Best and the worst of West Yorkshire? No cheers for Summer Wine!

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), Sept 5, 2008

Byline: By KATIE CAMPLING News Reporter

LONG-RUNNING sitcom Last Of The Summer Wine has collected many accolades over the years.

But its latest is causing a stir; the TV show been named one of the worst things about West Yorkshire.

But people in the Holme Valley, where the BBC show is set, say the claim is rubbish and that the programme brings huge numbers of tourists to the area.

Summer Wine was named the worst thing about West Yorkshire in a guide to the area produced by Country Life magazine.

The guide tries to sum up what each county is associated with, as well as describing the best and worst features of the area.

Top aspects of West Yorkshire included Figit Pie by Huddersfield butcher Andrew Jones, Hepworth Feast and Huddersfield-born film star James Mason.

Gentle comedy Last Of The Summer Wine was not seen as such an asset.

But Holme Valley businesses say the world's longest-running sitcom serves them well as a tourist draw.

Greg Christoffi, a member of Holme Valley Business Association, said: "Last Of The SummerWine brings people to the area, especially in summer.

"We have a lot of Americans coming here because of it; more every year.

"The British tourists like it, too. Every tourist we get brings a bonus for businesses and creates employment. If we didn't have the tourism a lot of people's takings would be down."

Mr Christoffi added that Holme Valley tourism promoters were looking to the future and finding alternatives to Last Of The Summer Wine for 'selling' the area.

He said: "Last Of The Summer Wine is part of our heritage, but Holmfirth has more than the programme.

"I suppose it's coming to the end of an era and we do need to start looking for other things to promote Holmfirth. We are working on it and trying different things.

"But for the moment Last Of The Summer Wine is still going strong."

Rebecca Pearson, features editor at Country Life, edited the County Guide. She said it did not aim to be a definitive guide, but a celebration of Yorkshire.

She said: "We chose the features to include mainly through a lot of discussion within the editorial team and by using authoritative sources and guide books.

"For some counties we also put in best and worst features, which was all very tongue in cheek.

"What we have ended up with only scrapes the surface of all Yorkshire has to offer. We hope people will write to us with their views and let us know about things we missed."

CAPTION(S):

COMEDY TRIO: Seen in Last of the Summer Wine are (from left) Brian Murphy as Alvin Smedley, Frank Thornton as Herbert Truelove and Peter Sallis as Clegg; Hepworth Feast (inset) and (below) Andrew Jones with some of his pies and pasties and film star James Mason