Seeing the joke over `blind' star

Dec 20 2003 By Ed Reed, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

VETERAN actor Peter Sallis has thrown away his white stick.

And fans of BBC's Last of the Summer Wine - filmed around the Holme Valley - have been assured he is not going blind and will be in the new series.

It's the end of a rumour that started as a joke and got out of hand.

The wit and wisdom of Clegg, played by Peter for 31 years, has helped the comedy become a national institution.

Clegg's dry, dead-pan humour is now winning new fans in America where the show has become cult viewing.

He is just as droll off screen, say pals - and that's what sparked rumours he was going blind.

They started after he tapped his way around London with a white stick.

Friends and fellow members of the cast of Summer Wine were aware he had a problem with cataracts.

The white stick led them to assume the worst.

Summer Wine producer Alan J W Bell and writer-creator Roy Clarke know they are working with an ageing cast and the prospect of schedule-wrecking sudden illness.

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