The Last Of The Summer Wine would not be made today, comedy writer Roy Clarke said as he was knighted by the Prince of Wales.
Clarke, 96, received the Honour of Knighthood in the 2026 New Year Honours list for his services to entertainment, and was awarded the title during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.
The writer told the Press Association we live in a "different world now" to the one in which the hit BBC sitcom was created.
"The Last Of The Summer Wine was what I grew up with," he said.
"It's a different world now, and I’m very glad my time was in the world I knew. I don’t know how far I would get now, the show probably wouldn’t be made these days.
"My favourite episodes I ever wrote were the ones around Compo’s funeral, largely because there was a time pressure on them.
"I had to do the three episodes in not much more than a weekend and I’ve never worked at that pace before, and in a funny way, I think that gave them more strength."
Clarke saw the character Clegg from the BBC sitcom as a "mouthpiece" for himself.
He said: "Clegg was my favourite character I ever wrote. He used to get all the best lines and he was my mouthpiece in many ways. He used to say the things I would say and the things that I believed."
Clarke, who wrote 295 episodes of the show, added: "I think leisure is an important element of anybody’s career. If you work like a dog all the time, especially if you’re writing, the results are going to be dismal.
"Three scenes a day was the secret for me. Sometimes I could do those three scenes in a couple of hours. Sometimes, it took the whole day. But if they only took a couple of hours, I didn’t do four, five or six, I knocked off, and I think that balance is important."
He added that the Prince of Wales said he liked his sitcom work and after the ceremony, Clarke said: "I feel taller than I did yesterday."
Source: Press Association
