Nora returns to a fortified `Wine' cast

Jan 2 2003 By Andrew Hirst, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Nora Batty: Return to Summer Wine cast

LAST Of The Summer Wine enters its 31st year with a new series - and the return of one of its most loved characters.

The first programme will be screened this Sunday on BBC1 at 6.15pm - and Nora Batty is back, complete with wrinkled stockings.

Actress Kathy Staff quit the show a couple of years ago and joined Crossroads to help it make its comeback. But she returned to Holmfirth last summer to film this new Last Of The Summer Wine series.

One new face to join the cast is another golden oldie - Brian Murphy, who starred as George in popular 70s sitcom George and Mildred.

He will make a sensational entrance on Sunday, literally falling from the sky.

Burt Kwouk - who starred alongside Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther comedy classics - will be in just about every programme.

He was only due to be in one, but his character, Entwhistle, was thought to be so good he was written into the rest.

Guest stars who will appear during the new series include Bernard Cribbins, Josephine Tewson - who appeared in Keeping Up Appearances - and Henry McGee, who viewers may remember from the Benny Hill Show.

Summer Wine Appreciation Society president Clive Eardley said: "I suppose the success of Last Of The Summer Wine is that the characters are like an extended family for the viewers.

"It's just so consistently entertaining and funny, with such wonderful characters.

"Roy Clarke is such a superb writer, always bringing in new ideas."