths, even rocket-powered rollerskates - careered down one of those vertiginously steep Yorkshire hills, almost always with Compo on board. Three men in a boat: Actors Bill Owen, Peter Sallis and Michael Bates.

Sallis, who couldn't swim, dreaded the programme's water-based scenes Sallis, the only one of the three to make it from pilot to final episode, would later recall how he would scan new scripts for the dread words: 'All we see of our three is a row of bubbles on the surface of the water.' Later, as the three main male leads grew older, it increasingly fell to stunt men and younger members of the cast to continue the physical comedy tradition, as Jean Fergusson - who played the man-hunting Marina for 25 years - remembers. She recalls one scene that required Marina and her lover Howard Sibshaw, played by Robert Fyfe, to fall out of a boat into some filthy canal water. And like Sallis many years earlier, Fyfe couldn't swim. 'Robert put his hand on top of my head,' said Fergusson. 'I went under this foul, foul water - there's still a pair of earrings somewhere in the Marsden canal.' Getting cold or soaked and often both was part and parcel of being a Summer Wine regular. 'I was introduced to thermal knickers up there,' recalls Juliette Kaplan, who played Howard's bossy wife, Pearl Sibshaw.

'I have never known the wind get so bad.' Stunts, however, were only part of the reason Last Of The Summer Wine attracted up to 18 million viewers. Some said the show harked back nostalgically to a better, simpler time, but those involved in its making insist that's not the case. Summer Wine Land, as it was first dubbed by Sallis, is not something that used to be, it's something that never was. 'It's in a time-warp,' Bill Owen said once. 'Nobody gets old, people don't die, people are always there.' But if it's about anything at all, it's about enduring male companionship and the scrapes that three old schoolfriends get into as they meander aimlessly through the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. Nora Batty was one of only two female characters to survive from the pilot -the other was cafe owner Ivy, played by Jane Freeman - and thanks to her endless rebuttals of Compo's constant wooing, she had quickly become a firm favourite with audiences. But television's favourite battle-axe bore hardly any resemblance to the cheerful and very welldressed actress who played her, the late Kathy Staff.

Wearing a padded man's vest and her famously baggy stockings, she would transform her customarily kindly demeanour into a humourless scowl. 'I never mind how ugly they make me look,' she once said. 'I never had any wish to look glamorous.' Right from the outset, the good-natured joshing and teasing that was another key part of Summer Wine's appeal was very different from what was going on off screen, as original producer Jimmy Gilbert discovered while making the pilot. After filming the three male leads taking a walk, during which one stood in a cowpat, cast and crew retired to the pub where they were to stay, a bleak but popular hostelry that Clarke would later describe as 'Wuthering Heights with strippers'. And it was here, over dinner, that Michael Bates - aka Cyril - a man that Gilbert recalls as having 'strong Tory views on the Empire, patriotism and pretty much everything else', started to vent his trenchant opinions. This was a red rag for Bill Owen, who had inherited his fiery, Left-wing politics from his tram-driving father. Voices were raised; the atmosphere turned ugly.

So ugly, in fact, that the producer was forced to take the pair outside, where he threatened to cancel the entire show. The tactic worked - after half an hour, the two men returned to the table and finished their food. If it’s about anything at all, it’s about enduring male companionship and the scrapes that three old schoolfriends get into Gilbert, however, had learnt an important lesson and swiftly booked his stars into separate accommodation - Owen into a boarding house on the edge of the moors and Sallis and Bates into comfortable hotels. Peace was restored. Owen would continue to go his own way for his entire 26-year association with the show, preferring to rent the same house each year, on the outskirts of Holmfirth, and settling into a routine: a whisky between 6.30pm and 7.30pm and then an M&S fish pie for dinner. But if that makes him sound as eccentric as Compo, nothing could be farther from the truth. He hated the stubble he had to keep for the part, and refused to leave the set in Compo's clothes.

As the producer put it: 'He was always beautifully turned out, quite snappy.' But he was never easy company, as a new member of the cast would soon discover. Having sustained a nasty injury while doing pantomime, Michael Bates found himself too frail to commit to play Cyril in the show's third season, leaving incoming producer Sydney Lotterby with no 'third man'. The trio needed a new leader - and urgently: a man with an immovable sense of his own destiny, superiority and abilities. Above all, a man who was what Yorkshire folk call a 'barmpot' - a bit of an idiot. Clarke set to work and within days had created a character that propelled Summer Wine into the ranks of classic British sitcoms. Like Michael Bates's Cyril Blamire, Walter 'Foggy' Dewhurst would be an old soldier, but there the resemblance ended. Foggy was an ex-corporal sign-writer, a man still clinging to the minutiae of Army life, an under-achiever with a misfounded but unshakeable self-belief in his abilities as a leader of men - and as a master of unarmed combat.

