Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke
broadcast since 1973 on BBC One. The longest-running sitcom in the
world, it premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse and having run
for 31 series, the last episode is airing on 29 August 2010. Set and
filmed in and around Holmfirth, West Yorkshire (pictured), the series
centres on a trio of old men whose line-up has changed over the years,
although most notably comprised Bill Owen as the scruffy and child-like
Compo, Peter Sallis as deep-thinking, meek Norman Clegg and Brian Wilde
as quirky war veteran Foggy. Other "third men" in the trio include
Michael Bates as authoritarian snob Blamire, Michael Aldridge as
eccentric inventor Seymour and Frank Thornton as former police officer
Truly. Gradually, the cast has grown to include a variety of supporting
characters, each contributing their own subplots to the show and often
becoming unwillingly involved in the schemes of the trio. Although
critics have noted a decline in the show's quality since Owen's death
in 1999, Last of the Summer Wine has been shown in 25 countries,
garnered large audiences for the BBC and has been praised for its
positive portrayal of older people and family-friendly humour.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_of_the_Summer_Wine>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1526:
Ottoman forces led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeated and killed
Louis II, the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia, at the
Battle of Mohács.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moh%C3%A1cs>
1756:
As neighboring countries began conspiring against him, Frederick II of
Prussia launched a preemptive invasion of Saxony, starting the Seven
Years' War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_II_of_Prussia>
1842:
The Treaty of Nanking, an Unequal Treaty ending the First Opium War,
was signed, forcing the Chinese Qing Dynasty to give foreign trading
privileges, war reparations, control of Hong Kong Island, and other
concessions to the British.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Nanking>
2003:
Two car bombs exploded outside of the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, killing
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the spiritual leader of the Supreme
Islamic Iraqi Council, and over eighty others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imam_Ali_Mosque_bombing>
2005:
Storm surges of Hurricane Katrina caused multiple breaches in levees
around New Orleans, flooding about 80 percent of the city and many
neighboring areas for weeks.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
lopsided (adj):
Not even or balanced; not the same on one side as on the other
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lopsided>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in
is the dance of the Creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an
eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I am dancing, I
have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my
spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the
stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the
victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become
the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on
dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The Creator and
the creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing — until
there is only ... the dance.
--Michael Jackson
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson>
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