And the team knew exactly the right actor to play him - Brian Wilde, who had made the mild-mannered Mr Barrowclough such a popular character in Porridge. Everybody liked the casting decision and yet the arrival of this gangling, 6ft 3in actor would soon cause a whole new raft of tensions. Despite his amiable screen presence, Wilde had a cantankerous streak, as Alan Bell, who arrived as producer in 1981, soon found. That Christmas, the Summer Wine Special brought in a bigger audience than the first television screening of Gone With The Wind - 'Nora Batty more popular than Scarlett O'Hara' screamed the newspaper headlines - but as plans for the next series were made, Wilde put his foot down. He wouldn't do it if Bell, who often used time-consuming techniques more common in film-making than television, remained in charge. Amazingly, a face-saving compromise was reached - Bell would go off and film the new Spike Milligan series while Lotterby would return to Summer Wine - but a spin-off feature film, destined to become the popular Christmas special of 1983, remained in Bell's control.

But while he may have made his peace with Bell, in the Winnebago Wilde shared with his two co-stars, the temperature was dropping. Indeed, the three jealously guarded their personal space - at the front was Owen, counting his lines to make sure nobody was getting more laughs than him; in the middle was Wilde, and at the back was Sallis, normally lost in the Times crossword. The shenanigans of the male stars were regarded with resigned amusement by female regulars such as Kathy Staff, but the men's privileges did rankle. In the early days, without their own trailer, Staff and Freeman were forced to find shelter from the Yorkshire weather in Freeman's car. They also got less money. Slapstick: Up to 18 million tuned in to watch Compo's latest attempts to woo Norma Batty But, as a committed Christian, Staff wasn't one to dwell on such injustices. Instead, she and Freeman grew close, with the two women falling into the habit of breaking off from rehearsals in London to take tea at the Ritz. Relations between Owen and Wilde, however, were nothing like as cordial, the two men having a gift for rubbing each other up the wrong way.

Owen made no secret of his belief that he was the real star. That irritated Wilde, as did Owen's political views. And relations continued to worsen, particularly when it emerged Wilde was being paid more than the others. In 1984, Wilde had finally had enough of the squabbling, bringing to a close what many believe was a golden age for the show. But once again, Summer Wine moved on, expanding the cast to include national treasure Thora Hird as Edie Pegden, and bringing in Michael Aldridge as the show's new 'third man', retired headmaster and madcap inv entor Seymour Utterthwaite. Their arrival certainly caused ripples. Gordon Wharmby, who played the popular Wesley Pegden, was so terrified by the prospect of an actress of Hird's stature playing his wife that he had a nervous breakdown and had to be treated (successfully) in a psychiatric hospital. The arrival of the ebullient Aldridge, meanwhile, lightened the atmosphere, particularly in the bar of their regular haunt, the Huddersfield Hotel, where at last Sallis found a fellow spirit. His long-established table for one quickly became a table for two.

Hird's arrival proved somewhat more problematic. Hird loved socialising off-set even more than Aldridge, settling down each evening at what quickly became known as Thora's Table, where she would draw on a seemingly bottomless well of reminiscences. Gracious, funny and sometimes using language that would have had the audience for her Sunday teatime hymn programme, Praise Be, reaching for their smelling salts, Thora loved to talk and talk and talk… so much so that the easygoing Aldridge and Sallis soon refused to go to dinner with her. Later, however, when another national treasure - Jean Alexander, who'd played Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street for 23 years - joined the cast as Auntie Wainwright, Hird found a real friend. As the 91-year-old grew more frail and Thora's Table became a quieter place, it was often Alexander who would help her up to her room and put her rollers in for her before going to bed. It was two legends together, one looking after the other.

Aldridge would leave the show after only four years in order to look after his sick wife, newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a move that would herald the return, albeit temporarily, of a much mellowed Brian Wilde. But if Wilde was easier company, so, too, was Owen, by now in his mid-70s. Owen loved the show - and he worked on for another ten years until filming got under way for a Millennium special. Clarke had penned a poignantly multi-layered script that took Compo back to the beaches of Dunkirk, where the character had been evacuated in 1940. Reflecting on fear and death, Last Post And Pigeon called on all Owen's experience and expertise as he moved from humour to sadness in a few lines. But for the first time, the 85-year-old Owen was uncertain of his words and it soon became quite obvious that he was struggling. Like the seasoned pro he was, he persevered, but one day - during filming back in Britain - he sat down heavily and looked wearily up at his director. 'I'd do anything, but I just can't do any more today,' he said.

Owen was suffering cancer of the pancreas and had only weeks to live, although it's uncertain whether he knew or not. But there did seem to be a sad acknowledgement that his life was nearing its end. Sallis remembers sitting in a car with him as filming drew to a close, and Owen turning to him and saying: 'I don't want to go, Peter, there's so much left to do.' Ten days later, on July 12, 1999, Owen died. Last Of The Summer Wine would go on - indeed it would survive another decade - but this time there was no doubt. Without Compo, without that overgrown schoolboy in his silly green hat and folded-over wellies, it would never be the same again. Extracted from Last Of The Summer Wine: The Story Of The World's Longest-Running Comedy Series by Andrew Vine, published by Aurum at £18.99. To order a copy at £17.10 (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720. The final episode will be broadcast at 7.30pm on Sunday, August 29, on BBC1.

Question: Jean Alexander played which part in the TV series, "Last of the Summer Wine"?
Answer: AUNTIE WAINWRIGHT